Sanders v. US Bank Trust National Association
- Wise
- 5:26-cv-00094
- U.S. District Court · Northern District of California
- 3
In Angela E. Sanders v. US Bank Trust, Judge Wise dismissed Sanders’s bankruptcy appeal without prejudice for failing to file her opening brief or show good cause.
Angela E. Sanders’s district-court bankruptcy appeal was dismissed without prejudice and the case was closed. US Bank Trust National Association and the other appellees were affected because the appeal was terminated without a decision on the merits.
What happened
Angela E. Sanders appealed bankruptcy-court decisions granting US Bank Trust National Association relief from the automatic stay, denying reconsideration, and closing her Chapter 13 case. The stay relief allowed the bank to begin foreclosure proceedings on her home.
The district court required Sanders to file an opening brief by April 17, 2026. She did not file it or request more time, and she did not file anything in the case for months except a case-management statement. After receiving an order to explain the delay, Sanders still did not show good cause or a reason the missed deadline should be excused.
Judge Wise dismissed Sanders’s appeal without prejudice for failing to prosecute the case and comply with the court’s scheduling order. The court vacated the September 22 hearing and directed the clerk to close the case.
The detailed version
- Sanders v. US Bank Trust National Association · No. 5:26-cv-00094
- Wise
- Sept. 21, 2026
Background
Angela E. Sanders filed a Chapter 13 bankruptcy petition in 2025. On October 7, 2025, the Bankruptcy Court granted US Bank Trust National Association relief from the automatic stay under 11 U.S.C. § 362. That ruling allowed US Bank to begin foreclosure proceedings involving Sanders’s home in Rodeo, California. The Bankruptcy Court later denied Sanders’s motion for reconsideration and granted the Chapter 13 Trustee’s motion to dismiss for case deficiencies, closing the bankruptcy case.
District-court appeal
Sanders, representing herself, appealed those bankruptcy-court decisions to the district court on January 6, 2026. The district court’s scheduling order required her to file an opening principal brief within 30 days after the bankruptcy record was placed on the district court’s docket. Because the record was lodged on March 18, 2026, the brief was due on April 17, 2026.
Sanders did not file the brief and did not request an extension. She also did not file anything in the case for months after seeking temporary restraining orders in April 2026. The district court denied both temporary-restraining-order requests, and the Ninth Circuit denied Sanders’s appeal from those denials.
Order to show cause
On September 4, 2026, the district court ordered Sanders to explain why the case should not be terminated for failure to prosecute. Sanders opposed the order on September 18, 2026. The court found that she did not show good cause or excusable neglect for missing the briefing deadline. She did not identify an emergency or other intervening event that prevented her from filing the brief, explain why she did not request an extension, or identify when she first saw the briefing schedule.
Disposition
The court dismissed Sanders’s bankruptcy appeal without prejudice under Federal Rule of Civil Procedure 41(b) and Federal Bankruptcy Rule 8018(a)(4), which allow dismissal when an appellant fails to prosecute or timely file a required brief. The court vacated the hearing scheduled for September 22, 2026, and directed the clerk to close the case. The order disposed of the appeal based on Sanders’s failure to prosecute and did not decide the merits of her challenges to the bankruptcy-court rulings.
Read the full 3-page opinion on CourtListener, the free public archive maintained by the Free Law Project.