Don't Delay, Obtain a Stay

A recent decision by the United States Court of Appeals for the Sixth Circuit, Official Comm of Unsecured Creditors v. Anderson Senior Living Prop, LLC (In re Nashville Senior Living, LLC), 620 F.3d 584 (6th Cir. 2010), tackled the scope of the protection offered by ' 363(m) of the Bankruptcy Code. Section 363(m) mandates that a court cannot unwind on appeal a sale of estate property to a good-faith purchaser authorized pursuant to ' 363(b) or (c) of the Bankruptcy Code. In Nashville, the Sixth Circuit held that ' 363(m) insulates from attack sales of property co-owned by non-debtors. The Sixth Circuit's opinion may rebuke implicitly a controversial holding of the Ninth Circuit Bankruptcy Appellate Panel in 2008, holding that the lien-stripping effect of a sale pursuant to ' 363(f) of the Bankruptcy Code could be unwound on appeal.