JURY, Bankruptcy Judge.
Chapter 7
The underlying facts are undisputed. Debtor filed her chapter 7 petition on July 12, 2008. In Schedule A, Debtor listed her Residence located in Phoenix with a value of $350,000, subject to liens totaling $454,200. In Schedule C, Debtor claimed an exemption in the property for $150,000 under Ariz. Rev. Stat. § 33-1101(A). In Schedule D, Debtor showed the property was encumbered by three liens, including a first position deed of trust in favor of Countrywide Home Loans, Inc. (Countrywide).
Countrywide obtained an unopposed order granting relief from the automatic stay with respect to the Residence on September 29, 2008. Countrywide's interest in the deed of trust was assigned to B of A sometime in 2008 as part of a merger/acquisition.
Debtor received a § 727 discharge on October 21, 2008.
Debtor's Residence was sold at a foreclosure sale on July 14, 2009.
Trustee filed a Notice of Trustee's Final Report and Application for Compensation on November 14, 2013. The bankruptcy court entered an order approving payment for administrative fees and expenses on December 19, 2013, but the case was never closed.
Almost six years after her case was. filed, Debtor disclosed to Trustee that she had received the Foreclosure Payment. On April 15, 2014, Trustee filed the Turnover Motion contending that the payment was property of the estate under § 541(a)(7).
At the May 13, 2014 hearing, the bankruptcy court took the matter under submission. On September 30, 2014, the bankruptcy court issued its findings of fact and conclusions of law and entered the order denying Trustee's Turnover Motion. Trustee timely appealed from that order.
The bankruptcy court had jurisdiction pursuant to 28 U.S.C. §§ 1334 and 157(b)(2)(E). We have jurisdiction under 28 U.S.C. § 158.
Did the bankruptcy court err by determining that the Foreclosure Payment was not property of Debtor's estate?
Whether property is included in a bankruptcy estate is a question of law subject to de novo review. Cisneros v. Kim (In re Kim), 257 B.R. 680, 684 (9th Cir. BAP 2000).
We may affirm the bankruptcy court's decision on any ground supported by the record. Olsen v. Zerbetz (In re Olsen), 36 F.3d 71, 73 (9th Cir.1994).
Section 541(a)(7) makes property of the estate any interest in property that the estate (not the debtor) acquires after the petition date. "Congress enacted § 541(a)(7) to clarify its intention that § 541 be an all-embracing definition and to ensure that property interests created with or by property of the estate are themselves property of the estate." TMT Procurement Corp. v. Vantage Drilling Co. (In re TMT Procurement Corp.), 764 F.3d 512, 524-25 (5th Cir.2014); H.R. REP. 95-595, 549, reprinted in 1978 U.S.C.C.A.N. 5963, 6455 & 6523-24. Stated differently, for the after-acquired interest to be considered property of the estate under
Here, Trustee has not shown how the bankruptcy estate acquired an interest in the postpetition Foreclosure Payment. The payment was neither created with or by property of the estate nor can it be said that the payment is traceable to or arose out of any prepetition interest included in the bankruptcy estate. The fact that Debtor's Residence became property of the estate, in and of itself, does not support the inclusion of the Foreclosure Payment as after-acquired property under § 541(a)(7). Rather, Debtor became entitled to the payment only as a result of qualifying events occurring after her bankruptcy filing.
Debtor's legal right to, or interest in, the Foreclosure Payment was as a "borrower," and did not arise until April 13, 2011, when B of A, acting through its Board of Directors, and the Comptroller of the Currency (Comptroller) entered into a consent order (2011 Consent Order).
Seen in this light, that the estate had an interest in Debtor's Residence is not enough. Nowhere has Trustee shown how the estate obtained an interest in the Foreclosure Payment itself when the qualifying events giving rise to Debtor's legal rights to the payment all occurred postpetition and were held solely by the borrowers. See Drewes v. Vote (In re Vote), 276 F.3d 1024 (8th Cir.2002). The payment is thus not an after-acquired interest of the estate. Therefore, we agree with the bankruptcy court's legal conclusion that the postpetition Foreclosure Payment received by Debtor was not property of her estate.
Having found no error, we AFFIRM.