United States Ninth Circuit

The district court properly affirmed the bankruptcy court's judgment invalidating the transfer to the Diaz defendants of a Mexican coastal villa owned by the debtors and requiring the Diaz defendants to transfer the property to plaintiff for the benefit of the debtors' bankruptcy estate, where the bankruptcy court did not err by: 1) exercising jurisdiction over Mexican land because, notwithstanding the local action doctrine, 28 U.S.C. section 1334(e) granted the bankruptcy court exclusive in rem jurisdiction over the Villa interest; 2) applying U.S. law extraterritorially because Congress intended extraterritorial application of the Bankruptcy Code as it applies to property of the estate; 3) failing to honor the contractual selection of a Mexican forum; 4) declining to abstain from ordering recovery of the property based on international comity because there was no true conflict of law; 5) finding Mexico was not a necessary and indispensable party; 6) applying U.S. law instead of Mexican law to determine whether the Diaz defendants were good faith purchasers; and 7) finding that defendant Martha Barba de la Torre purchased the villa in bad faith.

Appellate Information

• Decided 07/03/2014
• Published 07/03/2014

Judges

• FARRIS

Court

• United States Ninth Circuit

Counsel