Case ID: br_520/html/0896-01.html
Source: Caselaw Access Project
Author: {"author": "PER CURIAM:", "license": "Public Domain", "url": "https://static.case.law/"}
Date Created: 2024-08-24T03:29:51.129683

In re Nasruddin LAKHANI, Debtor. Bank of America, N.A., Plaintiff-Appellant, v. Nasruddin Lakhani, Defendant-Appellee.
    No. 14-12749
    Non-Argument Calendar.
    United States Court of Appeals, Eleventh Circuit.
    Nov. 19, 2014.
    Craig Goldblatt, Danielle Spinelli, Wilmer Cutler Pickering Hale & Dorr, LLP, Washington, DC, Bret Jacob Chaness, Peachtree Corners, GA, for Plaintiff-Appellant.
    Gai Lynn McCarthy, Kumar, Prabhu, Patel & Banerjee, LLC, Atlanta, GA, for Defendant-Appellee.
    Before WILLIAM PRYOR, ANDERSON and EDMONDSON, Circuit Judges.
   PER CURIAM:

Bank of America, N.A. appeals the district court’s summary affirmance of the bankruptcy court’s order voiding a wholly unsecured second priority lien on residential property owned by a Chapter 7 debtor.

The bankruptcy court granted Debtor’s request to “strip off’ the unsecured junior lien, based on this Court’s binding precedent in McNeal v. GMAC Mortg., LLC (In re McNeal), 735 F.3d 1263 (11th Cir.2012) (citing Folendore v. United States Small Bus. Admin. (In re Folendore), 862 F.2d 1537 (11th Cir.1989)). In McNeal, we concluded that a Chapter 7 debtor is allowed to “strip off’ a second priority lien on his home, pursuant to 11 U.S.C. § 506(a) and (d), when the first priority lien exceeds the value of the property.

Bank of America acknowledges that this panel is bound by the Court’s decisions in McNeal and Folendore but reserves the right to seek reconsideration of the issue by the en banc Court. Cf. United States v. Smith, 122 F.3d 1355, 1359 (11th Cir.1997) (“Under the prior panel precedent rule, we are bound by earlier panel holdings ... unless and until they are overruled en banc or by the Supreme Court.”).

AFFIRMED.