Valley Health System Retirement Plan v. Kirton (In Re Valley Health System)

MEMORANDUM

Appellants — Valley Health System, Valley Health Retirement Plan, and trustees of the Retirement Plan — appeal a Bankruptcy Appellate Panel (BAP) decision that reversed the bankruptcy court’s dismissal of a mandamus petition filed against Appellants. As the facts and procedural history are familiar to the parties, we do not recite them here except as necessary to explain our disposition. We have jurisdiction under 28 U.S.C. § 158 (d)(1), and we reverse.

Appellees — former Valley Health System employees and retirement plan participants — filed a mandamus petition in state court seeking to enforce their alleged rights under the Valley Health Retirement Plan. The mandamus petition was filed after the bankruptcy court had confirmed Valley Health System’s Chapter 9 bankruptcy plan. Appellants removed the case from state court to bankruptcy court, and the bankruptcy court dismissed the mandamus petition for failure to state a claim. The bankruptcy court subsequently denied Appellees’ motion for reconsideration. Appellees appealed the bankruptcy court’s decisions to the BAP. The BAP ruled that the bankruptcy court lacked subject matter jurisdiction over the mandamus…