Friday, January 18, 2008

bankruptcy - appeals - final order

In re Truong - 3rd Circuit - January 16, 23008

http://www.ca3.uscourts.gov/opinarch/063980p.pdf

An order which "merely denied [a] request for a hearing concerning an alleged conflict of interest on the part of the trustee" is not final and appealable under 28 USC 158(a). It was a "purely interlocutory order" and did not "end the litigation on the merits" or "dispose of any discrete claim or cause of action." .

The court reached this decision, even though there are finality considerations unique to bankruptcy appeals, in which the courts "traditionally impose a 'relaxed standard of finality.' " A "general antipathy toward appeals still prevails in individual adversary actions...[E]ven in bankruptcy appeals the concept of finality is not open-ended."