Rucker, J.
Husband and wife appeal the grant of summary judgment that resulted in foreclosure of their family homestead. Concluding there are no genuine issues of material fact precluding summary disposition, we affirm the judgment of the trial court.
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The record shows that sometime around 2006 Homeowners began encountering health related problems, accompanied by mounting debt, that ultimately led them to file three different bankruptcy petitions, which we discuss in more detail below. Homeowners make several claims in support of their argument explaining why they believe the trial court erred in granting summary judgment in favor of CitiMortgage. [Footnote omitted.] However one claim—which is variously stated— appears to provide the underlying basis for their insistence that foreclosure against their home is improper. Specifically, Homeowners are adamant that by the time this foreclosure action was filed in May 2014, they no longer owed any debt to CitiMortgage. This contention is based on three claims: (1) documentation from their three bankruptcies show that between 2006 and 2013 Homeowners paid a total of $122,007.21 in principal to CitiMortgage; (2) CitiMortgage did not apply Chapter 13 Plan payments as intended—presumably all toward principal pay down; and (3) the mortgage was paid in full when the Trustee filed a copy of the final report with the Bankruptcy court showing Homeowners had been “discharged.”
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As we explained earlier, Homeowners’ Chapter 13 Bankruptcies I and II were terminated without an order discharging their remaining debts. In any event after the Chapter 13 Bankruptcy III was converted to a Chapter 7, Homeowners debts were “discharged” and Bankruptcy III was thereafter terminated on March 14, 2014.
Relying on this declaration of “discharge” Homeowners steadfastly and adamantly maintain that at the time CitiMortgage filed its Complaint On Note and To Foreclose Mortgage they were no longer indebted to CitiMortgage. See, e.g., Appellant’s Br. at 1 (“The mortgage was paid in full on November 25, 2013 when the Trustee filed a copy of the final report with the Bankruptcy Court.”). Unfortunately, however, Homeowners misapprehend two different but interrelated concepts, namely: the loan due on the mortgage as evidenced by the Note, and the lien on the property as evidenced by the Mortgage.
It is certainly true that a Chapter 7 discharge eliminates a homeowner’s personal liability for its mortgage loan….
But discharge of debt has no bearing on the validity of the mortgage lien…..
… In short, a bankruptcy discharge removes the ability of creditors to seek to collect against the debtor individually (known as in personam liability). Liens, on the other hand are in rem meaning they are rights against the property which are enforceable. And although the Bankruptcy Code provides a mechanism for avoidance of liens, nothing in the record before us shows Homeowners sought to avoid the debt secured by CitiMortgage’s lien or that the mortgage was otherwise declared void. See 11 U.S.C. § 522(c)(2).
Here, by obtaining a discharge in their Chapter 7 Bankruptcy, Homeowners protected themselves from personal liability on debts otherwise due all their creditors including CitiMortgage. [Footnote omitted.] Those debts can no longer be collected from Homeowners personally. But the mortgage lien survived and is enforceable as an in rem action. In this summary judgment proceeding, based upon its Complaint on Note and to Foreclose Mortgage, CitiMortgage did not seek an in personam judgment against Homeowners themselves, but rather an in rem judgment against their property for which there was an outstanding lien balance. This was altogether proper, and the trial court correctly granted summary judgment in favor of CitiMortgage.
Conclusion
We affirm the judgment of the trial court.
Rush, C.J., and David, Massa and Slaughter, JJ., concur