* the judgment, order, or decree is set out in a separate document; or
* 150 days have run from entry of the judgment, order, or decree in the docket under Rule 5003(a).
11 APPENDIX U.S.C. § 8002
PRIOR RULEA prior Rule 8002, Apr. 25, 1983, eff. Aug. 1, 1983, as amended Mar. 30, 1987, eff. Aug. 1, 1987; Apr. 30, 1991, eff. Aug. 1, 1991; Apr. 29, 1994, eff. Aug. 1, 1994; Apr. 11, 1997, eff. Dec. 1, 1997; Mar. 26, 2009, eff. Dec. 1, 2009, related to time for filing notice of appeal, prior to revision of Part VIII, Apr. 25, 2014, eff. Dec. 1, 2014.
COMMITTEE NOTES ON RULES-2014This rule is derived from former Rule 8002 and F.R.App.P. 4(a) and (c). With the exception of subdivision (c), the changes to the former rule are stylistic. The rule retains the former rule's 14-day time period for filing a notice of appeal, as opposed to the longer periods permitted for appeals in civil cases under F.R.App.P. 4(a).Subdivision (a) continues to allow any other party to file a notice of appeal within 14 days after the first notice of appeal is filed, or thereafter to the extent otherwise authorized by this rule. Subdivision (a) also retains provisions of the former rule that prescribe the date the notice of appeal is deemed filed if the appellant files it prematurely or in the wrong court.Subdivision (b), like former Rule 8002(b) and F.R.App.P. 4(a), tolls the time for filing a notice of appeal when certain postjudgment motions are filed, and it prescribes the effective date of a notice of appeal that is filed before the court disposes of all of the specified motions. As under the former rule, a party that wants to appeal the court's disposition of the motion or the alteration or amendment of a judgment, order, or decree in response to such a motion must file a notice of appeal or, if it has already filed one, an amended notice of appeal.Although Rule 8003(a)(3)(C) requires a notice of appeal to be accompanied by the required fee, no additional fee is required for the filing of an amended notice of appeal.Subdivision (c) mirrors the provisions of F.R.App.P. 4(c)(1) and (2), which specify timing rules for a notice of appeal filed by an inmate confined in an institution.Subdivision (d) continues to allow the court to grant an extension of time to file a notice of appeal, except with respect to certain specified judgments, orders, and decrees.Changes Made After Publication and Comment. Stylistic changes were made to the title of subdivision (b)(3) and to subdivision (c)(1).
COMMITTEE NOTES ON RULES-2018 AMENDMENTClarifying amendments are made to subdivisions (a), (b), and (c) of the rule. They are modeled on parallel provisions of F.R.App.P. 4.Paragraph (5) is added to subdivision (a) to clarify the effect of the separate-document requirement of F.R.Civ.P. 58(a) on the entry of a judgment, order, or decree for the purpose of determining the time for filing a notice of appeal.Rule 7058 adopts F.R.Civ.P. 58 for adversary proceedings. If Rule 58(a) requires a judgment to be set out in a separate document, the time for filing a notice of appeal runs-subject to subdivisions (b) and (c)-from when the judgment is docketed and the judgment is set out in a separate document or, if no separate document is prepared, from 150 days from when the judgment is entered in the docket. The court's failure to comply with the separate-document requirement of Rule 58(a), however, does not affect the validity of an appeal.Rule 58 does not apply in contested matters. Instead, under Rule 9021, a separate document is not required, and a judgment or order is effective when it is entered in the docket. The time for filing a notice of appeal under subdivision (a) therefore begins to run upon docket entry in contested matters, as well as in adversary proceedings for which Rule 58 does not require a separate document.A clarifying amendment is made to subdivision (b)(1) to conform to a recent amendment to F.R.App.P. 4(a)(4)-from which Rule 8002(b)(1) is derived. Former Rule 8002(b)(1) provided that "[i]f a party timely files in the bankruptcy court" certain post-judgment motions, "the time to file an appeal runs for all parties from the entry of the order disposing of the last such remaining motion." Responding to a circuit split concerning the meaning of "timely" in F.R.App.P. 4(a)(4), the amendment adopts the majority approach and rejects the approach taken in National Ecological Foundation v. Alexander, 496 F.3d 466 (6th Cir. 2007). A motion made after the time allowed by the Bankruptcy Rules will not qualify as a motion that, under Rule 8002(b)(1), re-starts the appeal time-and that fact is not altered by, for example, a court order that sets a due date that is later than permitted by the Bankruptcy Rules, another party's consent or failure to object to the motion's lateness, or the court's disposition of the motion without explicit reliance on untimeliness.Subdivision (c)(1) is revised to conform to F.R.App.P. 4(c)(1), which was recently amended to streamline and clarify the operation of the inmate-filing rule. The rule requires the inmate to show timely deposit and prepayment of postage. It is amended to specify that a notice is timely if it is accompanied by a declaration or notarized statement stating the date the notice was deposited in the institution's mail system and attesting to the prepayment of first-class postage. The declaration must state that first-class postage "is being prepaid,"; not (as directed by the former rule) that first-class postage "has been prepaid." This change reflects the fact that inmates may need to rely upon the institution to affix postage after the inmate has deposited the document in the institution's mail system. A new Director's Form sets out a suggested form of the declaration.The amended rule also provides that a notice is timely without a declaration or notarized statement if other evidence accompanying the notice shows that the notice was deposited on or before the due date and that postage was prepaid. If the notice is not accompanied by evidence that establishes timely deposit and prepayment of postage, then the appellate court-district court, BAP, or court of appeals in the case of a direct appeal-has discretion to accept a declaration or notarized statement at a later date. The rule uses the phrase "exercises its discretion to permit"-rather than simply "permits"-to help ensure that pro se inmates are aware that a court will not necessarily forgive a failure to provide the declaration initially.