United States Ninth Circuit

In a dispute between the primary financial backers of a start-up company in bankruptcy, involving backers' counterclaim against the company's bankruptcy trustee and the trustee's preference action to recover a payment made by the company to backers, dismissal of the counterclaim and summary judgment for the trustee in the preference action are affirmed as: 1) the trustee was not an "opposing party" within the meaning of Federal Rule of Civil Procedure 13 and the counterclaim was properly dismissed; and 2) summary judgment in the preference action was proper as plaintiffs failed to meet their burden of proof on their earmarking defense.

Appellate Information

• Argued 03/08/2007
• Decided 06/04/2007
• Published 06/04/2007

Judges

• MILAN D. SMITH, JR., Circuit Judge., Before:  PAMELA ANN RYMER, KIM McLANE WARDLAW, and MILAN D. SMITH, JR., Circuit Judges.

Court

• United States Ninth Circuit

Counsel

• For Appellees:
  
• James A. Shalvoy, Manhattan Beach, CA, for the defendants-appellants., Kathleen M. Goldberg, The Law Office of Thomas H. Casey, Inc., Rancho Santa Margarita, CA, for the plaintiff-appellee.