Opinion ID: 484920
Heading Depth: 3
Heading Rank: 2

Heading: The Debtor's Leasehold Interest

Text: 16 Section 544(3)(a), however, does not protect the debtor's interest in the fifty-year lease to the land on which the Waters' Edge Apartments were built. The leasehold interest is personal property under California law. Dabney v. Edwards, 5 Cal.2d 1, 10-11, 53 P.2d 962, 964 (1935) (per curiam); Callahan v. Martin, 3 Cal.2d 110, 118-20, 43 P.2d 788, 792-93 (1935). See also Soper v. Crystal Palace Gambling Hall, Inc., (In re Crystal Palace Gambling Hall, Inc.), 36 B.R. 947, 951 (Bankr. 9th Cir.1984) appeal dismissed, 785 F.2d 315 (9th Cir.1986). The leasehold, therefore, is not subject to section 544(a)(3). Because section 544(a)(3) cannot be applied, Walsh does not possess the rights of a hypothetical bona fide purchaser of the leasehold estate. If a partnership exists, then that part of the debtor's estate attributable to the leasehold may be subject to Placer's claim arising out of its payments to Devcon, et al. See Cal.Corp.Code Sec. 15025(2)(c). Nothing in the record establishes what part, if any, of the value of the debtor's 18.35% ownership interest arises from the leasehold.