Court Opinion

ID: 9491438
Source: CourtListenerOpinion
Date Created: 2023-08-05 14:14:16.430282+00
Date Added: 2024-06-11T17:54:44.688042
License: Public Domain

CYNTHIA HOLCOMB HALL, Circuit Judge,
concurring in part and dissenting in part, and concurring in the judgment.
I concur in the majority opinion, though I write separately to express my disagreement with the majority on the issue of Congressional intent. The majority concludes that Congress clearly intended the extraterritorial application of the Bankruptcy Code as it applies to the property of the estate. The majority bases this conclusion on a single vague specification in 11 U.S.C. § 541(a) that the estate is comprised of the debtor’s legal or equitable interests in property “wherever located and by whomever held.” While this language may plausibly apply to property located within foreign jurisdictions, we do not simply apply statutes extraterritorially if it is plausible or even desirable to do so. We must “assume that Congress legislates against the backdrop of the presumption against extraterritoriality.” E.E.O.C. v. Arabian-American Oil Co., 499 U.S. 244, 248, 111 S.Ct. 1227, 113 L.Ed.2d 274 (1991). As the Supreme Court has pointed out, “[i]f we were to permit possible, or even plausible, interpretations of language such as that involved here to override the presumption against extraterritorial application, there *1000would be little left of the presumption.” Id. at 253, 111 S.Ct. 1227.
However, I concur in the judgment because I do not believe that extraterritoriality is implicated in this case. As the majority itself points out: “[t]he court’s exercise of ‘custody’ over the debtor’s property, via its exercise of in rem jurisdiction, essentially creates a fiction that the property — regardless of actual location — is legally located within the jurisdictional boundaries of the district in which the court sits.” The majority further recognizes that this “legal fiction” applies even to property located outside the territorial jurisdiction of the United States. While the majority collapses its discussion of this “legal fiction” into its discussion of Congressional intent, these are in fact two wholly independent bases for the district court’s exercise of power.
Congressional intent may be less than clear, but it is clear that bankruptcy estate property is located within the bankruptcy court’s jurisdiction. See Katchen v. Landy, 382 U.S. 323, 327, 86 S.Ct. 467, 15 L.Ed.2d 391 (1966); Commodity Futures Trading Comm’n v. Co Petro Marketing Group, Inc., 700 F.2d 1279, 1282 (9th Cir.1983). I concur in the judgment for this reason.