No Discharge of Unsecured Debt for Non-Filing Co-Debtors

By: Carly S. Krupnick

St. John’s Law Student

American Bankruptcy Institute Law Review Staff

Recently, in In re Faulkner, the Bankruptcy Court for Central District of Illinois held that a lien release provision in a debtor’s chapter 13 plan only released a secured creditor’s lien as to the debtor’s interest, and did not require the secured creditor to release its lien and surrender title to the debtor’s vehicle until the remaining deficiency balance was paid in full by a non-filing co-debtor.[1]  In Faulkner, a secured creditor held a lien on an SUV that the debtor co-owned with a non-filing debtor.[2]  Under the debtor’s chapter 13 plan, the secured creditor’s claim was bifurcated.[3]  The plan also stated that “secured creditors shall retain their liens upon their collateral until they have been paid the value of said property.”[4]  After the debtor completed her plan and received her discharge, however, the secured creditor refused to return the certificate of title to the debtor’s SUV because the non-filing debtor had not satisfied the remaining deficiency balance in full.[5]  The debtor responded by filing an adversary proceeding alleging that the secured creditor violated the discharge injunction.[6]  The court found that “there is nothing in [section] 524 that prevent[ed the secured creditor] from asserting its rights against the non-filing co-debtor for the deficiency balance,”[7]  and therefore, the secured creditor was not barred from bringing action against a non-filing co-debtor once the case was closed.[8]  Thus, the court concluded that “the debtor’s plan, no matter how clear and conspicuous, can only serve to release [the secured creditors]’s lien as to the debtor’s interest in the vehicle. . . [and the secured creditor]’s lien remains in place and can be enforced against the non-filing co-debtor’s interest in the vehicle” until the entire amount owed under the contract was paid in full.[9]  

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