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Page Number: 13

4 

CHICAGO v. FULTON 

SOTOMAYOR, J., concurring 

require  creditors  to  turn  over  impounded  vehicles,  bank-
ruptcy  courts  are  not  powerless  to  facilitate  the  return  of 
debtors’ vehicles to their owners.  Most obviously, the Court 
leaves open the possibility of relief under §542(a).  That sec-
tion  requires  any  “entity,”  subject  to  some  exceptions,  to
turn over “property” belonging to the bankruptcy estate.  11 
U. S. C. §542(a).  The debtor, in turn, must be able to pro-
vide the creditor with “adequate protection” of its interest 
in the returned property, §363(e); for example, the debtor 
may  need  to  demonstrate  that  her  car  is  sufficiently  in-
sured.  In this way, §542(a) maximizes value for all parties 
involved in a bankruptcy: The debtor is able to use her as-
set, which makes it easier to earn an income; the debtor’s 
unsecured creditors, in turn, receive timely payments from
the  debtor;  and  the  debtor’s  secured  creditor,  for  its  part,
receives “adequate protection [to] replace the protection af-
forded by possession.”  United States v. Whiting Pools, Inc., 
462 U. S. 198, 207 (1983).  Secured creditors cannot opt out
of  this  arrangement.  As  even  the  City  acknowledges, 
§542(a)  “impose[s]  a  duty  of  turnover  that  is  mandatory
when the statute’s conditions . . . are met.”  Brief for Peti-
tioner 37. 

The trouble with §542(a), however, is that turnover pro-
ceedings  can  be  quite  slow.    The  Federal  Rules  of  Bank-
ruptcy  Procedure  treat  most  “proceeding[s]  to  recover  . . . 
property” as “adversary proceedings.”  Rule 7001(1).  Such 
actions are, in simplified terms, “essentially full civil law-
suits  carried  out  under  the  umbrella  of  [a]  bankruptcy
case.”  Bullard v. Blue Hills Bank, 575 U. S. 496, 505 (2015).
Because adversary proceedings require more process, they 
take more time.  Of the turnover proceedings filed after July 
2019  and  concluding  before  June  2020,  the  average  case
was pending for over 100 days.  See Administrative Office 
of  the  United  States  Courts,  Time  Intervals  in  Months 
From Filing to Closing of Adversary Proceedings Filed Un-
der 11 U. S. C. §542 for the 12-Month Period Ending June