Hon. Judge Enrique S. Lamoutte, USBJ.
This case is before the court upon the Defendant's Expedited Motion for Stay Pending Appeal seeking to "stay this adversary proceeding pending the appeal of this [] Court's order denying Defendants' motion to set aside the judgment [entered at Docket No. 65]" (Docket No. 116, p. 1, ¶ 1, the "Motion for Stay Pending Appeal").
Some of the arguments in the Motion for Stay Pending Appeal have already been addressed by the court. For instance, the argument that the Defendants' previous attorneys "abandoned" them (Docket No. 116, p. 5, ¶ 22) has already been addressed in the Opinion and Ordered entered on December 10, 2014 In re Otero Rivera, (Docket No. 91), 2014 Bankr.LEXIS 4976, 2014 WL 6983403 (Bankr.D.P.R.2014), which denied the Defendants' Motion to Set Aside Default Judgment and Orders (Docket No. 74). The court will not revisit such arguments at this juncture.
The only new argument presented by the Defendants is that "absent a stay pending appeal, [they] will become insolvent" (Docket No. 116, p. 11, ¶ 39). They sustain that they are "non-profit organizations that operate pursuant to the provisions for Homeowners' Associations in the Florida Statutes" (Docket No. 116, p. 12, ¶ 43), that they "operate to provide services to the different communities that compose each association" (id., ¶ 42), and that "the enforcement of the judgment pending appeal, taking into consideration the current financial conditions of the Defendants, would imminently render the three insolvent, resulting in irreparable harm" (id., ¶ 44).
"A motion for stay pending appeal is governed by Fed. R. Bankr. P. 8007. The allowance of a motion for stay pending appeal is discretionary." In re MJS Las Croabas Props., 2015 Bankr.LEXIS 1159 at *4, 2015 WL 1651085 at *2 (Bankr.D.P.R.2015). Courts consider the traditional four-part standard applicable to preliminary injunctions. See Acevedo-García v. Vera-Monroig 296 F.3d 13, 16 (1st Cir.2002). The court must consider "(1) whether the applicant has made a strong showing of success on the merits; (2) whether the applicant will be irreparably harmed absent injunctive relief; (3) whether issuance of the stay will injure other parties; and (4) where the public interest lies." Id. at 16, fn. 3, citing Hilton v. Braunskill, 481 U.S. 770, 776-777, 107 S.Ct. 2113,
In Daly v. St. Germain (In re Norwich Historic Pres. Trust), 2005 U.S. Dist. LEXIS 7171, 2005 WL 977067 (D.Conn. 2005), the U.S. District Court for the District of Connecticut declined to stay a sale of real property pending resolution of unsecured creditor's appeal because, although creditor showed irreparable harm, he did not satisfy other requirements for obtaining the stay.
In the instant case, based on the totality of the circumstances, the Defendants' assertion that "absent a stay pending appeal, [they] will become insolvent" (Docket No. 116, p. 11, ¶ 39) is insufficient for this court to grant it. The Defendants have not established the sine qua non requirement for a stay pending appeal, to wit, the likelihood to succeed on the merits. Their argument to the effect that they "should not be made to suffer for [their attorneys'] failures" (Docket No. 116, p. 7, ¶ 26), significantly deviates from the binding norm established by the U.S. Court of Appeals for the First Circuit that "[a]ttorneys act for their clients, and the neglect of an attorney acting within the scope of his or her authority is attributable to the client", Nansamba v. North Shore Med. Ctr., Inc., 727 F.3d 33, 38 (1st Cir.2013), and that "keeping a suit alive `merely because [defendants] should not be penalized for the omissions of [their] own attorney[s] would be visiting the sins of the [defendants'] lawyer upon the [plaintiff]'" Damiani
In view of the foregoing, the Motion for Stay Pending Appeal filed by the Defendants (Docket No. 116) is hereby denied.
SO ORDERED.