There is a division among bankruptcy courts across the country as to whether a properly conducted sheriff sale can be considered a “preference,” but Pennsylvania courts continue to send a clear message: In the Western District of Pennsylvania, in a case the attorneys at Barley Snyder were monitoring, a judge recently held that a sheriff sale can't be reversed or avoided by way of a preferential transfer action . That continues the streak where western Pennsylvania courts have continued to side with creditors when it comes to preference actions arising from sheriff sales rather than debtors, even though courts in other states have sided with debtors.
