Page:United States Reports 546.pdf/226

 546US1

Unit: $$U4

[08-22-08 13:34:13] PAGES PGT: OPIN

Cite as: 546 U. S. 12 (2005)

15

Per Curiam

low them until expressly overruled by the Supreme Court.” 388 F. 3d, at 1049 (citing Agostini v. Felton, 521 U. S. 203, 237 (1997)). II In Kontrick, we determined that defenses made available by the time limitations of Federal Rules of Bankruptcy Procedure 4004 and 9006 may be forfeited. 540 U. S., at 458–460. They are not “jurisdiction[al],” but are instead “claim-processing rules,” that may be “unalterable on a party’s application” but “can nonetheless be forfeited if the party asserting the rule waits too long to raise the point.” Id., at 456. In Kontrick, the debtor responded on the merits to a creditor’s untimely objection to his discharge. He did not raise the untimeliness issue, and the court resolved the merits in favor of the creditor. On motion for reconsidera­ tion and on appeal, the debtor raised the argument that Rules 4004 and 9006 “have the same import as provisions governing subject-matter jurisdiction.” Id., at 455. We re­ jected this assertion and found that the debtor had forfeited the timeliness argument. The Rules we construed in Kontrick closely parallel those at issue here. Like a defendant wishing to move for a new trial under Federal Rule of Criminal Procedure 33, a creditor wishing to object to a debtor’s discharge in Chapter 7 liqui­ dation proceedings has a set period of time to ﬁle with the court (measured, in the latter context, from “the ﬁrst date set for the meeting of creditors”). Fed. Rule Bkrtcy. Proc. 4004(a). If a creditor so moves, “the court may for cause extend the time to ﬁle a complaint objecting to discharge.” Rule 4004(b). And using language almost identical to Fed­ eral Rule of Criminal Procedure 45(b)(2)’s admonition that “[t]he court may not extend the time to take any action under Rules 29, 33, 34, and 35, except as stated in those rules,” Bankruptcy Rule 9006(b)(3) states that “[t]he court may en­ large the time for taking action under Rules 1006(b)(2),