Rieser v. Fifth Third Mortgage Co. (In Re Wahl)

Decision Granting the Chapter 7 Trustee’s Motion for Summary Judgment

GUY R. HUMPHREY, Bankruptcy Judge.

I. Introduction

This decision concerns whether the debtor husband’s granting of a mortgage to a lender on his undivided one-half interest in real property may be avoided by a Chapter 7 bankruptcy trustee: a) under the trustee’s strong-arm powers provided by 11 U.S.C. § 544(a) when that mortgagor is not referenced in the acknowledgment clause of the mortgage; and b) under § 547 1 as a preferential transfer on account of the mortgage having not been perfected under Ohio law. Both of these…