OCTOBER TERM, 1997
Syllabus
certiorari to the united states court of appeals for the third circuit
No. 96-1923. Argued January 20, 1998—Decided March 24, 1998
After the local rent control administrator ordered petitioner to refund
$31,382.50 in excessive rents he had charged respondent tenants, he sought to discharge his debts under Chapter 7 of the Bankruptcy Code (Code). The tenants filed an adversary proceeding, arguing that the debt owed to them was nondischargeable under 11 U. S. C. § 523(a)(2)(A) of the Code, which excepts from discharge "any debt . . . for money, property, services, or an extension, renewal, or refinancing of credit, to the extent obtained by . . . actual fraud." They also sought treble damages, attorney's fees, and costs under the New Jersey Consumer Fraud Act. The Bankruptcy Court ruled in their favor, finding that petitioner had committed "actual fraud" within the meaning of § 523(a)(2)(A) and that his conduct violated the New Jersey law. The court therefore awarded the tenants treble damages totaling $94,147.50, plus attorney's fees and costs. The District Court affirmed, as did the Third Circuit, which held that debts resulting from fraud are nondischargeable in their entirety under § 523(a)(2)(A), and that the award of treble damages (plus attorney's fees and costs) in this case was therefore nondischargeable.
Held: Because § 523(a)(2)(A) excepts from discharge all liability arising from fraud, treble damages (plus attorney's fees and costs) awarded on account of the debtor's fraud fall within the scope of the exception. The most straightforward reading of § 523(a)(2)(A) is that it prevents discharge of "any debt" respecting "money, property, services, or . . . credit" that the debtor has fraudulently obtained. See Field v. Mans, 516 U. S. 59, 61, 64. First, an obligation to pay treble damages satisfies the threshold condition that it constitute a "debt." That word is defined as liability on a "claim," § 101(12), which in turn is defined as a "right to payment," § 101(5)(A), which this Court has said means an enforceable obligation, Pennsylvania Dept. of Public Welfare v. Davenport, 495 U. S. 552, 559. An award of treble damages is an enforceable obligation of the debtor, and the creditor has a corresponding right to payment. Moreover, the phrase "to the extent obtained by" in § 523(a)(2)(A) modifies "money, property, services, or . . . credit"—not "any debt"—so that the exception encompasses "any debt . . . for money, property, [etc.], to the extent [that the money, property, etc., is] obtained by" fraud. The phrase thereby makes clear that the share of money, property, etc., so
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