Cabot v. Bakst (In re Cabot)

Summarized by Lynn Hinson , Dean Mead Egerton Bloodworth Capouano & Bozarth PA
12 years 4 months ago

Citation:

11th Circuit Court of Appeals Case Number 12-16241 (will not be published)

Tag(s):

Ruling:

The Court affirmed the District Court's dismissal of an appeal as moot.

Procedural context:

The bankruptcy court held a hearing on the bankruptcy trustee's request for an award of fees and costs. The Appellant, a creditor, knew of the hearing but failed to raise any substantive objections to the fee request. Following the hearing, the bankruptcy court entered an order approving the trustee's request. The trustee subsequently served the creditor with a final fee report, and for the first time the creditor raised substantive objections to the request for fees and costs. The bankruptcy court treated the creditor's objections as a Rule 59(e) motion to amend the order that approved the fee request. The court rejected the motion to amend on the basis that it was not timely filed following the entry of the original order awarding the fee request. The court also construed the objections as a Rule 60(b) motion for relief from a final order. The motion was denied on the basis that Rule 60(b) cannot be converted into a substitute mechanism for filing objections or timely appeals. The creditor filed an appeal of the bankruptcy court's order on the Rule 60(b) issue. The district court sua sponte dismissed the appeal because the creditor failed to file a brief. Following the dismissal of the appeal, the creditor filed his brief and a motion for reconsideration. The district court denied the motion, and the creditor filed an appeal. The 11th Circuit affirmed the district court's order. The creditor then filed an appeal from the bankruptcy court's order striking issues from the first appeal. The trustee filed a motion to dismiss the second appeal as moot, and the district court granted the motion. The 11th Circuit affirmed the order, finding that the district court correctly concluded that it could not provide effective judicial relief by correcting any error alleged in the second appeal.

Facts:

The case was decided solely on procedural issues.

Judge(s):

Circuit Judges Dubina, Wilson and Martin

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