Case: 14-11408 Date Filed: 08/21/2014 Page: 1 of 2
[DO NOT PUBLISH]
IN THE UNITED STATES COURT OF APPEALS
FOR THE ELEVENTH CIRCUIT
________________________
No. 14-11408
Non-Argument Calendar
________________________
D.C. Docket No. 1:14-cv-00460-WSD,
Bkcy No. 11-bkc-70660-CRM
In re: YVONNE ROBERTS WAITS,
Debtor.
BANK OF AMERICA BANK, NA,
Plaintiff - Appellant,
versus
YVONNE ROBERTS WAITS,
Defendant - Appellee.
________________________
Appeal from the United States District Court
for the Northern District of Georgia
________________________
(August 21, 2014)
Case: 14-11408 Date Filed: 08/21/2014 Page: 2 of 2
Before TJOFLAT, JORDAN and BLACK, Circuit Judges.
PER CURIAM:
Bank of America appeals the district court’s affirmance of the bankruptcy
court’s order allowing the debtor, Yvonne Waits, to extinguish Bank of America’s
second-priority mortgage lien on Waits’ home given that the first-priority lien
exceeded the home’s fair market value. This appeal thus presents the question
whether section 506(d) of the Bankruptcy Code, 11 U.S.C. § 506(d), allows a
Chapter 7 debtor to “strip off” a junior mortgage lien when the senior lien exceeds
the home’s value. As Bank of America concedes, however, we are bound to affirm
the district court by our decisions in In re McNeal, 735 F.3d 1263 (11th Cir. 2012)
and Folendore v. United States Small Bus. Admin., 862 F.2d 1537 (11th Cir. 1989).
See Smith v. GTE Corp., 236 F.3d 1292, 1300 n.8 (11th Cir. 2001) (“Under the
well-established prior panel precedent rule of this Circuit, the holding of the first
panel to address an issue is the law of this Circuit, thereby binding all subsequent
panels unless and until the first panel’s holding is overruled by the Court sitting en
banc or by the Supreme Court.”).
AFFIRMED.
2