⚖ Oral Arguments, with Context

The Ninth Circuit Bankruptcy Appellate Panel hears the related Kalkat and Diamond K orchard-sale appeals. The debtors sought to refinance loans secured by their properties, with orchard sales as a fallback. Creditors pressed to sell the properties and recover their money. The proposed plan used an independent sales officer to oversee bidding, while leaving room to refinance instead. These appeals focus on the evidence of the buyers' good faith. You will also hear about credit bidding: a secured creditor uses the debt it is owed toward buying the collateral, rather than paying that amount in cash. Bankruptcy Code section three-sixty-three M generally protects the validity of a sale to a good-faith buyer unless the sale authorization and the sale itself were stayed pending appeal. A stay is a court order putting the transaction on hold. That makes the buyers' good faith important: the panel must consider what the record actually establishes, not simply whether an auction took place.

In re Kalkat/Diamond K, LLC (No. 26-1015) — U.S. Bankruptcy Appellate Panel for the Ninth Circuit, argued October 15, 2026.