The filing of an appeal in federal court generally divests the lower court of jurisdiction. This rule of appellate jurisdiction applies both to appeals from a district court to a court of appeals and from a bankruptcy court to a district court.
The Divestiture Rule Explained: A Judge-Made Doctrine Doesn’t Necessarily Deprive a Lower Court of Ongoing Subject Matter Jurisdiction
The “divestiture rule is not truly jurisdictional,” a Florida Bankruptcy court held in the recent ECI Pharmaceuticals case, which shows how one court analyzed when or when not to apply the divestiture rule.

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