United States Second Circuit

In a debtor's appeal from a district court's order reversing the bankruptcy court's confirmation of the debtor's Chapter 13 plan, the district court's order is affirmed where the New York Court of Appeals held, in response to a certified question from the court of appeals, that negative equity on a trade-in vehicle is included in the purchase money security interest accompanying a new car's purchase and is therefore protected from cramdown by the Hanging Paragraph of Section 1325 of the Bankruptcy Code.

Appellate Information

• Decided 10/09/2009
• Published 10/09/2009

Judges

• PER CURIAM:, Before: CALABRESI, STRAUB, and RAGGI, Circuit Judges.

Court

• United States Second Circuit

Counsel

• For Appellant:
  
• George M. Reiber, Rochester, N.Y., Pro se., Richard Lieb, St. John's University School of Law, Jamaica, N.Y. (Ingrid M. Hillinger, of counsel), for Amici Curiae.


• For Appellees:
  
• Barkley Clark (Katherine M. Sutcliffe Becker, on the brief), Stinson Morrison Hecker, LLP, Washington, D.C., for Plaintiffs-Appellees GMAC, LLC and Ford Motor Credit Company., Matthew J. McGowan, Salter McGowan Sylvia & Leonard, Inc., Providence, R.I., for Plaintiff-Appellee Sovereign Bank., Martin A. Mooney, Mark D. Glastetter, Bonnie S. Baker, Deily Mooney & Glastetter, LLP, Albany, N.Y., for Plaintiff-Appellee HSBC Auto Finance., Ingrid M. Hillinger, Michael Hillinger, Adam J. Levitin, Michael M. White, and Jean Braucher in Support of Defendant-Appellant., Lewis W. Siegel (Tara Twomey, of counsel), New York, N.Y., for Amicus Curiae National Association of Consumer Bankruptcy Attorneys in Support of Defendant-Appellant., James J. White, Ann Arbor, MI, for Amici Curiae American Financial Services Association and National Automobile Dealers Association in Support of Plaintiffs-Appellees.