Bankruptcy

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7^th Circuit Court of Appeals

Case Name: In Re: Robert Sobczak-Slomczewski

Case No.: 15-1162

Officials: RIPPLE, ROVNER, and WILLIAMS, Circuit Judges.

Focus: Bankruptcy

District court did not err in dismissing appellant appeal for lack of jurisdiction where appellant failed to file notice of appeal within prescribed 14 day period as a required.

“The district court agreed with WDH that the appeal was untimely, granted the motion to dismiss, and concluded that Rule 8002(a)’s 14‐day deadline was jurisdictional. The court acknowledged that not all notice‐of‐appeal deadlines should be “unquestioningly accept[ed]” as jurisdictional, especially in light of recent Supreme Court cases that sought to distinguish genuinely jurisdictional deadlines from those that do not actually strip a court of jurisdiction, and rather are merely claim‐processing rules. See Bowles v. Russell, 551 U.S. 205, 208– 13 (2007); Kontrick v. Ryan, 540 U.S. 443, 452–53, 456 (2004). Observing that deadlines set by statute generally are jurisdictional and those set by court‐authored rules are not, the court accepted the analysis of three other circuits that recently characterized Rule 8002(a)’s 14‐day deadline as jurisdictional because it is rooted in a statute, 28 U.S.C. § 158(c)(2), see In re Berman‐Smith, 737 F.3d 997, 1002–03 (5th Cir. 2013); In re Caterbone, 640 F.3d 108, 111–12, 113 n.5 (3d Cir. 2011); In re Latture, 605 F.3d 830, 836–37 (10th Cir. 2010). In response to Sobsczak‐Slomczewski’s assertion that he did not receive notice of the bankruptcy court’s order until the day of the deadline, August 19, the court explained that there are no equitable exceptions to a mandatory jurisdictional rule, and the bankruptcy court had not granted any extension of the time to appeal.”

Affirmed

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