A recently issued opinion by the U. S Bankruptcy Court for the District of New Mexico provides some guidance on the relevant date for the transfer of real property for purposes of the statute of limitations applicable to fraudulent transfer claims.

In Gonzales v. Sexton (In re Esquibel), Adv. No. 17-1042-j (Bankr. D.N.M. July 23, 2018) the Bankruptcy Court considered a chapter 7 trustee’s summary judgment motion regarding the trustee’s claims for avoidance and recovery of actual and constructive fraudulent transfers under the Bankruptcy Code and state law.

Pre-petition, the Debtor owned unencumbered real property (the “Property”).  This Property was transferred to the Defendant on May 19, 2014 via a quitclaim deed.  In exchange for the Property, the Defendant (recipient of the Property) promised to maintain the property, provide the Debtor with a rent-free place to live, and care for Debtor if she was unable to care for herself.  Id. at ¶ 27.

Several years later, on September 7, 2016, just 177 days before the Debtor filed her voluntary bankruptcy petition, Defendant recorded the quitclaim deed.  Id. at ¶ 29.  The Trustee brought suit against the Defendant claiming that the transfer of the Property was avoidable under Section 548 of the Bankruptcy Code and state law because it constituted both actual and constructive fraudulent transfers.

The threshold issue for the Court was when the Property was transferred for purposes of statute of limitations – in 2014 when the deed was executed or in 2016 when the deed was recorded.  Section 548 allows a trustee to avoid transfers of estate property that occurred within the prior 2 years before the bankruptcy.  The Defendant asserted that the transfer occurred when the deed was signed in 2014, and the Court disagreed, finding that the transfer for the purposes of a Section 548 fraudulent transfer occurred when the deed was recorded, in 2016.

The Court looked to Section 548(d), which states “a transfer is made when such transfer is so perfected that a bona fide purchaser from the debtor against whom applicable law permits such transfer to to be perfected cannot acquire an interest in the property transferred that is superior to the interest in such property of the transferee.”  Id. at 10.  The Court further explained that the purpose of 548(d) is to “prevent fraudulent transfers from becoming impregnable to attack by keeping them secret until the limitation period has lapsed.”  Id. (citation omitted).

The Court then looked to New Mexico state law to determine when a real property transfer is perfected and found that such a transfer is perfected “when it is recorded with the county clerk of the state in which the real estate is situated.”  Id. at 11 (citation omitted).  Given this, the Court found that the transfer of the Property occurred upon recording in 2016, which was within 177 days of the chapter 7 filing, and therefore was “within the two-year look-back period under §548(a).”  Id. 

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