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1991
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91_1229a
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91_1229a.zs
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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. SS6323(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
I II UNITED STATES v. MCDERMOTT ____
Syllabus
property, since S6323(c)(1) demonstrates that such a lien is ordinarily dated,
for purposes of ``first in time'' priority against S6323(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.