Court Opinion

ID: 9694130
Source: CourtListenerOpinion
Date Created: 2023-08-25 17:25:33.965918+00
Date Added: 2024-06-11T18:19:56.814061
License: Public Domain

VOTOLATO, U.S. Bankruptcy Appellate Panel Judge
(dissenting in part and concurring in part).
I write separately to voice my disagreement with the action of the Majority (and the bankruptcy judge in the case), to review a District Court order, as a part of this appeal. The Majority’s broad statement that appellate courts can review earlier nonfinal decisions, while true, simply does not apply to the facts of this case.
Bankruptcy Appellate Panel (BAP) jurisdiction is derived from 28 U.S.C. § 158 which provides:
(a) The district courts of the United States shall have jurisdiction to hear appeals (1) from final judgments, orders, and decrees; (2) from interlocutory orders and decrees issued under section 1121(d) of title 11 increasing or reducing the time periods referred to in section 1121 of such title; and (3) with leave of the court, from other interlocutory orders and decrees;
and, with leave of the court, from interlocutory orders and decrees, of bankruptcy judges entered in cases and proceedings referred to the bankruptcy judges under section 157 of this title. An appeal under this subsection shall be taken only to the district court for the judicial district in which the bankruptcy judge is serving.
(b)(1) The judicial council of a circuit shall establish a bankruptcy appellate panel service9 composed of bankruptcy judges of the districts in the circuit who are appointed by the judicial council in accordance with paragraph (3), to hear and determine, with the consent of all the parties, appeals under subsection (a)----
*55928 U.S.C.A. § 158 (emphasis added). A bankruptcy appellate panel is duty-bound to determine its jurisdiction before proceeding to the merits, even if not raised by the litigants. See In re George E. Bum-pus, Jr. Constr. Co., 226 B.R. 724 (1st Cir. BAP 1998). I feel strongly that neither this appellate court, i.e., the BAP, nor the bankruptcy judge in the case below have authority to review orders of the District Court, whether they are interlocutory or final, and that regardless of the circumstances, this Panel may not exercise jurisdiction where none existed in the first place. See Brandt v. Wand Partners, 242 F.3d 6 (1st Cir.2001). In Brandt, the trustee filed a complaint against various defendants, including several counts alleging fraudulent conveyances. Id. at 11. Some of the defendants claimed jury trials, and prior to withdrawal of the reference by the district court to conduct the jury trials, the bankruptcy judge dismissed the trustee’s fraudulent transfer claims. Id. There was no motion for reconsideration or to appeal this interlocutory order. After losing the jury trial issues in the district court on his remaining claims, the trustee filed a notice of appeal to the First Circuit Court of Appeals and attempted to include within the appeal, the bankruptcy court’s dismissal of the fraudulent transfer claims. Id. The First Circuit concluded that it lacked jurisdiction to hear the appeal of the bankruptcy court’s interlocutory orders dismissing the fraudulent conveyance claims, stating:
[O]ur inability to address the merits does not rest on an equitable objection. Rather, it rests on the simple fact that our authority is to review judgments of the district court, and Brandt never secured a district court judgment on the fraudulent transfer claims nor is it apparent how he could do so now.

Id.

Under exactly the same reasoning, this Panel only has jurisdiction to review orders, decisions, and decrees of a bankruptcy judge. See 28 U.S.C. §§ 158(a) & (b)(4). Quite simply, and with no ambiguity, the December 16, 2002, District Court order granting the plaintiffs motion for partial summary judgment is not something we have the power to review. That the bankruptcy judge “affirmed the district court” does nothing to cure the jurisdictional void, and the Majority has said nothing to distinguish or distance this case from Brandt, which I believe is very instructive, and in fact, controlling.
The Majority disposed of the jurisdictional issue apparently on equitable or cure the anomaly grounds, which are addressed below. To begin with, the bankruptcy court’s only authority to hear the subject adversary proceeding came from the District Court’s discreet order of reference, and even if the District Court intended 10 to confer or assign to the bankruptcy court the authority to review its interlocutory order on liability, and even if said intent were made abundantly clear in the order of reference, which it did not do, the District Court’s authority to delegate jurisdiction in such a fashion is most problematic.
In concluding that it, too, has jurisdiction to review said order, the Majority states:
We are mindful of the unusual situation created by the current state of facts. *560We recognize, however, the serious issues presented if we do not have jurisdiction. The Appellant could end up in an anomalous position such as existed in Brandt v. Wand Partners, supra, or be forced to seek an immediate appeal from the district court, or ask the bankruptcy court to make proposed findings and ruling and forward the same to the district court for a final order. We do not believe any of these alternatives present a realistic alternative for an appellant.
Majority Opinion, at 548-49 (footnote omitted).
I question the authority to treat the problems pointed out by the Majority as a basis for inventing jurisdiction in the Appellant’s behalf. To begin with the “unusual and anomalous position” in which the Appellant finds itself was created by none other than the Appellant, when it failed to seek an immediate appeal from the District Court, or ask the bankruptcy court for proposed findings and conclusions “and forward[ing] the same to the district court for a final order.” See Majority Opinion, at 549. That the Majority “do[es] not believe any of these alternatives present a realistic alternative for an appellant” is irrelevant, as the BAP is not in the business of providing realistic alternatives to litigants faced with unusual situations.
The anomalous position or unusual situation which troubles the Majority to the point that compels it to exercise jurisdiction, I believe, is mischaracterized. The real anomaly here is the thought of a bankruptcy judge or BAP judges sitting in review of a district judge’s rulings. The path taken by the Majority goes way beyond our job description as bankruptcy judges or as BAP judges and runs afoul of deeply rooted Congressional mandates going far back in bankruptcy history, as reiterated in the 1978, 1984, and 2005 Amendments. The statutory limitations are clear, and no amount of attempted problem solving can change that.
Finally, taking the anomalous position example a step further, and imagine that this appeal went to the District Court rather than to the BAP. Is it reasonable to envision a district judge ruling upon matters previously decided by a District Court colleague who presides just down the hall? I think not.
For the reasons discussed above, I would accept the District Court’s order as the law of the case and reverse in its entirety the bankruptcy judge’s review and approval of the District Court order, and for purposes of this appeal would only review the bankruptcy judge’s rulings on damages. Because I agree with the Majority’s analysis of the bankruptcy judge’s calculation of damages (Part VI of its Opinion), I join the Majority in affirming that part of the bankruptcy judge’s order.

. The First Circuit Judicial Council established the First Circuit Bankruptcy Appellate Panel Service on June 13, 1996.

. On the same day it referred this case to the bankruptcy court, the district court denied Rivera's pending motion for reconsideration of the December 16th order. To the extent that it might be relevant, this is indicative of the district court's intent, i.e., that it intended that the bankruptcy court deal only with quantifying Rivera's liability under its December order, and by no stretch should it be inferred that the district court intended to authorize the bankruptcy court to review its summary judgment ruling on the merits.