11 U.S.C. § 558
Section 558 · Defenses of the estate
Amended 1 time on record
Applied in 106 court decisions — leading case In Re Roberts (1985)
Most recently applied in In re Maremont Corp. (May 2019)
Cases citing this section usually also cite 11 U.S.C. § 502 · 11 U.S.C. § 101 · 28 U.S.C. § 1334
How often courts cite this section
Court decisions citing this, by year.Markers show enactment, consequential amendments, and circuit splits over this section — watch for a citation surge after a change or a disagreement. The dip in the last several years is a data-coverage gap, not a real trend — our corpus holds fewer opinions from the most recent years, so recent citations are undercounted.
The estate shall have the benefit of any defense available to the debtor as against any entity other than the estate, including statutes of limitation, statutes of frauds, usury, and other personal defenses. A waiver of any such defense by the debtor after the commencement of the case does not bind the estate.
Editorial notes U.S. Code · Office of the Law Revision Counsel
Effective Date
Section effective with respect to cases filed 90 days after July 10, 1984, see section 552(a) of Pub. L. 98–353, set out as an Effective Date of 1984 Amendment note under section 101 of this title.