Law Commons^™

Lifting The Automatic Stay After Foreclosures In New York, Andrew Vavricka

Bankruptcy Research Library

(Excerpt)

The filing of a bankruptcy petition under title 11 of the United States Code (the “Bankruptcy Code”) results in an automatic stay that bars collection efforts against a debtor’s property. Consequently, a creditor will generally be prevented from foreclosing on property in which a debtor has an interest, including a possessory interest. Section 362(d), however, provides that the automatic stay may be lifted or modified under four alternatives. This article will discuss the implication of the automatic stay on a New York foreclosure action and bankruptcy courts’ rationale for lifting the automatic stay in the foreclosure context.

Part I …

Portraits Of Bankruptcy Filers, Pamela Foohey, Robert M. Lawless, Deborah Thorne

Articles

One in ten adult Americans has turned to the consumer bankruptcy system for help. For almost forty years, the only systematic data collection about the people who file bankruptcy has come from the Consumer Bankruptcy Project (CBP), for which we serve as co-principal investigators. In this Article, we use CBP data from 2013 to 2019 to describe who is using the bankruptcy system, providing the first comprehensive overview of bankruptcy filers in thirty years. We use principal component analysis to leverage these data to identify distinct groups of people who file bankruptcy. This technique allows us to situate the distinctions …

Bankruptcy & The Underwater Home: A Case For Real Property Redemption, David Sheinfeld

Michigan Business & Entrepreneurial Law Review

Chapter 7 of the U.S. Bankruptcy Code exists to satisfy the claims of creditors and preserve an economic “fresh start” for the debtor after bankruptcy. In exchange for surrendering her property to the trustee to have it monetized (i.e., sold), the debtor receives a discharge of her debts and an injunction against future creditor in personam actions to recover them. However, the in personam injunction is insufficient to protect consumer debtors who are in default on mortgages encumbering underwater homes because the creditor’s in rem rights remain; after the conclusion of the case, the creditor can continue foreclosure proceedings, which …

Grinding Gears: Meshing Maine Mortgage Foreclosure Law And The Bankruptcy Code, Daniel L. Cummings

Maine Law Review

In Maine interesting and unresolved questions often arise when a mortgagor files for bankruptcy after a judgment of foreclosure has been entered in state court but before a foreclosure sale has occurred. Specifically, what rights does the mortgagor have in the real property? And are the mortgagee's subsequent steps to complete the sale barred by the automatic stay of the Bankruptcy Code (“Code”)? These questions are made more difficult because Maine is a title theory state and because the foreclosure sale occurs after the expiration of the statutory redemption period rather than, as in most states, before it. Because a …

Grinding Gears: Meshing Maine Mortgage Foreclosure Law And The Bankruptcy Code, Daniel L. Cummings

Maine Law Review

In Maine interesting and unresolved questions often arise when a mortgagor files for bankruptcy after a judgment of foreclosure has been entered in state court but before a foreclosure sale has occurred. Specifically, what rights does the mortgagor have in the real property? And are the mortgagee's subsequent steps to complete the sale barred by the automatic stay of the Bankruptcy Code (“Code”)? These questions are made more difficult because Maine is a title theory state and because the foreclosure sale occurs after the expiration of the statutory redemption period rather than, as in most states, before it. Because a …

Screened Out Of Housing: The Impact Of Misleading Tenant Screening Reports And The Potential For Criminal Expungement As A Model For Effectively Sealing Evictions, Katelyn Polk

Northwestern Journal of Law & Social Policy

Having an eviction record “blacklists” tenants from finding future housing. Even renters with mere eviction filings—not eviction orders—on their records face the harsh collateral consequences of eviction. This Note argues that eviction records should be sealed at filing and only released into the public record if a landlord prevails in court. Juvenile record expungement mechanisms in Illinois serve as a model for one way to protect people with eviction records. Recent updates to the Illinois juvenile expungement process provided for the automatic expungement of certain records and strengthened the confidentiality protections of juvenile records. Illinois protects juvenile records because it …

Modern Waste Law, Bankruptcy, And Residential Mortgage, Jill M. Fraley

Scholarly Articles

Around the time of the subprime mortgage collapse, lenders began in earnest to sue borrowers by adapting the traditional law of waste. Today, these claims continue to rise in frequency and to expand to more jurisdictions. Lender waste claims provide a “work around” for state mortgage laws that prohibit personal deficiency judgments after foreclosure and are potentially non-dischargeable in bankruptcy.

While a recent wave of scholarship has addressed the problems of how the bankruptcy system handles mortgages, scholars have not yet explored the use of waste actions by lenders and how waste judgments intersect with bankruptcy and foreclosure. Using new …

Integrating "Alternative" Dispute Resolution Into Bankruptcy: As Simple (And Pure) As Motherhood And Apple Pie?, Nancy A. Welsh

Nancy Welsh

Today, there can be little doubt that “alternative” dispute resolution is anything but alternative. Nonetheless, many judges, lawyers (and law students) do not truly understand the dispute resolution processes that are available and how they should be used. In the shadow of the current economic crisis, this lack of knowledge is likely to have negative consequences, particularly in those areas of practice such as bankruptcy and foreclosure in which clients, lawyers, regulators, and courts work under pressure, often with inadequate time and financial resources to permit careful analysis of procedural options. Potential negative effects can include: (1) impairment of a …

Tipping The Scales: Balancing The Weight Of Equity With Loan Rescissions In Bankruptcy, Corey Scott Hadley

Maine Law Review

Prior to the passage of the Truth-in-Lending Act (TILA) in 1968, consumers were vulnerable to many deceptive practices employed by creditors when participating in loan transactions. Following the passage of TILA, it was the hope of Congress that consumers would now have the tools necessary to fend off predatory or deceptive credit terms buried within the fine print of a loan agreement. One of the options afforded to consumers facing a suspect loan agreement is the right to rescission. When lenders, creditors, and other parties in the credit transaction “fail to provide the consumer with proper disclosures about the loan …

Banks, Break-Ins, And Bad Actors In Mortgage Foreclosure, Christopher K. Odinet

University of Cincinnati Law Review

No abstract provided.

In Re Montierth, 131 Nev. Adv. Op. 55, Walter Fick

Nevada Supreme Court Summaries

The Court held that the separation of a promissory note, held by a principal, and the deed of trust, held by an agent of the principal, does not render either instrument “void,” or require the reunification of the note and the deed of trust in order to foreclose. The Court further held that, under Nevada law and in the case of a contractual principal-agent relationship, the recordation of an assignment of a deed of trust is a “ministerial act.”

The Chapter 13 Alternative: A Legislative Solution To Undersecured Home Mortgages, Samuel Bufford

Hon. Samuel L. Bufford

This article discusses minor changes to the U.S. Bankruptcy Code that would make avoiding foreclosure possible for a homeowner who (a) is presently not able to make the mortgage service payments but (b) could make payments for a mortgage that is reduced to the market value of the property and to a fixed market mortgage rate. This article does not address the political issue of what protections Congress might decide to provide mortgage owners and servicers as a part of such legislation.

Leverage, Default, And Mortality: Evidence From Cancer Diagnoses, Arpit Gupta, Edward R. Morrison, Catherine Fedorenko, Scott Ramsey

Faculty Scholarship

This paper tests whether housing wealth mitigates the effects of health shocks on financial stress and mortality. We link cancer records to mortgage, bankruptcy, foreclosure, and credit report data. We find that cancer diagnoses are financially destabilizing even for households with health insurance, but the effect is driven by households without home equity. Households with equity extract it (by refinancing a mortgage or taking out a second). They are also more likely to accept recommended therapies and have higher post-diagnosis survival rates. Our findings show that housing wealth plays an important role in understanding how individuals buffer idiosyncratic shocks.

The Changing Practice Of Bankruptcy Law: An Analysis Of How Bankruptcy Practice Has Changed In The Last Decade, Michael Goldstein, Samantha Einhorn, Jill L. Phillips

University of Massachusetts Law Review

The practice of bankruptcy law has changed drastically over the last decade. An attorney starting out in the field in 2009 faces different issue than one who began in 1999. However, it’s not just the issues that come up with clients that make the practice so different, but the law of bankruptcy itself has changed. The economic downturn of the last eighteen months has changed the way the public views bankruptcy. The Bankruptcy Reform Act of 2005 and In re Bateman, a case decided in 2008, altered the landscape of bankruptcy practice forever. This article will walk through a …

House Swaps: A Strategic Bankruptcy Solution To The Foreclosure Crisis, Lynn M. Lopucki

UF Law Faculty Publications

Since the price peak in 2006, home values have fallen more than 30%, leaving millions of Americans with negative equity in their homes. Until the Supreme Court’s 1993 decision in Nobelman v. American Savings Bank, the bankruptcy system would have provided many such homeowners with a remedy. They could have filed bankruptcy, discharged the negative equity, committed to pay the mortgage holders the full values of their homes, and retained those homes. In Nobelman, the Court misinterpreted reasonably clear statutory language and invented legislative history to resolve a 3-1 split of circuits in favor of the minority view. The Court …

Mortgage Wars Episode V - The Empiricist Strikes Back (Or Out): A Reply To Professor Levitin's Response , Mark S. Scarberry

Pepperdine Law Review

Professor Adam Levitin has responded to my recent symposium article critiquing proposed congressional legislation that would allow modification (including strip down) of home mortgages in Chapter 13 bankruptcy. A portion of my Critique criticized his empirical studies concerning the likely effect of the proposed legislation on mortgage interest rates and availability, and also criticized the arguments he has made in support of the proposed legislation. The Critique did note, however, that the insight involved in conceiving of such empirical studies was impressive. Surprisingly, Professor Levitin’s Response fails to deal with the substantial case authority discussed in my Critique. He treats …

Back To The Future With Chapter 13: A Response To Professor Scarberry, Adam J. Levitin

Pepperdine Law Review

Professor Mark Scarberry has put forth a formidable critique of my empirical study of mortgage market sensitivity to bankruptcy modification risk. As this response shows, however, his critique does not hold up under scrutiny. Professor Scarberry argues that my study design is invalid because, as he reads the current state of the law, cramdown is virtually impossible. Therefore, he contends, we should not expect markets to exhibit sensitivity to cramdown risk, so no policy conclusions can be derived from my finding of market insensitivity. Regrettably, Professor Scarberry overreads the state of the law. The law is in fact unsettled, and …

A Critique Of Congressional Proposals To Permit Modification Of Home Mortgages In Chapter 13 Bankruptcy, Mark S. Scarberry

Pepperdine Law Review

Proposed amendments to the Bankruptcy Code permitting strip down of under secured home mortgages to the court-determined value of the homes and other modifications of home mortgages in Chapter 13 would substantially alter the risk characteristics of home mortgages, with likely substantial effects on future mortgage interest rates and future mortgage availability. Thus, the future societal cost of such a change in the law likely would be large. This article explains and supports that thesis, primarily on the ground that the proposed changes would leave mortgage holders with all of the future downside risk in the real property market while …

Avoidability Of Foreclosure Sales Under Section 547 Of The Bankruptcy Code, Adam Cohen

Bankruptcy Research Library

(Excerpt)

Should foreclosure sales that comply with state law be subject to avoidance under federal bankruptcy law? In BFP v. Trust Resolution Corp., the Supreme Court said no, at least when dealing with alleged section 548 fraudulent conveyances, as doing so would, inter alia, undermine state interests and raise substantial federalism concerns. Some courts have taken this reasoning and applied it to section 547 preferences as well, while others feel that the plain language of section 547 prohibits such an application. One recent case in the latter category is In re Whittle Development, Inc.

In general, transfers are …

The Impairment Of Secured Creditors’ Rights In Reorganization: A Study Of The Relationship Between The Fifth Amendment And The Bankruptcy Clause, James S. Rogers

James S. Rogers

Some commentators and courts have argued that the takings clause of the fifth amendment limits congressional power to interfere with property rights in bankruptcy proceedings. In this Article, Professor Rogers argues to the contrary that, at least with respect to prospective bankruptcy legislation, the bankruptcy clause itself and not the fifth amendment limits congressional bankruptcy power. His view derives from nineteenth and twentieth century case law, particularly cases assessing the validity of restraints on secured creditors' foreclosure rights, and from the theoretical difficulty of distinguishing between supposedly protected property rights and supposedly unprotected contract interests. Professor Rogers also sharply criticizes …

The Case For "Cramdown": Eliminating The Practical And Ideological Barriers To Pure Mortgage Modification, Peter J. Leo

University of Miami Business Law Review

No abstract provided.

Integrating "Alternative" Dispute Resolution Into Bankruptcy: As Simple (And Pure) As Motherhood And Apple Pie?, Nancy A. Welsh

Faculty Scholarship

Today, there can be little doubt that “alternative” dispute resolution is anything but alternative. Nonetheless, many judges, lawyers (and law students) do not truly understand the dispute resolution processes that are available and how they should be used. In the shadow of the current economic crisis, this lack of knowledge is likely to have negative consequences, particularly in those areas of practice such as bankruptcy and foreclosure in which clients, lawyers, regulators, and courts work under pressure, often with inadequate time and financial resources to permit careful analysis of procedural options. Potential negative effects can include: (1) impairment of a …

The Chapter 13 Alternative: A Legislative Solution To Undersecured Home Mortgages, Samuel Bufford

Journal Articles

This article discusses minor changes to the U.S. Bankruptcy Code that would make avoiding foreclosure possible for a homeowner who (a) is presently not able to make the mortgage service payments but (b) could make payments for a mortgage that is reduced to the market value of the property and to a fixed market mortgage rate. This article does not address the political issue of what protections Congress might decide to provide mortgage owners and servicers as a part of such legislation.

The Legal Infrastructure Of Ex Post Consumer Debtor Protections, Melissa B. Jacoby

Fordham Urban Law Journal

This article reviews the legal infrastructure of tools that protect debtors’ assets or income, or that enable debtors to resolve secured credit problems during ordinary times (e.g., not specific crisis interventions). Part I divides consumer protection tools into functional categories: protection of assets and future income, and retention of property subject to a security interest in default. Part II identifies the location of similar tools in federal law, uniform state law, and non-uniform state law. Part III examines implications of this divided system, with a special focus on the bundling of debtor protections and the role of intermediaries. This discussion …

Financial Stability Is A Volume Business: A Comment On 'The Legal Infrastructure Of Ex Post Consumer Debtor Protections', Anna Gelpern

Fordham Urban Law Journal

In this response to Professor Melissa B. Jacoby's "The Legal Infrastructure of Ex Post Consumer Debtor Protections," the author expands the scope of the household debt discussion beyond the consumer level and examines the effect that a fragmented infrastructure for legal service delivery can have on financial stability nationwide.

In Or Out Of Mortgage Trouble? A Study Of Bankrupt Homeowners, Melissa B. Jacoby, Daniel T. Mccue, Eric M. Belsky

Melissa B. Jacoby

We examine the determinants of missed payments and foreclosure initiation among a national sample of homeowners who filed for personal bankruptcy in 2007, using a rich dataset from the 2007 Consumer Bankruptcy Project.

Credit access had a significant effect on keeping mortgages current across all of our models: access to, and reliance on, credit cards reduced the chance of missed payments and default, increasing the likelihood that bankruptcy could produce a fresh start. Missed mortgage payments also were associated with a substantial drop in income and with the use of a mortgage broker. The probability of foreclosure initiation was lower …

Bankruptcy Law - Bfp V. Imperial Savings And Loan Association: Resolving The "Reasonably Equivalent Value" Standard In Avoiding Foreclosure Sales, Kevin F. Kilty

Golden Gate University Law Review

No abstract provided.

Making Debtor Remedies More Effective, Melissa B. Jacoby

Melissa B. Jacoby

Commissioned for a conference on credit markets at Harvard Business School in February 2010, this paper explores functional system design and the role of lawyers and intermediaries in providing debtor remedies in a complex legal system. The thesis of this paper, which proceeds in the “law and society” tradition, is that the location of a remedial right within the debtor-creditor system substantially affects the costs and benefits of the remedy for debtors, creditors, the system, and society. In other words, merely adding specific substantive provisions does not directly translate into actual protection. Relatedly, policymakers must recognize that lawyers and other …

The Case For The Tax Collector, Marie T. Reilly

Journal Articles

This article considers the question: Is a transfer of property via a noncollusive, properly conducted property tax foreclosure process entitled to respect in bankruptcy against the trustee's fraudulent transfer avoiding power? It answers this question in the affirmative. Part II examines the Court's opinion in BFP v. Resolution Trust Corp. and how courts have applied it in fraudulent transfer challenges to tax foreclosure transfers. Most courts have read BFP as requiring a comparison between the conditions under which the tax foreclosure at issue occurs and mortgage foreclosure. If the tax foreclosure process does not require public sale with competitive bidding, …

Home Mortgage Problems Through The Lens Of Bankruptcy, Melissa B. Jacoby

Melissa B. Jacoby

Based on a lecture at a predatory lending conference at Loyola University New Orleans School of Law, this brief paper discusses the 2007 Consumer Bankruptcy Project and how the empirical study of bankruptcy law informs our understanding of the intersection of mortgages and homeownership with financial distress, and whether bankruptcy can provide meaningful redress.