A panel of the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Third Circuit has narrowed the scope of the equitable mootness doctrine in bankruptcy cases.

The appeals court reinstated an appeal of a Chapter 11 bankruptcy reorganization plan of One2One Communications by Quad/Graphics, Inc., reversing the order of a U.S. district court judge who dismissed the appeal as equitably moot. But the Third Circuit rejected the appellant's contention that it should overrule the court's own adoption of the equitable mootness doctrine in a 1996 case. Instead, the appeals court provided detailed guidelines on how and when the doctrine should be applied.

Only an en banc panel has authority to reverse its decision adopting equitable mootness in the 1996 case, In re Continental Airlines, the appeals court said. But the panel reversed and remanded the district court's ruling in the present case upon a finding that the judge abused his discretion under Continental.