BRADENTON, Fla. – Jefferson County, Ala., is a step closer to finding out the fate of its bankruptcy plan.
The 11th Circuit Court of Appeals in Atlanta tentatively set the week of May 16 for its expected schedule of oral arguments in an appeal of the county's Chapter 9 bankruptcy case.
Even though the appellate court has no timeframe within which it must rule after arguments are heard, it has taken well over a year to prepare the record for the court to consider hearing arguments.
Jefferson County has now been in appeal mode longer that the two years it took to pursue the bankruptcy case to the plan confirmation stage on Nov. 22, 2013.
Confirmation of the plan enabled the county to issue $1.8 billion in sewer refunding warrants to write down $1.4 billion in related sewer debt in December 2013.
Shortly after the debt was sold, a group of ratepayers on the sewer system appealed the plan.
In September 2014, U.S. District Judge Sharon Blackburn rejected the county's contention that the ratepayer's bankruptcy appeal was moot based in part on the fact that the plan was largely consummated when the refunding debt was sold.
Jefferson County's appeal of Blackburn's ruling is the case pending before the Atlanta appellate court.
