Opinion ID: 771499
Heading Depth: 2
Heading Rank: 3

Heading: District Court Opinions

Text: 5 Smith appealed the bankruptcy court's preand postconversion rulings. On February 13, 1998, the district court entered an order denying Smith's November 12, 1996 appeal of the pre-conversion rulings. The district court ruled that it need not determine whether the Creditors' objections were timely. Because conversion requires a new creditors meeting to be held, the district court found that conversion started a new period for filing objections, and that the Creditors may object to any exemptions claimed preor post-conversion. Since Smith had converted his Chapter 11 bankruptcy to Chapter 7, the objections period had restarted, and the preconversion timeliness issue was ruled moot. Accordingly, the court deferred ruling on the merits of Smith's claimed exemption until it addressed the appeal from Smith's postconversion Chapter 7 action. Smith v. Kennedy , No. CV-968542 (C.D. Cal. Feb 13, 1998). 6 On September 8, 1998, the district court entered its opinion in the Chapter 7 action. The district court rejected Smith's argument that the October 27, 1995 Chapter 11 creditors meeting should not have been continued indefinitely, and that the thirty-day period within which the Creditors could object to Smith's exemptions ran from the date of that meeting. Instead, the court found that the trustee continued the meeting indefinitely, and that objections were appropriate until the meeting was finally concluded. The court then reaffirmed its February 13 holding that, because conversion renews the objection process, the subsequent objections were timely. Reaching the merits of the case, the court ruled that Bellwood did not qualify as a private retirement plan, and on that basis sustained the Creditors' objections to the plan. Smith v. Kennedy, No. CV-97-7173 (C.D. Cal. Sep. 3, 1998). Smith filed a timely appeal.