Page:United States Reports 502 OCT. TERM 1991.pdf/579

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Cite as: 502 U. S. 410 (1992)

421

Scalia, J., dissenting

(the meaning of which is obvious) is also a “secured claim” “to the extent of the value of [the] creditor’s interest in the estate’s interest in [the securing] property.” (Emphasis added.) (This means, generally speaking, that an allowed claim “is secured only to the extent of the value of the property on which the lien is fixed; the remainder of that claim is considered unsecured.” United States v. Ron Pair Enterprises, Inc., 489 U. S. 235, 239 (1989).) When § 506(d) refers to an “allowed secured claim,” it can only be referring to that allowed “secured claim” so carefully described two brief subsections earlier. The phrase obviously bears the meaning set forth in § 506(a) when it is used in the subsections of § 506 other than § 506(d)—for example, in § 506(b), which addresses “allowed secured claim[s]” that are oversecured. Indeed, as respondents apparently concede, see Brief for Respondents 40; Tr. of Oral Arg. 29–30, even when the phrase appears outside of § 506, it invariably means what § 506(a) describes: the portion of a creditor’s allowed claim that is secured after the calculations required by that provision have been performed. See, e. g., 11 U. S. C. § 722 (permitting a Chapter 7 debtor to redeem certain tangible personal property from certain liens “by paying the holder of such lien the amount of the allowed secured claim of such holder that is secured by such lien”); § 1225(a)(5) (prescribing treatment of “allowed secured claim[s]” in family farmer’s reorganization plan); § 1325(a)(5) (same with respect to “allowed secured claim[s]” in individual reorganizations). (Emphases added.) The statute is similarly consistent in its use of the companion phrase “allowed unsecured claim” to describe (with respect to a claim supported by a lien) that portion of the claim that is treated as “unsecured” under § 506(a). See, e. g., 11 U. S. C. § 507(a)(7) (fixing priority of “allowed unsecured claims of governmental units”); § 726(a)(2) (providing for payment of “allowed unsecured claim[s]” in Chapter 7 liquidation); § 1225(a)(4) (setting standard for treatment