Because this case was submitted on a stipulated record and presents issues of statutory interpretation and conclusions of law only, our standard of review is plenary. Chapter 13 of the Bankruptcy Code permits debtors to structure repayment of their indebtedness through a plan approved by the bankruptcy court. This provision thus allows modification of the rights of both secured and unsecured creditors, with the exception that the rights of creditors whose claims are secured only by a mortgage on the debtor's principal residence may not be modified. An allowed secured claim of a creditor secured by a lien on property in which the estate has an interest . United States v.
Any surplus is, by definition, unsecured.
In so holding we have re-affirmed the continuing vitality of a prior holding of this Court reached in Wilson v. Commonwealth Mortg. This holding was overturned by the Supreme Court in Nobelman v. American Sav. However, our decision in Wilson in favor of the mortgagor-debtor was also based on a second and alternative ground. Nobelman did not address, and hence did not disturb, this alternative ground of decision. Thus, in Hammond we reasserted and upheld the principle that bifurcation is available when a mortgage secures both the residence and personal property of the debtor.