Court Opinion

ID: 9481702
Source: CourtListenerOpinion
Date Created: 2023-08-05 08:28:55.489469+00
Date Added: 2024-06-11T17:48:31.272506
License: Public Domain

CUDAHY, Circuit Judge,
concurring.
I agree that under the particular circumstances of this case (pending when Chapter 12 was enacted) there cannot be “cause” in accordance with section 349(b) for refusing to reinstate avoided preferences. Some language in the majority opinion might lead *922one to conclude that there could never be such “cause” if the result were to preserve an avoidance in the transition from a Chapter 13 case to a Chapter 12 case. But it is not clear to me that the policy of section 302(c)(1) of Public Law 99-554 should be regarded as so unyielding as to render the exception to section 349(b) a dead letter under all circumstances. I have in mind circumstances where the interests of unsecured creditors other than the subject of the avoided transfer are implicated. The majority opinion suggests the possibility of equitable considerations in these circumstances. Of course, such considerations exist, and we should be understood to be acting today only with respect to the specific facts before us. Section 302(c)(1) of Public Law 99-554 as construed in Sinclair certainly precludes conversion directly or indirectly from Chapter 13 cases pending before the enactment of Chapter 12 to Chapter 12. But if such “conversion” occurs without objection, as here, in face of the prohibition, the “cause” mentioned in section 349(b) need not always be conclusively foreclosed if the interests of other creditors are involved. In this respect, the legislative history of section 302(c)(1) apparently contains no reference to section 349(b) or the subject that it addresses. The above considerations apparently become more relevant if and when debtors seek dismissal of post-enactment Chapter 13 cases, a circumstance to which section 302(c)(1) is not directed.