Anderson v. Seven Falls Co.
- Summarized by Steven Mulligan , Coan, Payton & Payne, LLC
- 9 years 1 week ago
- Citation:
- Anderson v. Seven Falls Co., Case No. 14-1515 (10th Cir. December 31, 2015). Unpublished.
- Tag(s):
-
- Ruling:
- A chapter 7 trustee’s recovery in an estate's personal injury lawsuit is limited to the amount needed to satisfy creditors’ claims and trustee’s fees and expenses. Determination of the trustee’s fees and expenses may not be merely a collateral issue to the court’s judgment on the merits and if not merely collateral, then the judgment is not final for purposes of appellate jurisdiction.
- Procedural context:
- The 10th Circuit determined that it did not have jurisdiction to hear the trustee’s appeal of the district court’s summary judgment order. The 10th Circuit found that since the amount of the trustee’s fees and expenses were not quantified, the extent of appellee’s liability could not be determined and since those fees and expenses were not incurred solely because of a personal injury lawsuit, determination of such is not merely collateral to the entry of judgment and thus, the judgment was not final for purposes of appeal.
- Facts:
- Prepetition, debtor was injured at a Colorado nature park operated by the appellee. Debtor filed a notice of claim with appellee’s insurance carrier and demanded recovery of her damages. A month later, debtor filed chapter 7 but failed to disclose the personal injury claims in her schedules. Debtor sued appellee in district court and several months later, informed the chapter 7 trustee who was added as a party. Appellee moved for summary judgment arguing that debtor and the trustee were judicially estopped from bringing the claims since they weren’t disclosed in debtor’s bankruptcy schedules. The district court agreed as to the debtor but not as to the trustee but held that the appellee’s liability to the trustee was limited to covering creditors’ claims and the trustee’s fees and expenses. Appellee deposited an amount sufficient to pay debtor’s creditors into the registry of the court pursuant to FRCP 67 seeking to forgo trial and resolve the personal injury action by paying debtor’s creditors in full. The amount, however, didn’t include any amounts to cover the trustee’s fees and expenses which amount remained to be determined.
- Judge(s):
- Briscoe, Lucero, McHugh
ABI Membership is required to access the full summary. Please Sign In using your ABI Member credentials. Not a Member yet? Join ABI now - it is absolutely worth it!
