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91_1229
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NOTE: Where it is feasible, a syllabus (headnote) will be released, as is
being done in connection with this case, at the time the opinion is issued.
The syllabus constitutes no part of the opinion of the Court but has been
prepared by the Reporter of Decisions for the convenience of the reader.
See United States v. Detroit Lumber Co., 200 U. S. 321, 337.
SUPREME COURT OF THE UNITED STATES
Syllabus
UNITED STATES by and through INTERNAL
REVENUE SERVICE v. McDERMOTT et al.
certiorari to the united states court of appeals for
the tenth circuit
No. 91-1229. Argued December 7, 1992-Decided March 24, 1993
The United States' federal tax lien on the respondent McDermotts'
property applied to after-acquired property, Glass City Bank v.
United States, 326 U. S. 265, but could ``not be valid as against any
. . . judgment lien creditor until notice thereof . . . has been filed,'' 26
U. S. C. 6323(a). Before that lien was filed with the Salt Lake
County Clerk, a bank docketed a state-court judgment it had won
against the McDermotts, thereby creating a state-law judgment lien
on all of their existing or after-acquired real property in the county.
After both liens were filed, the McDermotts acquired certain real
property in the county and brought this interpleader action. The
District Court awarded priority in that property to the bank's lien.
The Court of Appeals affirmed.
Held: A federal tax lien filed before a delinquent taxpayer acquires real
property must be given priority in that property over a private
creditor's previously filed judgment lien. Priority for purposes of
federal law is governed by the common-law principle that ```the first
in time is the first in right.''' United States v. New Britain, 347 U. S.
81, 85. A state lien that competes with a federal lien is deemed to be
in existence for ``first in time'' purposes only when it has been
``perfected'' in the sense that, inter alia, ``the property subject to the
lien [is] established.'' Id., at 84. Because the bank's judgment lien
did not actually attach to the property at issue until the McDermotts
acquired rights in that property, which occurred after the United
States filed its tax lien, the bank's lien was not perfected before the
federal filing. See id., at 84-86. United States v. Vermont, 377 U. S.
251, distinguished. It is irrelevant that the federal lien similarly did
not attach and become perfected until the McDermotts acquired the
property, since 6323(c)(1) demonstrates that such a lien is ordinarily
dated, for purposes of ``first in time'' priority against 6323(a)
competing interests, from the time of its filing. Pp. 2-8.
945 F. 2d 1475, reversed and remanded.
Scalia, J., delivered the opinion of the Court, in which Rehnquist,
C. J., and White, Blackmun, Kennedy, and Souter, JJ., joined.
Thomas, J., filed a dissenting opinion, in which Stevens and
O'Connor, JJ., joined.