Court Opinion

ID: 9626662
Source: CourtListenerOpinion
Date Created: 2023-08-22 08:20:42.626787+00
Date Added: 2024-06-11T18:06:31.800450
License: Public Domain

OPALA, C.J., and SIMMS, J.,
dissent.
ORDER
The petition for rehearing of plaintiffs/appellees is granted for the limited purpose of modifying the Court’s opinion promulgated on July 2, 1991 in the following particulars: *
1. By changing the language between footnote numbers 24 and 25 in the body of the opinion found on page 14 of the opinion to read as follows: when, as here, the underlying proceeding at its inception was one against the debtor.
2. By deleting from footnote 25 of the opinion found on page 14 of the opinion the case citation of: In re: Critical Fork Coal Corp., 18 Bankr. 422 (W.D.Va.1982).
3. By deleting the semi-colon after the word supra in footnote 25 and replacing the semi-colon with a period.
4. By adding the following to the end of footnote 25: In Association of St. Croix Condominium Owners the court said in regard to appeals where the proceedings were originally brought against the debtor:
In our view, section 362 should be read to stay all appeals in proceedings that were originally brought against the debtor, regardless of whether the debtor is the appellant or appellee. Thus, whether a case is subject to the automatic stay must be determined at its inception. That determination should not change depending on the particular stage of the litigation at which the filing of the petition in bankruptcy occurs, (emphasis in original)
Id. at 449. In the present case the underlying proceeding was originally brought against Morrison, the debtor, and in our view the effectiveness of the stay should not change merely because he is the one who filed pleadings to vacate the default judgment and appealed from denial of its *677vacation. For all practical purposes Morrison was in a defensive posture when this case was brought and at all other pertinent stages of the litigation. We need not and do not decide in this case the applicability of the stay provision where the underlying proceeding was brought by the debtor.
5. The word, bared, found in the fourth line from the bottom of footnote 33 on page 16 of the opinion is changed to read, barred.
In all other respects the petition for rehearing is denied.
HODGES, V.C.J., and LAVENDER, HARGRAVE, ALMA WILSON, KAUGER and SUMMERS, JJ., concur.
OPALA, C.J., and SIMMS, J., concur in part and dissent in part.

 Editor's note: These changes were incorporated in the text of the opinion.