Supreme Court Rules that ‘Unreservedly’ Denying a Lift-Stay Motion Is Appealable
Building on Bullard, the US Supreme Court on 011420 ruled unanimously that a lift-stay motion is a “procedural unit” that’s appealable if the bankruptcy court “conclusively” denies the motion.
Note: Where a bankruptcy court order is “final”, the party complaining about the order must file a Notice of Appeal within 14 days after the order is entered by the Bankruptcy Court, and loses the right to appeal a final order if the party complaining about the order FAILS to file a Notice of appeal within 14 days after the order is entered in the Bankruptcy Court docket.
The Supreme Court ruled unanimously today in Ritzen v. Jackson Machinery that an order denying a motion to modify the automatic stay is a final, appealable order “when the bankruptcy court unreservedly grants or denies relief.”
In her unanimous opinion for the Court, Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg said that a lift-stay motion is a “procedural unit” separate from the remainder of the bankruptcy case, even though the decision to retain the stay may be “potentially pertinent to other disputes.”
The decision in Ritzen may contain a trap for creditors: A bankruptcy court could deny a creditor the right to appeal, perhaps for an extended time, by denying a lift-stay motion without prejudice or offering to reexamine the result in light of subsequent events.