Court Opinion

ID: 9700977
Source: CourtListenerOpinion
Date Created: 2023-08-25 21:56:23.266634+00
Date Added: 2024-06-11T18:21:16.873226
License: Public Domain

VOTOLATO, Bankruptcy Judge,
dissenting.
In this case I do not think the merits should have been considered.
The creditors’ committee appealed an order of the Bankruptcy Court amending its *122Order Confirming Sale, which granted in part and denied in part the Appellant’s earlier Motion for Reconsideration.1 I believe that such orders, and this one in particular, are interlocutory.
However, accepting arguendo the majority’s conclusion that since the order confirming sale and the order on reconsideration are so interrelated that they must be treated as one, I still cannot agree that this appeal is from a final order. In order to constitute a final judgment, and one which is reviewable by this Court, the order appealed from must be one
which disposes of the whole subject, gives all the relief that was contemplated, provides with reasonable completeness, for giving effect to the judgment and leaves nothing to be done in the cause save to superintend, ministerially, the execution of the decree.
City of Louisa v. Levi, 140 F.2d 512, 514 (6th Cir. 1944).
Notwithstanding the majority view and the authorities cited by it,2 not every order of sale is final. Certainly, a sale which in fact completely determines a party’s rights, and leaves no room for relief, is final. The order in question, however, does not “dispose of the whole subject and give all the relief that was contemplated.” City of Louisa, 140 F.2d at 514. The refusal of the Bankruptcy Court to include the modifications urged by the Appellant left the ag«grieved parties fully at liberty to litigate their respective rights to the proceeds after the sale.3
The majority says that the order appealed from is final because the relief sought is “a determination of [the Committee’s] rights and liabilities in the assets before the sale took place.” I cannot agree with that conclusion for two reasons: In the first place, I see the characterizátion of the order as a determination of rights and liabilities before the sale, as indulgence in semantics. Of course, any adverse order or decision has some element of finality which will dispose of some part of the aggrieved party’s rights.4 The point ignored by the majority is that a reviewable order is one that disposes of the whole subject, once and for all. In this case, the majority reasons that because certain peripheral rights of the Appellant were not determined prior to a sale of the assets, then the order appealed from must be final. By following that logic to its ultimate conclusion, ail orders would be final, and the concept of nonappealability of intérlocutory orders would be completely frustrated.
Secondly, the majority concludes that the bankruptcy judge was correct in leaving the proceeds of the sale for later disposition in accordance with any rights asserted. If indeed the Bankruptcy Court must still determine who is entitled to the proceeds which are now substituted for the property in question, the order appealed from, by definition, has not “disposed of the whole subject ... leaving nothing to be done in the cause save to superintend, ministerially, the execution of the decree.” City of Louisa, 140 F.2d at 514. It seems to me that the majority’s ruling as to finality, and its con-*123elusion on the merits are necessarily inconsistent.
In the past this panel has stated its “general policy of discouraging interlocutory appeals and allowing such appeals only where exceptional circumstances exist.” Casco Bay Lines, Inc. v. Public Utilities Commission (In re Casco Bay Lines, Inc.), 8 B.R. 784 (Bkrtcy.App. Panel 1st Cir. 1981). The Appellant has not alleged or demonstrated any exceptional circumstances.
For these reasons I dissent on the issue of finality, in order to emphasize the importance of and to preserve the integrity of the interlocutory rule.

. Although the Appellant did not file a motion for leave to appeal, the Bankruptcy Appellate Panel may treat a notice of appeal as a timely and proper application for leave to appeal. Interim Bankruptcy Rule 8004(d).

. I think it is important to note that the authorities cited by the majority holding that orders confirming sales are final, are based upon Supreme Court cases decided in the Nineteenth Century. In light of the dramatic caseload increase now being experienced by all courts nearly 100 years later, these precedents should be re-examined to determine their relevance or applicability today.

. In this case, there was no dispute as to whether the property should be sold. “There was no stay of the order for sale. The sale has gone forward and the Creditor’s Committee does not seek to undo it.” (Majority Opinion at p. 120). Rather, the modifications urged by Appellant concern rights and liabilities which may be litigated at any time.

. For example, an order denying a motion to dismiss most certainly disposes of the movant’s right to have that question decided at that time; nevertheless, such orders are clearly interlocutory. 1 Collier on Bankruptcy ¶ 3.03 (15th ed.) 3 299.