Cite as: 511 U. S. 531 (1994)
Souter, J., dissenting
support. This case is a far cry from the rare one where the effect of implementing the ordinary meaning of the statutory text would be "patent absurdity," see INS v. Cardoza-Fonseca, 480 U. S. 421, 452 (1987) (Scalia, J., concurring in judgment), or "demonstrably at odds with the intentions of its drafters," United States v. Ron Pair Enterprises, Inc., 489 U. S. 235, 244 (1989) (internal quotation marks omitted).15
Permitting avoidance of procedurally regular foreclosure sales for low prices (and thereby returning a valuable asset to the bankruptcy estate) is plainly consistent with those policies of obtaining a maximum and equitable distribution for creditors and ensuring a "fresh start" for individual debtors, which the Court has often said are at the core of federal bankruptcy law. See Stellwagen v. Clum, 245 U. S. 605, 617 (1918); Williams v. United States Fidelity & Guaranty Co., 236 U. S. 549, 554-555 (1915). They are not, of course, any less the policies of federal bankruptcy law simply because state courts will not, for a mortgagor's benefit, set aside a foreclosure sale for "price inadequacy" alone.16 The unwill-15 Tellingly, while the Court's opinion celebrates fraudulent conveyance law and state foreclosure law as the "twin pillars" of creditor-debtor regulation, it evinces no special appreciation of the fact that this case arises under the Bankruptcy Code, which, in maintaining the national system of credit and commerce, embodies policies distinct from those of state debtor-creditor law, see generally Stellwagen v. Clum, 245 U. S. 605, 617 (1918), and which accordingly endows trustees with avoidance power beyond what state law provides, see Board of Trade of Chicago v. Johnson, 264 U. S. 1, 10 (1924); Stellwagen, supra, at 617; 11 U. S. C. §§ 541(a), 544(a).
16 Although the majority accurately states this " 'black letter' " law, it also acknowledges that courts will avoid a foreclosure sale for a price that "shock[s] the conscience," see ante, at 542 (internal quotation marks omitted), a standard that has been invoked to justify setting aside sales yielding as much as 87% of appraised value. See generally Washburn, The Judicial and Legislative Response to Price Inadequacy in Mortgage Fore-closure Sales, 53 S. Cal. L. Rev. 843, 862-870 (1980). Moreover, while price inadequacy "alone" may not be enough to set aside a sale, such inadequacy will often induce a court to undertake a sort of "strict scrutiny" of a sale's compliance with state procedures. See, e. g., id., at 861.
563
Page: Index Previous 26 27 28 29 30 31 32 33 34 35 36 37 38 39 40 NextLast modified: October 4, 2007