Fantasia v. Diodato

CourtCourt of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit
DecidedSeptember 15, 2025
Docket23-3742
StatusPublished

This text of Fantasia v. Diodato (Fantasia v. Diodato) is published on Counsel Stack Legal Research, covering Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit primary law. Counsel Stack provides free access to over 12 million legal documents including statutes, case law, regulations, and constitutions.

Bluebook
Fantasia v. Diodato, (9th Cir. 2025).

Opinion

FOR PUBLICATION

UNITED STATES COURT OF APPEALS FOR THE NINTH CIRCUIT

FRANCES FANTASIA, No. 23-3742 D.C. No. Plaintiff - Appellant, 2:22-cv-01335- DWL v.

KERI DIODATO; MICHAEL OPINION DIODATO,

Defendants - Appellees,

and

EDWARD J. MANEY, Chapter 13 Trustee,

Defendant.

Appeal from the United States District Court for the District of Arizona Dominic Lanza, District Judge, Presiding

Argued and Submitted October 23, 2024 Phoenix, Arizona

Filed September 15, 2025 2 FANTASIA V. DIODATO

Before: Milan D. Smith, Jr., Bridget S. Bade, and Danielle J. Forrest, Circuit Judges.

Opinion by Judge Bade

SUMMARY*

Bankruptcy

The panel (1) vacated the district court’s order affirming the bankruptcy court’s March 2021 order granting a motion under Federal Rule of Civil Procedure 60(b) and reinstating the automatic bankruptcy stay of state court litigation against a bankruptcy debtor; and (2) remanded with instructions for the district court to dismiss for lack of jurisdiction the plaintiff’s appeal, which she did not file until after entry of final judgment in the bankruptcy proceeding. The panel held that under Ritzen Group, Inc. v. Jackson Masonry, LLC, 589 U.S. 35 (2020), the March 2021 order vacating the bankruptcy court’s prior stay relief and abstention order and reimposing the automatic stay was a final order subject to immediate appeal because it definitively disposed of a discrete dispute within the overarching bankruptcy case. Plaintiff’s appeal to the district court, which she filed several months later, therefore was untimely. In Ritzen, the Supreme Court held that an order granting or denying relief from the automatic stay is a final, appealable order under 28 U.S.C. § 158(a)(1). The

* This summary constitutes no part of the opinion of the court. It has been prepared by court staff for the convenience of the reader. FANTASIA V. DIODATO 3

panel concluded that, although the March 2021 order did not, strictly speaking, grant or deny a party relief from the automatic stay, but instead reimposed the automatic stay, that was a distinction without a difference for purposes of finality.

COUNSEL

April Maxwell (argued), Maxwell Law Group, Mesa, Arizona, for Plaintiff-Appellant. Chris Dutkiewicz (argued), DM Bankruptcy Law Group LLC, Mesa, Arizona, for Defendants-Appellees. 4 FANTASIA V. DIODATO

OPINION

BADE, Circuit Judge:

This case arises from a dispute between Plaintiff- Appellant Frances Fantasia and her estranged daughter, Defendant-Appellee Keri Diodato, over Diodato’s alleged misuse, as trustee, of property in an irrevocable trust. As part of this dispute, Fantasia filed suit against Diodato in Massachusetts state court asserting several state-law claims, and Diodato filed for bankruptcy in the United States Bankruptcy Court for the District of Arizona. Diodato’s bankruptcy filing automatically stayed the pending state court litigation. See 11 U.S.C. § 362(a). In February 2020, however, the bankruptcy court granted Fantasia’s motion for relief from the automatic bankruptcy stay and for permissive abstention. In this appeal, Fantasia challenges the bankruptcy court’s later order, issued in March 2021, in which the court granted Diodato’s motion for relief under Rule 60(b)(6) of the Federal Rules of Civil Procedure, vacated its earlier stay relief and abstention order, and reimposed the automatic stay (March 2021 order).1 Fantasia argues that the bankruptcy court should have treated Diodato’s motion as one for relief under Rule 60(b)(1) and denied it. Fantasia first appealed to the district court, which determined that her appeal was timely filed after the final judgment because the bankruptcy court’s March 2021 order was not an immediately appealable collateral order. Thus, the district court

1 Rule 60(b) is “incorporated to bankruptcy proceedings by Federal Rule of Bankruptcy Procedure 9024.” Zurich Am. Ins. Co. v. Int’l Fibercom, Inc. (In re Int’l Fibercom, Inc.), 503 F.3d 933, 940 (9th Cir. 2007). FANTASIA V. DIODATO 5

concluded it had jurisdiction over Fantasia’s appeal. On the merits, the district court affirmed the bankruptcy court’s March 2021 order because it concluded that the bankruptcy court did not abuse its discretion by deciding Diodato’s motion under Rule 60(b)(6). Neither the district court nor the parties addressed whether the March 2021 order was a final order under 28 U.S.C. § 158(a)(1), which would require an immediate appeal. Because this issue determines our jurisdiction, we must address it before considering the parties’ arguments on whether Fantasia’s motion for relief should have been construed under Rule 60(b)(1) or (b)(6). See Poulus v. Caesars World, Inc., 379 F.3d 654, 662 (9th Cir. 2004) (explaining that “[a]s a threshold matter,” we must determine not only our jurisdiction, but also that of the district court). We hold that under Ritzen Group, Inc. v. Jackson Masonry, LLC, 589 U.S. 35 (2020), the bankruptcy court’s March 2021 order vacating its prior stay relief and abstention order and reimposing the automatic stay was a final order because it “definitively dispose[d] of [a] discrete dispute[] within the overarching bankruptcy case.” Id. at 37. The March 2021 order was therefore subject to immediate appeal, and Fantasia’s appeal to the district court, which she filed several months later and after the final judgment in the bankruptcy proceedings, was untimely. As a result, the district court did not have jurisdiction over Fantasia’s appeal of the bankruptcy court’s March 2021 order. See 28 U.S.C. § 158(c)(2); Ozenne v. Chase Manhattan Bank (In re Ozenne), 841 F.3d 810, 814 (9th Cir. 2016) (en banc). We therefore vacate the district court’s order and remand with instructions to dismiss for lack of 6 FANTASIA V. DIODATO

jurisdiction. Because “the district court did not have jurisdiction to review the merits,” we also do “not have jurisdiction to consider the merits on appeal.” Greene v. United States (In re Souza), 795 F.2d 855, 857 (9th Cir. 1986) (citation and emphasis omitted). Therefore, we do not reach the merits of the bankruptcy court’s March 2021 order and whether Diodato’s motion for relief should have been construed under Rule 60(b)(1) or (b)(6). I. The factual and procedural background is undisputed. In 2011, Fantasia executed an irrevocable trust and named Diodato as trustee. In October 2017, Fantasia sued Diodato (and Diodato’s then-husband, Michael Diodato) in Massachusetts state court asserting several state-law claims based on Diodato’s alleged misuse of the trust property. In August 2019, Diodato filed for bankruptcy under Chapter 13.

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Fantasia v. Diodato, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/fantasia-v-diodato-ca9-2025.