Page:United States Reports 502 OCT. TERM 1991.pdf/581

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

423

Scalia, J., dissenting

biguous” (a status apparently achieved by being the subject of disagreement between self-interested litigants) cannot change pre-Code law without the imprimatur of “legislative history.” Thus abandoning the normal and sensible principle that a term (and especially an artfully defined term such as “allowed secured claim”) bears the same meaning throughout the statute, the Court adopts instead what might be called the one-subsection-at-a-time approach to statutory exegesis. “[W]e express no opinion,” the Court amazingly says, “as to whether the words ‘allowed secured claim’ have different meaning in other provisions of the Bankruptcy Code.” Ante, at 417, n. 3. “We. . . focus upon the case before us and allow other facts to await their legal resolution on another day.” Ante, at 416–417. II As to the meaning of this single subsection (considered, of course, in a vacuum), the Court claims to be embracing “respondents’ alternative position,” ante, at 417, which is that “the words ‘allowed secured claim’ in § 506(d) need not be read as an indivisible term of art defined by reference to § 506(a),” ante, at 415; and that “secured claim” (for purposes U. S. C. § 551, which preserves liens avoided under § 506(d) and other provisions of the Code “for the benefit of the estate,” i. e., for the benefit of the general unsecured creditors. See Note, An Individual Debtor’s Right to Avoid Liens Under Section 506(d) of the Bankruptcy Code, 12 Cardozo L. Rev. 263, 280–281 (1990). See also In re Ward, 42 B. R. 946, 952–953 (Bkrtcy. Ct. MD Tenn. 1984). And the creditor whose lien has been stripped may even prevail over the other unsecured creditors by reason of 11 U. S. C. § 363(k), which permits such an undersecured creditor to apply the entire amount of his allowed claim (secured and unsecured) against the purchase price of the collateral at the trustee’s foreclosure sale. This appears to enable the lien-stripped creditor (at least in the context of a trustee-managed foreclosure sale) to use his “unsecured claim” to capture any postevaluation appreciation in the collateral. See Carlson, Undersecured Claims Under Bankruptcy Code Sections 506(a) and 1111(b): Second Looks at Judicial Valuations of Collateral, 6 Bankr. Dev. J. 253, 272–279 (1989). I would leave these questions for resolution on remand.