The filing of a Chapter 11 bankruptcy case creates an estate consisting of the debtor’s legal and equitable property. The estate will continue until the debtor’s confirmed plan of reorganization or liquidation goes effective. It will then terminate, and the property will either revest in the reorganized debtor or be transferred to another entity such as a post-confirmation liquidation trust.

Now and then, bankruptcy judges face this issue: after plan confirmation, when can a liquidation trustee assert state law claims in a lawsuit filed in the bankruptcy court?

In terms of a bankruptcy court’s subject matter jurisdiction, the question is this: when can a bankruptcy court have post-confirmation related-to jurisdiction over such claims under 28 U.S.C. section 1334? (Related-to jurisdiction is part of a bankruptcy court’s non-core jurisdiction. When a court has jurisdiction over non-core claims, it can issue proposed findings of fact and conclusions of law to the federal district court, which can issue a final judgment.)

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