Summary:
Chris Miller, appearing pro se, appealed a ruling from the bankruptcy court but failed to file a designation of items from the bankruptcy docket for inclusion on the appellate record. After explicitly providing Mr. Miller 30 additional days to file the designation the court held that before dismissing an appeal pursuant to Rule 8003(a)(2), least one of the following steps must be taken:
(1) make a finding of bad faith or negligence;
(2) give the appellant notice and an opportunity to explain the delay;
(3) consider whether the delay had any possible prejudicial effect on the other parties; or
(4) indicate that it considered the impact of the sanction and available alternatives.
The district court, in fact, did all four and after finding the Mr. Miller to be “flippant” with explanation that a designation was unnecessary because the court filed contained everything, the appeal was dismissed.
Commentary:
That Mr. Miller as a self-described “layman of law” did not understand the requirements of appellate practice seems more likely to be forgiven than his flippancy with a federal district judge.
The underlying order denied Mr. Miller’s request to have the Chapter 13 Trustee audited, largely because Mr. Miller is stewing over the avoidance of his judgment lien. The bankruptcy court also barred him from filing additional pleadings in the bankruptcy case.
For a copy of the opinion, please see:
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