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Navigating the Bankruptcy Court's Power to Modify A Secured Creditor's Lien

By David M. Hillman and James T Bentley
April 02, 2017

As a borrower approaches bankruptcy, secured creditors often believe that their existing liens and collateral packages will be respected by the bankruptcy court, absent a basis to challenge priority, perfection or some misconduct to justify equitable subordination. On the contrary, bankruptcy courts have the power to modify the scope of validly perfected liens. This article focuses on the impact of section 552 of the Bankruptcy Code, which addresses the effect of a bankruptcy filing on property acquired by the debtor after the filing of the bankruptcy case (referred to as “after-acquired property”) and proceeds of pre-bankruptcy collateral.

The extent of a secured creditor's lien on collateral is critical to determining a host of secured creditor rights, including: 1) the extent of credit bid rights for a sale of collateral under section 363 of the Bankruptcy Code because a secured creditor can only credit bid on its collateral; 2) the entitlement to post-petition interest because only an over-secured creditor is entitled to post-petition interest under section 506(b) of the Bankruptcy Code; 3) the entitlement to “adequate protection”; and 4) the allocation of value in a sale and plan context.

Pre-Bankruptcy Lien on After-Acquired Property And Collateral Proceeds

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