Rose v. Select Portfolio Servicing, Inc.

Summary

The Fifth Circuit held that 11 U.S.C. § 362(c)(3)(A) terminates the automatic stay only with respect to the debtor, not with respect to property of the bankruptcy estate, adopting the majority interpretation. Under Texas Civil Practice and Remedies Code § 16.035, the four-year statute of limitations for foreclosure is tolled during bankruptcy stays; because the debtor's successive bankruptcy filings did not terminate the stay as to the property, the 269-day tolling period rendered the lender's counterclaim for judicial foreclosure timely. The court affirmed summary judgment for the defendants, rejecting the debtor's quiet title and declaratory judgment claims based on an expired limitations period.

Holdings

1. The statute of limitations does not bar the counterclaim because the bankruptcy stays tolled the limitations period for at least 269 days, and the counterclaim was filed within that tolling period.

Questions Presented

1. Whether the statute of limitations had expired on Defendants' power to foreclose on Rose's property, specifically whether the bankruptcy stays tolled the limitations period sufficiently such that the counterclaim for judicial foreclosure was timely filed.

Disposition

affirmed