Court Opinion

ID: 9445619
Source: CourtListenerOpinion
Date Created: 2023-08-03 21:34:28.149552+00
Date Added: 2024-06-11T17:30:21.014355
License: Public Domain

SIMPSON, District Judge
(dissenting).
With all deference, I dissent with respect to the jurisdictional question involved in this case, that is, the interpretation placed by the majority upon 28 U.S.C.A. Sec. 2283. As I read the decision, it is authority for federal courts to assume jurisdiction of all litigation affecting any property that has ever been sold in a bankruptcy proceeding, long after the close of such proceedings. The welcome mat is thus spread, requiring the district courts to entertain much vexatious litigation that should go elsewhere.
The mere confirmation of a trustee’s sale of assets (a caveat emptor sale) is in no sense a judicial determination respecting the title conveyed, or the property covered.1 Here by state court re-plevin action against a subsequent purchaser claiming under the bankruptcy sale purchaser, the right of the trustee to sell certain property was questioned, and the title to the property was sought to be litigated for the first time. In the absence of clear legislative authority to interfere by injunctive decree with such state court proceedings, this court should not approve such interference. No reason exists for bankruptcy proceedings to be so sacrosanct. I am not convinced that the Congress, by its enactment of the last clause of Sec. 2283, has granted the power to hold them so. I would reverse, with directions to dismiss the complaint.

. The statement in the majority opinion: “On November 5th the trustee conveyed the plant to the appellee by a Deed and Bill of Sale which expressly covered the blow pipe system” lacks accuracy. The language of the Bill of Sale was “ * * personal property located thereon, in-eluding but not limited to the following: * * *: blower system consisting of 55-inch blower fan with a 10-horsepow-er electric motor; * * * The description in the retention title contract of the property claimed by the appellant is entirely dissimilar. The property may or may not be the same, This is, of course, a question of fact, going to the merits, which I shall not pursue. It is, however, illustrative of the factual questions the appellant has never had an opportunity to raise and litigate, and is now permanently enjoined from litigating.