In re: Farrah Pirahanci Nazemi

• Court: District Court, S.D. California
• Decided: April 28, 2020
• Docket: 3:20-cv-00094
• Status: Unknown

Opinion

7 8 UNITED STATES DISTRICT COURT 9 FOR THE SOUTHERN DISTRICT OF CALIFORNIA 10 IN RE: FARRAH PIRAHANCHI Case No. 20-cv-00094-BAS-WVG 11 NAZEMI, ORDER GRANTING UNITED STATES 12 Debtor, TRUSTEE’S MOTION TO DISMISS APPEAL AS UNTIMELY 13 [ECF No. 3] 14 FARRAH PIRAHANCHI NAZEMI, 15 Appellant, 16 v. 17 TIFFANY L. CARROLL, ACTING 18 UNITED STATES TRUSTEE, 19 Appellee. 20 21 Appellant Farrah Pirahanchi Nazemi filed this bankruptcy appeal on January 13, 22 2020. (ECF No. 1.) The United States Trustee moved to dismiss the appeal as untimely 23 on February 18, 2020. (United States Trustee’s Mot. to Dismiss Untimely App. (“Mot.”), 24 ECF No. 3.) The Court ordered appellant to file an opposition to the Motion by April 15, 25 2020. (ECF No. 4.) Ms. Nazemi filed a response on April 17, 2020. (Mot. to Resp. due 26 to Good Faith Filings and to Stay and Vacate the Mot. to Dismiss (“Resp.”), ECF No. 6.) 27 The Court finds this motion suitable for determination on the papers submitted and without 28 1 oral argument. See CivLR 7.1(d)(1). For the following reasons, the Court GRANTS the 2 Motion. 3 I. LEGAL STANDARD 4 District courts have jurisdiction to hear appeals from a bankruptcy court orders only 5 if the appeal is taken “in the time provided by Rule 8002 of the Bankruptcy Rules.” 28 6 U.S.C. § 158(c)(2). Because “[t]he untimely filing of the notice of appeal is 7 jurisdictional[,]” In re Souza, 795 F.2d 855, 857 (9th Cir. 1986), a court cannot consider a 8 bankruptcy appeal that is filed after the deadline imposed by Rule 8002. Hamer v. 9 Neighborhood Hous. Servs. of Chicago, 138 S. Ct. 13, 15 (2017) (“An appeal filing 10 deadline prescribed by statute is considered ‘jurisdictional,’ meaning that late filing of the 11 appeal notice necessitates dismissal of the appeal.”). 12 Rule 8002(a)(1) provides that a notice of appeal must be filed within 14 days of the 13 date of entry of the order appealed. An order is entered “when it is entered in the docket” 14 as required by the Rules. Rule 8002(a)(5)(A)(i). An appellant can extend the time to appeal 15 by filing a motion with the bankruptcy court within the 14-day time period or “within 21 16 days after that time, if the party shows excusable neglect.” Rule 8002(d)(1)(A)–(B); see 17 In re Wilkins, 587 B.R. 97, 107 (B.A.P. 9th Cir. 2018) (request under Rule 8002(d)(1)(B) 18 must be filed within 14 days or 35 days where there is excusable neglect shown). Once 19 time has expired to request an extension, however, the order may no longer be appealed 20 even upon showing of excusable neglect. See In re Golden, No. 18-CV-2359-GPC-RBB, 21 2018 WL 6601615, at *1 (S.D. Cal. Dec. 17, 2018), appeal dismissed sub nom. Golden v. 22 Kipperman, No. 19-55005, 2019 WL 1503062 (9th Cir. Feb. 22, 2019) (citing Moore v. 23 Hogan, 851 F.2d 1125, 1126–27 (8th Cir. 1988)). 24 II. ANALYSIS 25 Here, Ms. Nazemi appeals from a bankruptcy court order dismissing her case with 26 prejudice dated December 20, 2019. (Not. of App. from Bankr. Court (“Not.”), ECF No. 27 1; In Re Farrah Pirahanchi-Nazemi, Case No. 19-05758-LT7 (Bankr. S.D. Cal., Sept. 26, 28 2019), ECF No. 49.) She was therefore required to appeal the decision by January 3, 2020. 1 ||Ms. Nazemi did not move before the bankruptcy court to extend the time to file her appeal 2 || within the 14-day time period during which she was required to file her appeal, nor did she 3 || attempt to do so within 21 days by showing excusable neglect.' (See generally, Dkt. For 4 ||In Re Farrah Pirahanchi-Nazemi.) Accordingly, the January 3, 2020 deadline remained 5 ||the final date to appeal the bankruptcy action. However, Ms. Nazemi filed her notice of 6 || appeal one week later on January 10, 2020. (Not.) 7 Ms. Nazemi’s Notice of Appeal of the Bankruptcy Court’s order is therefore untimely 8 |}under Rule 8002. As such, her action before this Court must be dismissed. See Anderson 9 Mouradick (In re Mouradick), 13 F.3d 326, 327 (9th Cir. 1994) (“[T]he untimely filing 10 || of a notice of appeal deprives the appellate court of jurisdiction to review the bankruptcy 11 court’s order.”’); see also In re Ozenne, 841 F.3d 810, 814 (9th Cir. 2016) (holding that the 12 ||Bankruptcy Appellate Panel lacked jurisdiction to consider any appeal because the 13 || appellant did not file a timely appeal). 14 CONCLUSION AND ORDER 15 Accordingly, the Court GRANTS the United States Trustee’s Motion to Dismiss 16 appeal as untimely (ECF No. 3). The Clerk is instructed to close this case. 17 IT IS SO ORDERED. 18 □□ 19 || DATED: April 28, 2020 Ci i WG (Hophta. 6 How. Cynthia Bashant 20 United States District Judge 21 22 23 24 25 SS 6 ' Tn her response to the Motion to Dismiss, Ms. Nazemi claims the foreclosure of her home is unconstitutional and repeatedly states that her appeal was taken in good faith, (Resp. at 2-3.) She does not dispute or otherwise address the Trustee’s claim that her appeal is untimely or her failure to timely seek any extensions of the deadline to appeal. However, even if she had, such representations would have 28 been irrelevant because the 21-day period to seek an extension on the basis of excusable neglect expired long before Ms. Nazemi filed her response. See In re Golden, 2018 WL 6601615, at *1.