In re Mitchell, 2007 WL 3378229 Bankr. M.D. Tenn. 2007)

Under Tennessee state law definitions, the financing of negative equity in the form of the debtors' trade-in is not part of the “price” and did not “enable” the debtor to acquire the Chevy Trailblazer. According to state law, therefore, FAFCU holds a partially secured PMSI debt and a partially secured non-PMSI debt. Applying FAFCU's state law-defined status to 11 U.S.C. § 1325(a)(*), the court finds that under the unambiguous statute, FAFCU does not qualify for the narrow exception and may be treated as any secured creditor pursuant to 11 U.S.C. § 1325(a)(5). If however, 11 U.S.C. § 1325(a)(*) is ambigious, the court nonetheless finds that statutory construction rules would favor the narrower interpretation of the exception thereby rendering the hanging paragraphy's narrow exception unavailable to FAFCU.