Section 2.7 District Courts

• Library: Bankruptcy Practice (2007 Ed. + 2015 Cum Supp)

1. (§2.7) District Courts

Bankruptcy court jurisdiction is governed by 28 U.S.C. §§ 1334 and 157. The district court has original and exclusive jurisdiction of all bankruptcy cases—i.e., the legal matter that is assigned
a case number when a bankruptcy petition is filed—and exclusive jurisdiction over all property of the bankruptcy estate, wherever located. Section 1334(a), (d), and (e). SeeEduc. Credit Mgmt. Corp. v. McAlpin, 263 B.R. 881 (B.A.P. 8^th Cir. 2001). The
2005 Amendments extend the exclusive jurisdiction of the district
court to all claims and causes of action that involve construction of 11 U.S.C. § 327, or rules relating to disclosure requirements under § 327.

Note: The amendments to § 1334 are effective as of April 20, 2005, the date of enactment of the 2005 Amendments (April 20, 2005) but apply only to cases filed after the date of enactment.

District courts have “[o]riginal” but not exclusive jurisdiction of all civil proceedings “arising under” Title 11 of the United
States Code or “arising in” or “related to” cases under Title 11. Section 1334(b). The significance of the district court having original but not “exclusive” jurisdiction of civil proceedings arising under, arising in, or related to a bankruptcy case is that the district court, in certain circumstances, may abstain from hearing or determining civil proceedings arising under, arising in, or related to a bankruptcy case. See the discussion on abstention in §2.10 below. In addition, nonexclusive jurisdiction over bankruptcy proceedings gives district courts concurrent jurisdiction with other specialized courts (e.g., Court of Claims).

Civil proceedings arising under, arising in, or related to a bankruptcy case encompass everything that is filed after a bankruptcy case is commenced, including adversary proceedings, Fed. R. Bankr. P. 7003, and contested matters, Fed. R. Bankr.
P. 9014. For purposes of determining the existence of district court jurisdiction, it is not important to determine which specific category (“arises in,” “arises under,” or “related to”) a particular dispute falls into, just that the dispute falls into one of the categories. Ultimately, however, the determination may be important because of the interplay and impact of the Bankruptcy Code provisions relating to:

· abstention, § 1334(c)—§§2.10–2.12, infra;

· core/non-core proceedings, § 157(b)(2)—§2.8, infra; and

· venue 28 U.S.C. § 1409—§2.18, infra.

1 Collier on Bankruptcy ¶ 3.01[4][c] (Alan N...