Opinion ID: 3023740
Heading Depth: 3
Heading Rank: 1

Heading: Appeal from the June 20, 2000 Order

Text: As to the June 20, 2000 order, the Trustee contends that our Court has no jurisdiction over the appeal from it, as Federal Rule of Bankruptcy Procedure 8002(a) provides, inter alia, that a “notice of appeal shall be filed . . . within 10 days of the date of the entry of the . . . order . . . appealed from.” As Friedman did not file an appeal of the June 2000 order until nearly two years later, it is barred. Friedman replies that he was not 8 bound by the jurisdictional 10-day appeal requirement of Bankruptcy Rule 8002(a) because the June 2000 order of Judge Ferguson was merely interlocutory, as the Court did not address Friedman’s counterclaim. The order entered in June 2000 was in response to a motion for partial summary judgment of the Trustee seeking, inter alia, disgorgement of the settlement proceeds Friedman was holding. The Bankruptcy Court’s order reflected its judgment that the Allstate settlement was void. Because the settlement was void, disgorgement of Friedman’s fees was simply an attempt to restore the status quo prior to the settlement being implemented. That included the give-back by Friedman of the monies he held. Not timely appealing this order, once it became final after Friedman’s motion for reconsideration was denied, arguably was fatal to challenging Judge Ferguson’s disgorgement decision (which, to repeat, had only a three-day window to comply). But even if the Bankruptcy Court’s order was interlocutory (and thus not appealable, absent an exception, until it became final), it would make no difference to the ultimate outcome. Friedman argues preliminarily that the Bankruptcy Court’s order that he return the $26,000 in attorney’s fees to Allstate was a grant of summary judgment sua sponte in favor of Allstate. The Bankruptcy Court, of course, did not grant summary judgment in favor of Allstate, as all Allstate had before the Court was an inchoate crossclaim for indemnification if it were to be found liable for anything that would even trigger a right to indemnification (and that never occurred). Rather, it appears that the disgorgement of fees back to Allstate was part of the Bankruptcy Court’s judgment that 9 the Allstate settlement was void. The entire $85,000 had to be returned to Allstate, as a matter of logic, to restore the status quo ante. This includes, of course, the monies Friedman held. In this context, Friedman’s procedural argument as to the improvident grant of summary judgment fails, and we affirm (to the extent we have jurisdiction) the District Court’s affirmance of the Bankruptcy Court’s June 20, 2000 order.