Yan v. Fu
- Haywood Gilliam
- 4:19-cv-04309
- U.S. District Court · Northern District of California
- 1
In Yan v. Fu, Judge Gilliam dismissed Yan’s bankruptcy appeal because he did not complete the appeal or respond to the court.
Demas Yan’s appeal from the Bankruptcy Court’s denial of his motion for a new trial was dismissed; Fu was the named defendant in the appeal.
What happened
Demas Yan, representing himself, appealed the Bankruptcy Court’s denial of his request for a new trial. He filed the appeal on July 26, 2019.
The Bankruptcy Court notified the district court that Yan had not completed the steps required to prepare the appeal. More than 140 days later, Yan had not explained the failure, taken observable action, or responded to an order asking why the case should not be closed.
Judge Haywood S. Gilliam dismissed the appeal for failure to prosecute, meaning Yan did not move the case forward. The court did not decide whether the Bankruptcy Court was right to deny a new trial.
The detailed version
- Yan v. Fu · No. 4:19-cv-04309
- Haywood Gilliam
- Feb. 20, 2020
Background
Demas Yan, proceeding without a lawyer, filed a notice of appeal on July 26, 2019. The appeal challenged the Bankruptcy Court’s denial of his motion for a new trial in bankruptcy case number 17-4056.
On September 30, 2019, the Bankruptcy Court clerk notified the district court that Yan had failed to perfect the appeal under Federal Rule of Bankruptcy Procedure 8009(a)(4). The opinion states that perfecting the appeal required completing the record on appeal. More than 140 days after the notification, Yan had not explained why he failed to complete the record or taken any observable action.
The court also had ordered Yan to show why the case should not be closed in light of another district-court case, number 4:19-cv-05633-HSG, which also appealed Bankruptcy Court case number 17-4056. Yan did not respond to that order.
Ruling and reasoning
The court dismissed the appeal for failure to prosecute. Failure to prosecute means that a party did not take required steps to move the case forward. The court relied on the appellate rule requiring completion of the record and cited a Ninth Circuit decision stating that an appellant’s failure to take the steps needed to perfect an appeal can support dismissal for failure to prosecute.
The court did not decide the merits of Yan’s challenge to the denial of a new trial. The opinion states that the appeal was dismissed, but does not add a “with prejudice” or “without prejudice” designation.
Read the full 1-page opinion on CourtListener, the free public archive maintained by the Free Law Project.