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All's Well That Ends Wellness:

By Steven B. Smith

For four years, there was no clarity, only questions. I am referring, of course, to those glaring questions left unanswered by the United States Supreme Court's decision in Stern v. Marshall, 564 U.S. 2, 131 S.Ct. 2594 (2011), which caused untold sleepless nights, ruined family vacations, and created marital strife. Questions such as, what if bankruptcy litigants consented to the bankruptcy court's adjudication of Stern claims? Would that cure the Article III violation? And, if litigants could consent, would the consent need to be express, or would implied consent be sufficient? And what about the question of whether bankruptcy judges would ever again be allowed to enter a final judgment in any avoidance action?

Four long years and then all was well, or Wellness, to be precise. In May 2015, the Supreme Court once again weighed in on the issue of bankruptcy court adjudication of Stern claims and provided us with a measure of clarity in its recent opinion, Wellness International Network, Ltd., et al. v. Sharif, 135 S. Ct. 1932 (2015). This article explores the background leading up to the Wellness decision, the facts and the holding of the Supreme Court's decision, and the aftermath of the decision.

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