Court Opinion

ID: 9487792
Source: CourtListenerOpinion
Date Created: 2023-08-05 12:26:33.702116+00
Date Added: 2024-06-11T17:52:29.231716
License: Public Domain

MAYER, Circuit Judge,
dissenting.
Because I believe actions of creditors which violate the automatic stay provision of the Bankruptcy Code, 11 U.S.C. § 362 (1988 & Supp. V 1993), are void ab initio, I dissent. As recognized by the court, Congress delineated actions which violate an automatic stay, id. § 362(a), and also specified exceptions to it, id. § 362(b). Congress did not say, however, whether actions taken in violation of a stay would have any validity. In Kalb v. Feuerstein, 308 U.S. 433, 438, 444, 60 S.Ct. 343, 345, 348, 84 L.Ed. 370 (1940), the Supreme Court answered this question and decided that actions in violation of a stay are void ab initio and subject to collateral attack.
The foundation for Kalb has not changed and I do not so readily dismiss it as being displaced by subsequent changes in the Bankruptcy Code. I agree with the Ninth Circuit, coincidentally the circuit from which this case comes, in Schwartz v. United States, 954 F.2d 569 (1992), that the Bankruptcy Reform Act of 1978 is not an impediment to finding actions in violation of a stay void. In fact, the legislative history of the 1978 Act highlights the vital role the automatic stay plays in the Bankruptcy Code and is in complete accord with Kalb. See H.R.Rep. No. 595, 95th Cong., 1st Sess. 340 (1978), reprinted in 1978 U.S.C.C.A.N. 5787, 5963, 6296-6297. Because the Act did not affect Kalb, this court’s result is contrary to the Supreme Court and the weight of subsequent authority. Schwartz, 954 F.2d at 572; Ellis v. Consolidated Diesel Elec. Corp., 894 F.2d 371, 372-73 (10th Cir.1990); In re Ward, 837 F.2d 124, 126 (3d Cir.1988); In re 48th St. Steakhouse, Inc., 835 F.2d 427, 431 (2d Cir.1987); Borg-Warner Acceptance Corp. v. Hall, 685 F.2d 1306, 1308 (11th Cir.1982).