Today the Bankruptcy Appellate Panel for the Eighth Circuit reversed a Minnesota Bankruptcy Court in Fisette v. Keller, No. 11-6012, and that a debtor may strip off wholly underwater junior mortgages when the debtor is not eligible for a discharge in chapter 13. Prior to Fisette, the bankruptcy courts in the District of Minnesota had disallowed the strip of of underwater mortgages even when the debtor was eligible for a discharge. See the decision here.
Goldgar Approves Lien Stripping without Discharge
On June 24, 2011, Judge Goldgar from the Bankruptcy Court for the Northern District of Illinois agreed with a growing number of courts that have concluded a discharge is not necessary to strip off a wholly underwater junior mortgage. There is no written decision, but a copy of the transcript is available here. The case is Anderson v. Harris, No. 10-A-02467 (Bankr. N.D. Ill.)