# Haas v. Internal Revenue Service

> Court of Appeals for the Eleventh Circuit · September 13, 1994 · 31 F.3d 1081

URL: https://www.frixlaw.com/law-library/cases/9487140

## Case

- **Full name:** In Re Bernice Elizabeth HAAS; Thomas Milton Haas, Debtors. Thomas Milton HAAS; Bernice Elizabeth Haas, Plaintiffs-Appellees, v. INTERNAL REVENUE SERVICE, Defendant-Appellant, United States Small Business Administration, Defendant, Secor Bank, Defendant-Appellee
- **Court:** Court of Appeals for the Eleventh Circuit
- **Decided:** September 13, 1994
- **Citations:** 31 F.3d 1081; 74 A.F.T.R.2d (RIA) 6280; 1994 U.S. App. LEXIS 25237; 1994 WL 462042
- **Precedential status:** Published
- **Opinion:** Concurrence by Atkins
- **Judges:** Anderson, Birch, Atkins
- **Cited by:** 43 later opinions in the Frix Law Library

## Citator (automated)

- No negative treatment found by the automated citator. That is not the same as a confirmation that the case is good law; read the citing cases.
- Full citator and citing cases: https://www.frixlaw.com/law-library/cases/9487140

## How later opinions describe it (automated extraction)

- holding that, although Alabama state law would give a mortgagee who erroneously recorded a release of a mortgage an equitable right to have the mortgage retroactively reinstated, reinstatement would have resulted in relating back the perfection of the mortgage to the original …
- holding that state equitable principles would retroactively reinstate an erroneously released mortgage but that those principles were nonetheless barred by Treas. Reg. § 301.6323 (h)-1(a)(2)’s prohibition against relation back
- holding that bank’s lien was subordinate to tax liens that were filed after bank’s lien “had been released by mistake” and before bank’s lien was reinstated
- concluding that the Treasury Regulation “operates to the put the IRS in the shoes of any subsequent judgment creditor, including the most favorable shoes”
- holding that the phrase “protected under local law against a subsequent judgment lien” is “equivalent” to a “lien creditor” in the UCC

## Opinion text

ATKINS, Senior District Judge,
concurring:
I concur in the judgment. I believe that adopting the “hypothetical judgment lien creditor test,” as pronounced by the Seventh Circuit in Dragstem v. Obermeyer, 549 F.2d 20 (7th Cir.1977), is in keeping with both the purpose and the language of the Federal Tax Lien Act.
However, I feel compehed to comment that the facts of this case make it particularly difficult to apply that rule here. The Internal Revenue Service (“IRS”) not only knew that the mortgage had been mistakenly recorded as satisfied, but it conducted itself as if the mortgage had not been satisfied. It was merely fortuitous that the IRS tax lien was routinely filed after the mortgage was erroneously recorded as satisfied, but before the mistake could be corrected.
Nevertheless, in the interest of articulating a clear rule in this circuit regarding the status of federal tax liens, I agree that the IRS tax lien here should take priority over Secor’s mortgage. Therefore, I concur in the judgment reversing the district court.

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Source: Frix Law Library, https://www.frixlaw.com/law-library/cases/9487140. Public record. Not legal advice.