Morton v. Yonkers, et al.

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The Trustee of the Vallecito bankruptcy estate appealed the district court's affirmance of the bankruptcy court's judgment in favor of various owners of overriding royalty interests (appellees) to a lease that the trustee seeks to sell on behalf of the bankruptcy estate. The court concluded that the bankruptcy court did not abuse its discretion in excluding a letter submitted by an attorney in the Navajo Nation Department of Justice, stating that any "purported overriding royalty interest is invalid under the applicable provisions of the Navajo Nation Code and is completely void." The court agreed with the district court that the letter was untrustworthy, in large part because it was drafted by the trustee's counsel and was prepared after the trustee's counsel provided the Navajo Nation official with only one side of the story; the court concluded that the bankruptcy court properly held that the trustee could not raise the lack of approval by the Navajo Nation to void the contracts between Appellees and Briggs-Cockerham; and the court found no error in the district court's disposition of the trustee's additional arguments in a lis pendens filing. Accordingly, the court affirmed the judgment. View "Morton v. Yonkers, et al." on Justia Law