In re: Isaacs

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The Isaacs executed a mortgage to GMAC encumbering their Kentucky property. It states: “The lien ... will attach on the date this Mortgage is recorded.” The Isaacses filed a Chapter 7 bankruptcy petition in March 2004, listing the GMAC mortgage debt as secured debt. GMAC did not record the Mortgage until June 2004. GMAC did not seek relief from the automatic stay. No party sought to avoid the Mortgage. The Isaacses obtained a discharge; the case closed. Months later, the bankruptcy court reopened the case at the request of the Isaacses, avoided two judgment liens, and closed the case again. About 10 years later, GMAC’s successor obtained a default foreclosure Judgment and Order of Sale. Immediately before the scheduled sale date, wife (without husband) filed a chapter 13 petition, seeking to avoid the GMAC lien (11 U.S.C. 522(f)). In an adversary proceeding, the bankruptcy court found that GMAC was an unsecured creditor in the chapter 7 case, which discharged the debt; the foreclosure judgment was an improper modification of the discharge order, so that the Rooker-Feldman doctrine did not apply. The Sixth Circuit Bankruptcy Appellate Panel reversed. The bankruptcy court lacked subject matter jurisdiction under the Rooker-Feldman doctrine, precluding it from avoiding the state foreclosure judgment because the mortgage was enforceable against the Isaacses’ interests on the chapter 7 petition date. Since unavoided pre-petition liens pass through bankruptcy unaffected, the foreclosure judgment could not violate the chapter 7 discharge. View "In re: Isaacs" on Justia Law