In re Caterbone, 640 F.3d 108 (3d Cir. 2011).  Stanley Caterbone filed a Chapter 11 bankruptcy petition.  The Trustee successfully moved to have the petition dismissed on various grounds.  The dismissal was entered on October 3, 2006 and the dismissal order was mailed to Caterbone on October 5, 2006.  Caterbone sent in a notice of appeal to the District Court, by regular mail and electronic mail, on October 16, 2006, but the notice of appeal was not actually filed with the District Court

Cooper University Hospital v. Sebelius, 396 Fed. Appx. 854 (3d Cir. Oct. 12, 2010).  It is rare for a published Third Circuit decision simply to adopt an opinion of the district court.   Here, however, Judge Barry, writing for a unanimous Third Circuit panel, did just that.

The case presented a “difficult legal issue” that required “an analysis of the interaction between, and the intersection of, the Medicare and Medicaid statutes,” which, the Third

In re Kane, 628 F.3d 631 (3d Cir. 2010).  It is rare to see a Third Circuit opinion, especially a precedential decision, with two pro se parties.  This was such a case.  The key issue was whether Mr. Kane’s estranged wife was judicially estopped from making a proof of claim in his bankruptcy proceeding.

Many attorneys see judicial estoppel as a weapon to block an opponent from taking inconsistent positions.  However, as Judge Barry’s opinion for the court makes clear, an irreconcilab