Parr v. Rodriguez
- Summarized by Steven Mulligan , Coan, Payton & Payne, LLC
- 7 years 9 months ago
- Case Type:
- Consumer
- Case Status:
- Affirmed
- Citation:
- 17-1258 (10th Circuit, May 22,2018) Not Published
- Tag(s):
-
- Ruling:
- In the bankruptcy context, a more stringent standing requirement than the case or controversy standing requirement of Article III is applied and only a person aggrieved by a bankruptcy court order may seek appellate review. Prerequisites for being a person aggrieved are attendance and objection at a bankruptcy court proceeding. For a debtor to be a person aggrieved, the estate must be solvent.
- Procedural context:
- The 10th Circuit BAP dismissed Debtor’s appeal of a sale order and Debtor appealed to the 10th Circuit which affirmed reviewing the BAP’s decision de novo.
- Facts:
- Debtor filed a pro se chapter 11 and at that time, operated a storage facility situated on certain real property (the “Property”) owned by the debtor’s trust. The chapter 11 was converted to a chapter 7 and the trustee revoked the trust and conveyed the trust’s assets, including the Property, to the bankruptcy estate. Debtor amended his schedules asserting ownership and claiming a homestead exemption in the Property. The trustee objected to the homestead exemption on the ground that the debtor conveyed ownership of the Property to the trust 14 years prior to the bankruptcy filing. While the exemption objection was pending, the trustee sought approval of the sale of the Property for $1.4 million. The debtor did not file an objection to the sale or request a hearing and the sale was approved. The debtor appealed the sale order to the BAP. Shortly thereafter, the bankruptcy court sustained the trustee’s objection to the homestead exemption after an evidentiary hearing. The trustee moved to dismiss the appeal arguing that the debtor lacked standing since he was not an aggrieved person. The debtor filed a response in which he challenged the order sustaining the homestead exemption but not the sale order. The BAP dismissed the appeal finding that since the debtor had not objected to the sale order or requested a hearing, he lacked standing. In a footnote, the 10th Circuit noted that the BAP reversed the order sustaining the exemption order holding that under Colorado law, a self-settlor trustee like debtor retains an ownership interest in the trust’s assets and remanded the matter for a determination of whether debtor occupied the Property as his homestead on the date of his bankruptcy petition. On remand, it was determined that the debtor occupied the Property on the petition date and was entitled to the $90,000 exemption.
- Judge(s):
- Bacharach, McKay, Baldock
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