Long v. Bullard

Decision Date12 April 1886
Citation6 S.Ct. 917,29 L.Ed. 1004,117 U.S. 617
PartiesLONG and Wife v. BULLARD. Filed
CourtU.S. Supreme Court

R. F. Lyon and

The material facts appearing in this record are as follows: In the month of December, 1869, parts of lots 5 and 6, in square 90, in the city of Macon, were set off under the laws of Georgia to Betsey A. Long, the wife of Francis M. Long, as a homestead. The property was at the time incumbered by a mortgage made by Francis M. Long to the Ocmulgee Building Association. Proceedings were afterwards had to foreclose this mortgage, and to save the property from sale Francis M. Long applied to Daniel Bullard for a loan of money. This loan was made at usurious interest, and Long and his wife executed to Bullard their joint note, dated November 18, 1872, for $1,220, payable 12 months after date, and conveyed to him the homestead property by a deed absolute on its face as security. On the twenty-ninth of May, 1873, Francis M. Long was adjudged a bankrupt, and on the fifteenth of April, 1874, he received his discharge. In his schedules the debt to Bullard, with its security on the homestead premises, was duly entered. On the twenty-eighth of June, 1873, the same premises were set apart to the bankrupt to be retained by him under the bankrupt law as being exempt under the state law from levy and said upon execution. Bullard did not prove his debt in the bankrupt proceedings. On the ninth of February, 1878, Bullard brought suit in the superior court of Bibb county, Georgia, to subject the property to the payment of his debt. In his bill he alleged that the money he loaned was used to pay off the prior incumbrance on the homestead, and he claimed a valid lien on that account. He also set forth the bankruptcy of Francis M. Long, and the assignment of the property to him under the bankrupt law as a homestead. Long and his wife in their answer stated that the deed to Bullard was void for usury in the debt for which it was given as security; that only $727.94 of the amount actually lent by Bullard was used to pay off the prior incumbrance; that the money was lent to the husband, and not to the wife; and that the husband had been discharged in bankruptcy. Upon these facts it was insisted that the homestead rights of Mrs. Long and her children were superior to the claim of Bullard under his conveyance, and that the property could not be sold to pay him.

Upon the trial the court charged the jury, in substance, that there could be no personal recovery against the husband upon the note, but that the property could be subjected to the payment of the amount due, as the discharge of Long in bankruptcy did not release the lien of the mortgage. This was excepted to by the Longs. A verdict was returned in favor of Bullard for the amount of money actually lent, excluding the usurious interest. Thereupon the Longs moved for a new trial on the ground, among others, of error in the instructions to the jury as to the effect of the discharge in bankruptcy. This motion was granted, but only because the property was subjected to the payment of a larger sum than was used to pay off the prior incumbrance. From the order granting a new trial Bullard took a writ of error to the supreme court, where it was adjudged, April 19, 1882, that the judgment of the superior court granting the new trial be affirmed, 'unless the plaintiff in error will write off from his verdict in the court below the sum of three hundred collars.' The only question decided on this writ of error, as shown by the opinion,...

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  • In re Turner
    • United States
    • U.S. Bankruptcy Court — Northern District of Illinois
    • 16 Septiembre 2016
    ...Was Not Terminated by the Discharge or by the Plan A discharge in bankruptcy does not terminate a valid lien. Long v. Bullard , 117 U.S. 617, 6 S.Ct. 917, 29 L.Ed. 1004 (1886). Instead, a “bankruptcy discharge extinguishes only one mode of enforcing a claim—namely, an action against the deb......
  • Hinojosa Eng'g, Inc. v. Lopez (In re Treyson Dev., Inc.)
    • United States
    • U.S. Bankruptcy Court — Southern District of Texas
    • 19 Abril 2016
    ...it has long since been held that only a secured creditor's lien will pass through bankruptcy unscathed. 559 U.S. at 275. C.f. Long v. Bullard, 117 U.S. 617 (1886). Therefore, the issue in determining the effect of this Court's Order is not whether this Court had subject matter jurisdiction ......
  • Harmon v. U.S. Through Farmers Home Admin.
    • United States
    • U.S. Court of Appeals — Eighth Circuit
    • 2 Diciembre 1996
    ...See Johnson v. Home State Bank, 501 U.S. 78, 83, 111 S.Ct. 2150, 2153-54, 115 L.Ed.2d 66 (1991); Long v. Bullard, 117 U.S. 617, 620-21, 6 S.Ct. 917, 918, 29 L.Ed. 1004 (1886). B. Because several sections of the Code defer to the provisions of the debtor's plan, we must also consider the rel......
  • Gifford, Matter of
    • United States
    • U.S. Court of Appeals — Seventh Circuit
    • 18 Agosto 1982
    ...Cong. & Admin.News 1978, p. 6088. See also In re Pillow, 8 B.R. 404, 406 (Bkrtcy.D.Utah 1981). Under the rule in Long v. Bullard, 117 U.S. 617, 6 S.Ct. 917, 29 L.Ed. 1004, a lien even in exempt property survives the bankruptcy discharge. Since Congress specifically stated that it was adheri......
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2 firm's commentaries
3 books & journal articles
  • The Housing Bubble and Consumer Bankruptcy (Parts I and II).
    • United States
    • American Bankruptcy Law Journal Vol. 97 No. 2, June 2023
    • 22 Junio 2023
    ...has no lien without citation to [section] 506(d)). (170) 454 B.R. 759 (Bankr. S.D. Cal. 2011), aff'd, 470 B.R. 545 (S.D. Cal. 2012), (171) 117 U.S. 617 (172) 295 U.S. 555 (1935). (173) Bullard, 117 U.S. at 620. To be precise, Bullard actually holds that D's discharge in a chapter 7 case doe......
  • The Last Dance: Righting the Supreme Court's Greatest Bankruptcy Apostasy.
    • United States
    • American Bankruptcy Law Journal Vol. 96 No. 2, March 2022
    • 22 Marzo 2022
    ...ability under the Bankruptcy Clause to modify the rights of secured creditors). (65) Dewsnup v. Timm, 502 U.S. 410, 419 (1992). (66) 117 U.S. 617 (67) See Howard, supra note 35, at 526 (explaining that Long v. Bullard, in fact, does not stand for the oft-cited proposition for which it was o......
  • Arbitration Agreements as Executory Contracts in Bankruptcy After Mission Prod. Holdings, Inc. v. Tempnology, LLC.
    • United States
    • American Bankruptcy Law Journal Vol. 96 No. 4, December 2022
    • 22 Diciembre 2022
    ...discharge extinguishes only 'the personal liability of the debtor.'" 11 U.S.C. [section] 524(a)(1). Codifying the rule of Long v. Bullard, 117 U.S. 617, 29 L. Ed. 1004, 6 S. Ct. 917 (1886), the Code provides that a creditor's right to foreclose on the mortgage survives or passes through the......

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