Confederated Tribes of the Colville Reservation Tribal Credit v. White (In re White)

Colville Tribal Credit, an agency of the Confederated Tribes of the Colville Reservation which administers the collection of loans to tribal members and had sought to collect a debt of Melvin J. White in White’s Chapter 11 reorganization, appeals the district court’s order affirming discharge of its claim under Chapter 7. The district court held that Col-ville Credit submitted to the jurisdiction of the bankruptcy court when it sought to collect White’s debt under Chapter 11, that this affirmative act waived its immunity as to the bankruptcy court’s jurisdiction over its ability 1 to collect White’s. debts, and that the waiver survived conversion to Chapter 7.

We agreé with the district court and hold that the Tribes’s participation as a creditor in White’s bankruptcy case under Chapter 11 waived immunity from adjudication of its claim, and that waiver carried forward to Chapter 7. As we have jurisdiction, 28 U.S.C. § 158 (d), we affirm.

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The Confederated Tribes of the Colville Reservation (Colville Tribes) is a federally recognized Indian tribal government. Col-ville Tribal Credit (Colville Credit) is a Col- *1270 ville Tribes agency that administers the lending of trust…