Senior Judge Shadur has dismissed an appeal from bankruptcy court because the appellant and his lawyer did not diligently prosecute the appeal.
The court explained:
On December 15, 2015 appellant Ayad Nahlawi (“Nahlawi”) filed a Notice of Appeal (“Notice”) to this Court from two orders of the Bankruptcy Court: its October 27, 2015 Order granting the motion of debtors Mark and Carol Anderson (collectively “the Andersons”) for compensation relating to their motion to enforce the automatic stay provided by 11 U.S.C. § 362 (“Section 362”) and its December 1, 2015 order denying Nahlawi’s motion for reconsideration of that October 27 Order. But then, having filed the Notice, Nahlawi and his counsel totally neglected to comply with their obligation to file and serve a designation of the appellate record and of the issues on appeal — and that neglect extended to their failure to file a timely motion either seeking an extension for that purpose or providing any explanation for their noncompliance with the applicable requirements.
…
As for excusability vel non, this Court will accept for present purposes the assertion by Nahlawi’s counsel that he has other legal commitments (and, indeed, extensive ones). But that does not at all justify or excuse his total failure to spend the fraction of an hour that would have been needed to prepare and submit a simple and timely request for an extension of time. And as for counsel’s other “excuse” set out in Paragraphs 31 and 32 of his responsive memorandum,[1] it brought to mind Charles Dickens’ reference to Mr. Micawber:
“In case anything turned up,” which was his favorite expression.
The district court then dismissed the appeal.
In sum, when judges quote Dickens, they are usually referring to some sort of delay.
Source: NAHLAWI v. Anderson, Dist. Court, ND Illinois 2016 – Google Scholar
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