Source: https://caselaw.findlaw.com/us-supreme-court/503/249.html
Timestamp: 2019-04-21 03:04:13+00:00

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An interlocutory order issued by a district court sitting as a court of appeals in bankruptcy is appealable under the unambiguous language of 28 U.S.C. 1292. That section provides for review in the courts of appeals, in certain circumstances, of "[i]nterlocutory orders of the district courts," and does not limit such review to orders issued by district courts sitting as bankruptcy trial courts, rather than appellate courts. Title 28 U.S.C. 158(d) - which gives the courts of appeals jurisdiction over, inter alia, appeals from all final orders of district courts sitting as appellate courts in bankruptcy, but is silent as to review of interlocutory orders - does not limit the unadorned words of 1292 by negative implication. Contrary to Germain's contention, giving effect to 1292's companion provision, 1291 - which confers jurisdiction over appeals from "final decisions of the district courts" acting in any capacity - would not render 158(d) wholly superfluous. Although 1291 and 158(d) do overlap, 158(d) also confers jurisdiction over the final decisions of bankruptcy appellate panels, such that each section reaches cases that the other does not. Redundancies across statutes are not unusual events in drafting, and where, as here, there is no positive repugnancy between two laws, a court must give effect to both. Pp. 251-254.
926 F.2d 191 (CA2 1991), reversed and remanded.
THOMAS, J., delivered the opinion of the Court, in which REHNQUIST, C.J., and SCALIA, KENNEDY, and SOUTER, JJ., joined. STEVENS, J., filed [503 U.S. 249, 250] an opinion concurring in the judgment. O'CONNOR, J., filed an opinion concurring in the judgment, in which WHITE and BLACKMUN, JJ., joined.
In 1984, O'Sullivan's Fuel Oil Co., Inc., filed a bankruptcy petition in the United States Bankruptcy Court for the District of Connecticut. Although the case began as a reorganization under Chapter 11 of the Bankruptcy Code, in 1986, the Bankruptcy Court converted it into a liquidation under Chapter 7. Petitioner Connecticut National Bank (CNB) is successor in interest to one of O'Sullivan's creditors. Respondent Thomas M. Germain is trustee of O'Sullivan's estate.
On June 1, 1987, Germain sued CNB in Connecticut state court, seeking to hold the bank liable for various torts and breaches of contract. CNB removed the suit to the United States District Court for the District of Connecticut, which, pursuant to local rule, automatically referred the proceeding to the Bankruptcy Court overseeing the liquidation. Germain then filed a demand for a jury trial. CNB moved to strike Germain's demand. The Bankruptcy Court denied CNB's motion, In re O'Sullivan's Fuel Oil Co., 103 B.R. 388 (Conn. 1989), and the District Court affirmed, Germain v. Connecticut Nat. Bank, 112 B.R. 57 (Conn. 1990).
CNB then tried to appeal to the Court of Appeals for the Second Circuit, but the court dismissed for lack of jurisdiction. [503 U.S. 249, 251] 926 F.2d 191 (1991). The Second Circuit held that a court of appeals may exercise jurisdiction over interlocutory orders in bankruptcy only when a district court issues the order after having withdrawn a proceeding or case from a bankruptcy court, and not when the district court acts in its capacity as a bankruptcy court of appeals. We granted certiorari, 502 U.S. 905 (1991), and now reverse and remand.
Courts of appeals have jurisdiction over "[i]nterlocutory orders of the district courts of the United States" under 28 U.S.C. 1292. * CNB contends that 1292(b) applies by its terms in this case, and that the Second Circuit therefore could have exercised discretionary jurisdiction over its appeal. Germain argues that 1292 does not apply at all in this case, because Congress limited 1292 through 28 U.S.C. 158(d), [503 U.S. 249, 252] which deals with bankruptcy jurisdiction. CNB responds that nothing in 158(d) limits 1292. We agree with CNB.
"The courts of appeals shall have jurisdiction of appeals from all final decisions, judgments, orders, and decrees entered under subsections (a) and (b) of this sec tion.
Neither this subsection nor any other part of 158 mentions interlocutory orders entered by the district courts in bankruptcy. The parties agree, as they must, that 158 did not confer jurisdiction on the Court of Appeals.
Germain contends that the Court of Appeals did not have jurisdiction under 1292 either, for 158(d), in his view, precludes jurisdiction under 1292 by negative implication. Germain reasons as follows: although 28 U.S.C. 1291 and 1292 appear to cover the universe of decisions issued by the district courts - with 1291 conferring jurisdiction over appeals from final decisions of the district courts and 1292 conferring jurisdiction over certain interlocutory ones - that cannot, in fact, be so. If 1291 did cover all final decisions by a district court, he argues, that section would render 158(d) superfluous, since a final decision issued by a district court sitting as a bankruptcy appellate court is still a final decision of a district court. If 158(d) is to have effect, Germain contends, then that section must be exclusive within its own domain, [503 U.S. 249, 253] which he defines as the universe of orders issued by district courts sitting pursuant to 158(a) as courts of appeals in bankruptcy. When a district court enters an order in that capacity, Germain concludes, only 158(d) can confer jurisdiction, and if it does not, nothing else can. Germain claims to find support for his view in his reading of the legislative history of 158(d).
Contrary to Germain's contention, we need not choose between giving effect on the one hand to 1291 and on the other to 158(d), for the statutes do not pose an either-or proposition. Section 1291 confers jurisdiction over appeals from "final decisions of the district courts" acting in any capacity. Section 158(d), in contrast, confers jurisdiction over appeals from final decisions of the district courts when they act as bankruptcy appellate courts under 158(a), and also confers jurisdiction over final decisions of the appellate panels in bankruptcy acting under 158(b). Sections 1291 and 158(d) do overlap, therefore, but each section confers jurisdiction over cases that the other section does not reach.
Redundancies across statutes are not unusual events in drafting, and so long as there is no "positive repugnancy" between two laws, Wood v. United States, 16 Pet. 342, 363 (1842), a court must give effect to both. Because giving effect to both 1291 and 158(d) would not render one or the other wholly superfluous, we do not have to read 158(d) as precluding courts of appeals, by negative implication, from exercising jurisdiction under 1291 over district courts sitting in bankruptcy. We similarly do not have to read 158(d) as precluding jurisdiction under 1292. While courts should disfavor interpretations of statutes that render language superfluous, in this case, that canon does not apply.
In any event, canons of construction are no more than rules of thumb that help courts determine the meaning of legislation, and in interpreting a statute, a court should always turn first to one cardinal canon before all others. We have stated time and again that courts must presume that a [503 U.S. 249, 254] legislature says in a statute what it means and means in a statute what it says there. See, e.g., United States v. Ron Pair Enterprises, Inc., 489 U.S. 235, 241 -242 (1989); United States v. Goldenberg, 168 U.S. 95, 102 -103 (1897); Oneale v. Thornton, 6 Cranch 53, 68. When the words of a statute are unambiguous, then this first canon is also the last: "judicial inquiry is complete." Rubin v. United States, 449 U.S. 424, 430 (1981); see also Ron Pair Enterprises, supra, at 241.
Germain says that legislative history points to a different result. But we think that judicial inquiry into the applicability of 1292 begins and ends with what 1292 does say, and with what 158(d) does not. Section 1292 provides for review in the courts of appeals, in certain circumstances, of "[i]nterlocutory orders of the district courts of the United States." Section 158(d) is silent as to review of interlocutory orders. Nowhere does 1292 limit review to orders issued by district courts sitting as trial courts in bankruptcy, rather than appellate courts, and nowhere else, whether in 158(d) or any other statute, has Congress indicated that the unadorned words of 1292 are in some way limited by implication." It would be dangerous in the extreme to infer . . . that a case for which the words of an instrument expressly provide shall be exempted from its operation." Sturges v. Crowninshield, 4 Wheat. 122, 202 (1819); see also Regents of Univ. of Cal. v. Public Employment Relations Bd., 485 U.S. 589, 598 (1988). There is no reason to infer from either 1292 or 158(d) that Congress meant to limit appellate review of interlocutory orders in bankruptcy proceedings. So long as a party to a proceeding or case in bankruptcy meets the conditions imposed by 1292, a court of appeals may rely on that statute as a basis for jurisdiction.
The judgment of the Court of Appeals for the Second Circuit is reversed, and this case remanded for proceedings consistent with this opinion.
Whenever there is some uncertainty about the meaning of a statute, it is prudent to examine its legislative history. 1 In this case, such an examination is appropriate because petitioner's interpretation of 28 U.S.C. 158(d) creates an unusual overlap with 28 U.S.C. 1291.
Accordingly, notwithstanding the inferences drawn by the Court of Appeals, the legislative history is not only consistent [503 U.S. 249, 256] with petitioner's interpretation of the statute, but also actually supports it. For this reason, and because I agree with the Court's textual analysis, I concur in its judgment.
[ Footnote 1 ] See Wisconsin Public Intervenor v. Mortier, 501 U.S. 597, 611 , n. 4 (1991) ("[C]ommon sense suggests that inquiry benefits from reviewing additional information, rather than ignoring it"). As Judge Learned Hand advised, statutes "should be construed, not as theorems of Euclid, but with some imagination of the purposes which lie behind them." Lehigh Valley Coal Co. v. Yensavage, 218 F. 547, 553 (CA2 1914), cert. denied, 235 U.S. 705 (1915). Legislative history helps to illuminate those purposes.
[ Footnote 2 ] See American Hospital Assn. v. NLRB, 499 U.S. 613, 614 (1991); Edmonds v. Compagnie Generale Transatlantique, 443 U.S. 256, 266 -267 (1979); see also Harrison v. PPG Industries, Inc., 446 U.S. 578, 602 (1980) (REHNQUIST, J., dissenting) ("In a case where the construction of legislative language such as this makes so sweeping and so relatively unorthodox a change as that made here, I think judges, as well as detectives, may take into consideration the fact that a watchdog did not bark in the night"). Similarly, Justice Frankfurter's scholarly observation concerning the interpretation of a statutory text also applies to the analysis of legislative history: "One must . . . listen attentively to what it does not say." Frankfurter, Some Reflections on the Reading of Statutes, 47 Colum.L.Rev. 527, 536 (1947).

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