US Supreme Court Allows Repossessing Secured Lender To Hold Collateral Pending Bankruptcy Stay

A secured lender’s “mere retention of property [after a pre-bankruptcy– repossession] does not violate” the automatic stay provision [§362(a) (3)] of the Bankruptcy Code, held a unanimous U.S. Supreme Court on Jan. 14, 2021. City of Chicago v. Fulton, 2021 WL 125106, 4 ( Jan. 14, 2021). Reversing the Seventh Circuit’s affirmance of a bankruptcy court judgment holding a secured lender in contempt for violating the automatic stay, the Court resolved “a split” in the Circuits. Id. at 2. The Second, Eighth and Ninth Circuits had agreed with the Seventh Circuit. In this article, of counsel Michael Cook discusses the Court's decision in Fulton and its analysis of §362(a)(3) of the Code.