Notice Of Appeal Filed Before Rule 54(b) Certification Is Nevertheless Timely
BROWN v. COLUMBIA SUSSEX CORP. (December 15, 2011)
James Piggee runs the organization Giving Education Meaningful Substance. For two decades, he has organized an annual trip that exposes African-American high school students to predominately black universities. The destination for the Spring 2008 trip was Louisiana and Texas. The group reserved 41 rooms at the Marriott Hotel in Baton Rouge Louisiana. Within a few days, the hotel canceled the reservation. Piggee, the students, and the chaperones (268 in all) filed suit against Marriott, alleging that the cancellation was racially motivated. In the district court, Marriott served discovery requests on the plaintiffs in December of 2009. Several deadlines came and went. A motion to compel was granted and ignored. The district court sanctioned the plaintiffs for their delay. Finally, almost a year after the discovery was served, Chief Judge Simon (N.D. Ind.) dismissed the case pursuant to Rule 37(b) with respect to the 200 or so plaintiffs that had not responded to discovery. Plaintiffs appealed.
In their opinion, Seventh Circuit Judges Posner, Flaum, and Sykes affirmed. The Court first addressed its jurisdiction. After the original appeal, the Court ordered briefing on jurisdiction since it appeared that the district court had not entered a final judgment. During the time for briefing, the appellant's returned to the district court and obtained a Rule 54(b) final judgment -- but did not file a new notice of appeal. In FirsTier, the Supreme Court concluded that a notice of appeal was timely when it followed a district court's decision but preceded its entry of judgment. In that case, however, the only thing that followed the notice was the actual entry of the judgment. Here, the plaintiffs had to move for and support a Rule 54 judgment. The Court identified two alternate readings of FirsTier. Under one reading, a premature notice of appeal is allowed if it is followed only by the ministerial task of entering judgment. Under another reading, a premature notice of appeal is allowed if, with respect to the claim being appealed, the only thing remaining is the entry of the judgment. The Court concluded that the latter interpretation was the correct one and held the notice timely. On the merits, the Court seemed to have little difficulty in finding the dismissal sanction, although serious, not inappropriate. Plaintiffs’ counsel missed numerous discovery deadlines, violated court orders, did not have the resources to handle the case, had not even spoken with many of the plaintiffs, and was warned that the court had given its "final extension." No more is necessary.
Bruce Williams brought a
The
Mariana Kasalo brought suit under the 
Golf 255's creditors petitioned to have it declared bankrupt in late 2006. The bankruptcy court appointed Robert Eggmann as trustee, granted Eggmann's motion to sell the corporation's principal asset (a golf course), and ultimately approved the sale. Nick Jakich and Jay Dunlap, Golf's owners, opposed the petition and the sale, appealed from the sale order, moved to remove the trustee, and moved to dismiss the proceedings -- all to no avail. Over a year later, they continued their challenge. They asked to conduct discovery on whether the bankruptcy proceedings and sale had been fraudulent, and asked the court to rescind the sale and investigate their allegations of fraud. The bankruptcy court denied the requests. Finally, they opposed the Eggmann's request to close the case. The bankruptcy court closed the case. Judge Murphy (S.D. Ill.) affirmed. Jakich and Dunlap appeal.
Twelve African-American
Dustin Busson-Sokolik attended the
Joshua Hoskins had a number of complaints about the way he was treated in an Illinois prison. They included the use of excessive force, the denial of medication, and the inadequate processing of grievances. He brought five separate complaints under § 1983 against the
South Beach Securities, Inc. is controlled by Leon Greenblatt and was once a registered securities dealer. In the early 2000s, Greenblatt orchestrated a number of financial transactions among South Beach and other companies, including Scattered Corporation, which he controlled in whole or in part. At the time, South Beach's only potential assets were net operating losses. As a result of the transactions, Scattered became South Beach's only creditor. South Beach filed a Chapter 11 petition and submitted a plan of reorganization. The U.S. Trustee opposed confirmation of the plan. The bankruptcy court refused confirmation and dismissed the petition. Judge Lefkow (N.D. Ill.) affirmed. Scattered and South Beach appeal.
Rex Carr was a lawyer in southern Illinois. He and his partners had several agreements concerning the allocation of fees earned by the firm. The agreements continued in effect after the dissolution of the firm in 2003. Significant disputes arose, and a host of lawsuits were filed, with respect to those fees. A Memorandum of Understanding (MOU) was agreed to in 2004. It was meant to control the distribution of all fees, past and future, among the partners. Notwithstanding an agreement to dismiss all pending cases, Carr actually amended a counterclaim in one of the pending actions to assert that he had been fraudulently induced to enter into the MOU. The claim was eventually dismissed and the dismissal was affirmed. While the appeal was pending, Carr brought four separate suits in state court, then brought this federal case, and then voluntarily dismissed the state cases. He brought the federal case under RICO, repeating many of the allegations of the earlier suits, including the fraudulent inducement claim. The district court dismissed the suit for failure to state a claim. Carr appeals. The defendants cross-appeal from the court's denial of their motion for sanctions.
Rhonda Salmeron was fired by Enterprise Recovery Systems ("ERS"). Thereafter, she brought a qui tam action, alleging that ERS engaged in fraud related to its student loan debt collection practices. Jorge Sanchez represented Salmeron. During the three years the suit was pending in district court, Sanchez missed numerous deadlines, failed to appear in court and repeatedly failed to live up to his promises. Sanchez' conduct ultimately led the trial court to dismiss the case. On Sanchez' motion, the court reopened the case -- but warned Sanchez that it was "the final warning." Within weeks, confidential documents produced by the defendants in the case appeared on the Internet. Although no confidentiality order was in place at the time, the defendants emphasized to Sanchez that they intended the documents to be confidential and the parties agreed to keep them so. The principal reason the confidentiality agreement was not in place was because Sanchez never provided any comments or changes. Sanchez admitted leaking the document to numerous outside sources. The court dismissed the case with prejudice, finding that Sanchez violated the agreement with defendants' counsel to keep the documents confidential. Salmeron appeals.
The losers is in a contested union election sued the winners. The defendants prevailed on all counts. As discovery proceeded during the case, it became apparent that plaintiffs could not support some of their claims. Defendants demanded that some claims be withdrawn, to no avail. Defendants asked for sanctions under 28 U.S.C. §1927 and FRCP 11. The court ordered plaintiffs’ attorney, James Banks, to pay $80,000 in sanctions. Banks appeals.
Sam Bingham was a Wisconsin high school student. His parents petitioned their school district to provide special education services for him. The district did not do so. Sam transferred to a private school. After Sam graduated, his parents filed a request for a hearing with the Wisconsin Department of Public Instruction. They alleged that the school district had failed to comply with the Individuals with Disabilities Education Act (“IDEA”). They asked for reimbursement of their private school tuition costs. Before a hearing was held, the district reimbursed the Binghams for the full amount they requested. The administrative law judge dismissed the petition as moot. The Binghams asked for a declaration that they had “prevailed” for purposes of seeking attorneys’ fees under IDEA. The administrative law judge refused. The Binghams appealed to the district court. The court concluded that the Binghams were not prevailing parties and denied their motion for attorneys’ fees. The Binghams appeal.