Abstract
The Bankruptcy Abuse Prevention and Consumer Protection Act (BAPCPA) amended the Bankruptcy Code in several strange ways. One of the most prominent examples involves the addition of an unnumbered, "hanging paragraph" to Chapter 13 of the Code, which addresses vehicles purchased within 910 days of the debtor’s bankruptcy filing. This paragraph created a split among the nation’s bankruptcy and federal district courts as to whether a debtor’s surrender of the vehicle erased a creditor’s right to any deficiency claim on the unsecured balance. The Seventh Circuit addressed this split in In re Wright and ultimately upheld the traditional right of creditors to such a claim. While this Casenote agrees that the Wright court made the right ruling, it argues that the court employed largely unpersuasive reasoning. The author notes that, regardless of its interpretation, the hanging paragraph effectively illustrates a shift in modern bankruptcy law as well as the valid concerns of bankruptcy practitioners and professors about the drafting of BAPCPA.
Recommended Citation
Kyle C. Oehmke,
Holding on to Creditors’ Rights Under the Hanging Paragraph of BAPCPA: Analysis of In re Wright, 492 F.3d 829 (2007),
33
S. Ill. U. L.J.
95
(2008).
Available at:
https://opensiuc.lib.siu.edu/siulj/vol33/iss1/4