Debtor Brief Filed in SCt Chapter 7 Lien Strip Case

The debtors have filed their brief in the consolidated Supreme Court cases of Bank of Amer. v. Toledo-Cardona, No. 14-163 and Bank of Amer. v. Caulkett, No. 13-1421 (filed Feb. 17, 2014), addressing the issue of whether a wholly unsecured lien can be stripped off in chapter 7. In McNeal v. GMAC Mortg., 735 F.3d 1263 (11th Cir. 2012) cert. pet. den. (S.Ct. May 20, 2014), the court bucked the trend to find that Dewsnup v. Timm, 502 U.S. 410 (1992), which held that a partially secured lien could not be stripped-down in chapter 7, did not apply to wholly unsecured liens. In Toledo-Cardona and Caulkett, the debtors argue that McNeal was correctly decided. Dewsnup was explicitly limited to its facts and the Supreme Court’s instruction in Nobelman v. Am. Sav. Bank, 508 U.S. 324 (1993), to begin analysis with lien valuation under section 506(a) supports the Eleventh Circuit’s position that valueless liens may be stripped off under section 506(d).

There are currently at least one dozen petitions for certiorari before the Supreme Court on this issue filed by Bank of America and Bank of New York Mellon.

The debtor is represented by Stephanos Bibas, the Director of the Supreme Court Clinic at the University of Pennsylvania Law School.

Toledo-CardonaCaulkett debtor brief