Law360, New York (January 5, 2016, 12:42 PM EST) -- The Eleventh Circuit has become the latest federal appellate court to evidence a reluctance to dismiss appeals stemming from bankruptcy court decisions involving consummated plans and settlements based on notions of futility or equitable mootness. On Dec. 17, 2015, in In re Nica Holdings Inc.,[1] the Eleventh Circuit found that an appeal of a bankruptcy court decision was not equitably moot where the underlying litigation in the bankruptcy proceeding — which constituted the debtor's entire estate — had been settled and settlement funds had been transferred to the estate. After finding that the appeal was not equitably moot, the Eleventh Circuit took to the unusual action of remanding the proceeding and directing bankruptcy court dismissal of the case, after determining that the individual filing the Chapter 7 petition lacked the authority to put the debtor into bankruptcy....