Document ID: ./input/supremecourt_opinions/opinions/14pdf/14-116_9o6b.pdf
Page Number: 11.0

8 

BULLARD v. BLUE HILLS BANK 

Opinion of the Court 

that almost nobody will take them.

We think that in the ordinary case treating only confir­
mation  or  dismissal  as  final  will  not  unfairly  burden  a 
debtor.  He retains the valuable exclusive right to propose 
plans,  which  he  can  modify  freely.    11  U. S. C.  §§1321, 
1323.  The  knowledge  that  he  will  have  no  guaranteed 
appeal from a denial should encourage the debtor to work 
with  creditors  and  the  trustee  to  develop  a  confirmable
plan as promptly as possible.  And expedition is always an
important consideration in bankruptcy. 

III 
Bullard and the Solicitor General present several argu­
ments for treating each plan denial as final, but we are not 
persuaded.

The Solicitor General notes that disputes in bankruptcy 
are generally classified as either “adversary proceedings,” 
essentially  full  civil  lawsuits  carried  out  under  the  um­
brella  of  the  bankruptcy  case,  or  “contested  matters,”  an
undefined  catchall  for  other  issues  the  parties  dispute.
See  Fed.  Rule  Bkrtcy.  Proc.  7001  (listing  ten  adversary 
proceedings);  Rule  9014  (addressing  “contested  matter[s]
not otherwise governed by these rules”).  An objection to a 
plan  initiates  a  contested  matter.   See  Rule  3015(f).  Ev­
eryone agrees that an order resolving that matter by over­
ruling  the  objection  and  confirming  the  plan  is  final.    As 
the  Solicitor  General  sees  it,  an  order  denying  confirma­
tion  would  also  resolve  that  contested  matter,  so  such  an 
order  should  also  be  considered  final.  Brief  for  United 
States as Amicus Curiae 19–22. 

The scope of the Solicitor General’s argument is unclear. 

At  points  his  brief  appears  to  argue  that  an  order  resolv­
ing any contested matter is final and immediately appeal-
able.  That version of the argument has the virtue of rest­
ing  on  a  general  principle—but  the  vice  of  being 
implausible.  As  a  leading  treatise  notes,  the  list  of  con­