Split Sixth Circuit Dismisses Appeal from Detroit’s Confirmed Plan

“Equitable mootness” prevented the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Sixth Circuit from “unravel[ing] the entire Plan, … forc[ing] the City [Detroit] back into emergency oversight, and requir[ing] a wholesale recreation of the vast and complex web of negotiated settlements and agreements.” Affirming the district court’s dismissal of an appeal by a group of pensioners from an order confirming Detroit’s Chapter 9 plan (“Plan”), the Sixth Circuit agreed that the pensioners failed to “obtain a stay,” the Plan had “been substantially consummated,” and that “reversal of the Plan would adversely impact third parties and the success of the Plan.” In this article, of counsel Michael Cook discusses the doctrine of equitable mootness and its adoption by multiple circuits.