ABI Journal: The Finality Countdown: Supreme Court Unlikely to Adopt a "Blanket Rule" for Orders Denying Stay Relief in Jackson Masonry
This fall, bankruptcy practitioners will have the rare excitement of the U.S. Supreme Court hearing oral argument on a bankruptcy issue. In Ritzen Group Inc. v. Jackson Masonry LLC, the Court will determine whether a particular bankruptcy court order that denied a stay relief motion is a final, immediately appealable order under 28 U.S.C. § 158 (a)(1). However, more importantly, the Court is also likely to resolve a circuit split over whether all orders denying stay relief are final, immediately appealable orders.
This article sets forth the logic for the so-called “blanket rule” of finality, as espoused by multiple circuit courts of appeals, including most recently by the Sixth Circuit in the decision on appeal. Next, the case will be made for why the Supreme Court is unlikely to adopt the blanket rule, especially in light of its recent opinion in Bullard v. Blue Hills Bank.
Reprinted with permission from the ABI Journal, October 2019.
The American Bankruptcy Institute is a multi-disciplinary, non-partisan organization devoted to bankruptcy issues. ABI has more than 12,000 members, representing all facets of the insolvency field. For more information, visit abi.org.
