Opinion ID: 774669
Heading Depth: 3
Heading Rank: 1

Heading: Case numbers 99-1344, 99-1416, 99-1468, and 99-1456

Text: 18 The Trustee alleges that all of the appellants in cases numbered 99-1344 and 99-1416 opted out of the settlement and have pressed forward with their defenses before the district court. Case numbers 99-1344 and 99-1416 were brought by the Unofficial Committee and a number of individual defendants represented by attorney Bader whom the Unofficial Committee claims as members. The Trustee filed a motion with this court to dismiss 99-1416, arguing that the appellants in that case had opted out of the settlement and thus lacked standing to bring an appeal objecting to the settlement. The trustee also asserts that no final judgment existed as to those appellants. The Trustee repeated these arguments in its answer brief to the court with respect to case number 99-1344. 19 A few of the individual litigants involved in these cases have clearly opted out of the settlement. 9 The record is less clear with respect to the majority of those whom Bader claims as members of the Unofficial Committee. Bader filed notice of appeal to the settlement on September 15, 1999. Rodney J. Axtell, a member of the Unofficial Committee, and fifty-seven other Appellants, filed a motion the following day purporting to exclude themselves from the class and objecting to the requirement that they opt-out because of the pendency of their appeal. The record, however, does not show whether the remaining members of the Unofficial Committee formally opted out or whether judgments were entered against them pursuant to the settlement. The Unofficial Committee is listed as a party in case number 99-1546. Our analysis of the Unofficial Committee members' standing thus extends to these cases as well. 20