Opinion ID: 176367
Heading Depth: 3
Heading Rank: 1

Heading: Allied's Standing to Challenge the Proposed Assignment

Text: The Trust begins with a curious argument about standing, claiming that Allied lacked standing to challenge the trustee's proposed assumption and assignment of the contracts at issue in this appeal. This argument makes little sense. Article III's standing requirements apply to proceedings in bankruptcy courts just as they do to proceedings in district courts. In re FedPak Sys., Inc., 80 F.3d 207, 213 (7th Cir.1996). However, [b]ankruptcy standing is narrower than Article III standing. In re Cult Awareness Network, Inc., 151 F.3d 605, 607 (7th Cir.1998). Standing to object to a proposed bankruptcy order requires that the objector have a pecuniary interest in the outcome of the bankruptcy proceedings. Id. Although Allied did not have any ownership interest in the landfills in the 1990s when the RTC gas-to-energy contracts were signed, by the time of the bankruptcy, it was the owner by succession and was identified by the trustee as RTC's contract partner in three of the agreements. (Peoria owns the landfill involved in the fourth.) Although the Investment Trust now contends that Allied did not prove in the bankruptcy court that it owns the landfills in question, everyone proceeded on that understanding, and the Trust itself referred to Allied as the owner in several of its bankruptcy-court filings. There is absolutely nothing in the record to suggest that Allied is not the owner of the landfills. Tellingly, although it had every incentive to do so, the Investment Trust has never identified who (if not Allied) actually does own the landfills and therefore is a party to the agreements sought to be assumed and assigned. Quite obviously, there would be no reason for Allied to object to the assignments if it had no ownership interest in the landfills. We reject the Investment Trust's challenge to Allied's standing.