Document ID: ./input/supremecourt_opinions/opinions/14pdf/14-116_9o6b.pdf
Page Number: 8

Cite as:  575 U. S. ____ (2015) 

5 

Opinion of the Court 

from  final  judgments  in  cases  but  from  “final  judgments,
orders, and decrees . . . in cases and proceedings.”  §158(a).
The present dispute is about how to define the immedi­
ately appealable “proceeding” in the context of the consid­
eration of Chapter 13 plans.  Bullard argues for a plan-by­
plan approach.  Each time the bankruptcy court reviews a
proposed plan, he says, it conducts a separate proceeding.
On this view, an order denying confirmation and an order 
granting confirmation both terminate that proceeding, and 
both are therefore final and appealable.

In  the  Bank’s  view  Bullard  is  slicing  the  case  too  thin. 
The relevant “proceeding,” it argues, is the entire process 
of considering plans, which terminates only when a plan is
confirmed  or—if  the  debtor  fails  to  offer  any  confirmable
plan—when  the  case  is  dismissed.    An  order  denying 
confirmation  is  not  final,  so  long  as  it  leaves  the  debtor
free to propose another plan. 

We agree with the Bank: The relevant proceeding is the
process  of  attempting  to  arrive  at  an  approved  plan  that
would  allow  the  bankruptcy  to  move  forward.    This  is  so, 
first  and  foremost,  because  only  plan  confirmation—or 
case  dismissal—alters  the  status  quo  and  fixes  the  rights 
and obligations of the parties.  When the bankruptcy court 
confirms  a  plan,  its  terms  become  binding  on  debtor  and 
creditor  alike.  11  U. S. C.  §1327(a).    Confirmation  has 
preclusive  effect,  foreclosing  relitigation  of  “any  issue
actually litigated by the parties and any issue necessarily 
determined  by  the  confirmation  order.” 
8  Collier 
¶1327.02[1][c],  at  1327–6;  see  also  United  Student  Aid 
Funds, Inc. v. Espinosa, 559 U. S. 260, 275 (2010) (finding 
a confirmation order “enforceable and binding” on a credi­
tor  notwithstanding  legal  error  when  the  creditor  “had
notice  of  the  error  and  failed  to  object  or  timely  appeal”).
Subject to certain exceptions, confirmation “vests all of the 
property  of  the  [bankruptcy]  estate  in  the  debtor,”  and 
renders that property “free and clear of any claim or inter­