Opinion ID: 1451642
Heading Depth: 1
Heading Rank: 7

Heading: The district court acted without error in looking to the bankruptcy court orders when dismissing the Complaint.

Text: When reviewing a motion to dismiss, a district court may not consider matters beyond the complaint. Kostrzewa v. City of Troy, 247 F.3d 633, 643 (6th Cir.2001) (citing 2 James Wm. Moore et al., Moore's Federal Practice § 12.34[2] (3d ed.2000)). If the district court considers evidence outside the complaint, it effectively converts the motion to dismiss to a motion for summary judgment. Id. (citing Fed.R.Civ.P. 12(b)(6)); see also Carter v. Stanton, 405 U.S. 669, 671, 92 S.Ct. 1232, 31 L.Ed.2d 569 (1972). The district court must then give the parties a `reasonable opportunity to present all material made pertinent to such a motion by Rule 56.' Id. (citing Fed.R.Civ.P. 12(b)(6)). Other circuits have held, however, that the district court may look to certain documents outside the complaint and such action does not result in a conversion of the motion to dismiss to a motion for summary judgment. The Third Circuit, in Southern Cross Overseas Agencies, Inc. v. Wah Kwong Shipping Group Ltd., 181 F.3d 410, 426 (3d Cir.1999), wrote, To resolve a 12(b)(6) motion, a court may properly look at public records, including judicial proceedings, in addition to the allegations in the complaint. (citing numerous Third Circuit opinions for this proposition). Specifically, on a motion to dismiss, we may take judicial notice of another court's opinion not for the truth of the facts recited therein, but for the existence of the opinion, which is not subject to reasonable dispute over its authenticity. Id. Here, Winget argues that the district court improperly took judicial notice of facts in the bankruptcy court documents in dismissing the Complaint. Examining the Dismissal Order, it appears that the court looked to two bankruptcy court documents: the Sale Order and Winget's own objections to the Sale Order, which were eventually resolved. Although the district court quotes a paragraph from Winget's objection to the Sale Order, the district court did so not in a way that took judicial notice of the facts in the paragraph, but rather in a way that took notice that Winget made an objection to the Sale Order based largely on the same claims in the Complaint, and then later withdrew that objection. The district court also points to the Sale Order only to say that it was a final order for res judicata purposes. In neither case did the district court act improperly or accord the bankruptcy court documents undue weight. Accordingly, the district court did not err in looking to the bankruptcy court documents when examining the Complaint.