The U.S. Bankruptcy Court for the Southern District of Florida recently held that a wholly unsecured second mortgage lien may be “stripped off,” even if the property encumbered by the lien is no longer part of the bankruptcy estate due to abandonment by the bankruptcy trustee.

The Bankruptcy Court did not specifically reference the consolidated cases now before the U.S. Supreme Court in Bank of Amer. v. Toledo-Cardona, and Bank of Amer. v. Caulkett, which should resolve the issue of whether a wholly unsecured lien may be stripped off in a Chapter 7 bankruptcy.

The federal government has stopped fighting court rulings that allowed an import company, which was facing steep penalty tariffs, to file bankruptcy and transfer its assets to a new business formed by the debtor's principals. The move is important to small to mid-size companies that want to rid themselves of substantial liabilities by selling assets to a new entity with identical ownership, "free and clear" under section 363 of the Bankruptcy Code.