David Gray Carlson
The issue begins with an excellent piece by Professor David Gray
Carlson. In Cars and Homes in Chapter 13 After the 2005
Amendments to the Bankruptcy Code, the author conducts a
thorough analysis of the chapter 13 process after the enactment of
the Bankruptcy Abuse Prevention and Consumer Protection Act of 2005
(“BAPCPA”). The article focuses primarily on the fate of purchase
money car lenders, addressing one of the more controversial
additions to chapter 13—the so-called "hanging paragraph" at the
end of section 1325(a). Beginning with the pre-confirmation period,
the author explores the chapter 13 process in chronological order,
comparing the pre-BAPCPA Code to the post-BAPCPA Code and examining
the often complex interrelation between adequate protection and
cram down payments. Among other things, the author points out that
purchase money lenders can receive adequate protection prior to
plan confirmation—a proposition that was not particularly clear
prior to BAPCPA. Furthermore, although a court may no longer
bifurcate the secured claims of car lenders under certain
circumstances, such claims nevertheless can be crammed down at a
lower interest. Finally, in perhaps one of the more unique
interpretations of the Code, the author proposes that due to the
new anti-bifurcation rule, a debtor may have the ability to wreck
his or her car, collect the insurance proceeds, and abandon the car
to the lender in full satisfaction of the lender's claim.