Philip Shawe.

A federal appeals court is unlikely to rule on Philip R. Shawe's constitutional challenge to the forced sale of TransPerfect Global Inc., the firm's co-founder acknowledged on Tuesday, after briefing was scheduled to wrap up next month.

The U.S. Court of Appeals for the Third Circuit on Monday denied Shawe's request to expedite his appeal, as the Delaware Court of Chancery-ordered sale speeds toward completion. According to the two-page order from Judge Cheryl Ann Krause of the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Third Circuit, all briefing is set to conclude Dec. 15.

Shawe had asked the Third Circuit to fast track briefing in the case, which argues that Chancery Court Chancellor Andre G. Bouchard's 2015 decision to appoint a custodian to oversee a modified auction of the deadlocked company amounted to an unconstitutional taking of his private property. A Delaware federal judge dismissed the case in September.

Shawe has argued that without expedited treatment, there may be no way to avoid the sale of the company he had helped to found in 1992. On Tuesday, he said that his options were running out, though he vowed to “never stop fighting” to reverse what he called an illegal and “premeditated scheme to unjustly enrich a select few.”

“Unfortunately, if I do not win the auction, we may see a scrambled egg problem—that is, consummation of the sale before appeals are exhausted will irretrievably and irreparably change the company,” he said in a statement.

An attorney for Robert B. Pincus, the court-appointed custodian, declined to comment on Tuesday.

Final bids for the profitable translation-services company are due on Wednesday, and a final sale order is expected to be entered by the end of the year, according to court documents.

Shawe is competing to buy the firm, but the campaign is seen as a long shot after years of bruising litigation with co-founder and CEO Elizabeth Elting and, now, competition from potential private equity buyers who were said to have entered the fray.

Elting, who first petitioned for TransPerfect's dissolution in 2014, has not opposed the sale.

Juda Engelmayer, a spokesman for Shawe, said that if Shawe does not prevail, he would move to enjoin the sale, based on other pending lawsuits and his appeal to the Third Circuit. However, those prospects seemed dim.

“If Pincus and Liz [Elting] have their way, these all will be academic decisions going forward,” Engelmayer said in an email.

The winning bidder will be required to enter a final sale agreement to acquire all of TransPerfect's stock, which is currently held by Elting, Shawe and Shawe's mother, Shirley Shawe. Bouchard would have to approve the agreement, and any objecting parties would then have the option for an expedited appeal to the Delaware Supreme Court, which upheld the planned sale in February.

Shawe's attorneys said in court filings that they expect the sale to close by late January, though it could stretch into March or April of next year.