Vencor Hospitals v. Standard Life and Acc. Ins., No. 00-16345.

• Citation: 279 F.3d 1306
• Decision Date: 24 January 2002
• Docket Number: No. 00-16345.
• Parties: VENCOR HOSPITALS, INC., d.b.a. Vencor Hospital-Tampa, Plaintiff-Appellant, v. STANDARD LIFE AND ACCIDENT INSURANCE COMPANY, Defendant-Appellee.
• Court: United States Courts of Appeals. United States Court of Appeals (11th Circuit)

279 F.3d 1306

VENCOR HOSPITALS, INC., d.b.a. Vencor Hospital-Tampa, Plaintiff-Appellant, v. STANDARD LIFE AND ACCIDENT INSURANCE COMPANY, Defendant-Appellee.

No. 00-16345.

United States Court of Appeals, Eleventh Circuit.

January 24, 2002.

Richard Benjamin Wilkes, John E. Thomas, Gardner, Wilkes, Shaheen & Candelora, Tampa, FL, Bradley L. Kelly, Mintz, Levin, Cohn, Ferris, Glovsky & Popeo PC, Washington, DC, for Plaintiff-Appellant.

Samuel G. Ware, Richard J. Kilmartin, Knight, Boland & Riordan, San Francisco, CA, John E. Phelan, Miami, FL, for Defendant-Appellee.

Appeal from the United States District Court for the Middle District of Florida.

Before ANDERSON, Chief Judge, BLACK, Circuit Judge, and MORENO,^* District Judge.

BLACK, Circuit Judge:

Appellant Vencor Hospitals, Inc. filed a motion for reconsideration following the grant of summary judgment in favor of Appellee Standard Life and Accident Insurance Company. The motion for reconsideration was denied by the district court; however, neither party received notice of the order. After discovering the denial of its motion for reconsideration almost a year later, Appellant sought relief from judgment. The district court determined relief was precluded based on the 1991 amendment adopting Federal Rule of Appellate Procedure 4(a)(6). We affirm.

I. BACKGROUND

Appellant commenced this action to recover the balance due for hospital services rendered to Etha Good, a Florida resident to whom Appellee had issued an insurance policy providing benefits supplementing her Medicare coverage. At issue was whether the terms of the insurance policy limited reimbursement to the discounted rates accepted by the hospital from Medicare, or whether the policy obligated payment at Appellant's standard rates. Following cross-motions for summary judgment, the district court granted summary judgment in favor of Appellee, holding the policy unambiguously mandated payment at Medicare rates.

Appellant timely moved for reconsideration. On October 26, 1999, the district court issued an order denying the motion for reconsideration. Neither party, however, received notice of the order. Nearly a year later, on or about October 6, 2000, Appellant first learned its motion for reconsideration had been denied.¹

On October 17, 2000, Appellant filed a motion for relief from judgment pursuant to Federal Rule of Civil Procedure 60(b). In this motion, Appellant asked the district court to vacate its October 26, 1999 order denying reconsideration and re-enter the order on or about October 6, 2000, the date of actual notice. In effect, Appellant sought an extension of the time period for filing a notice of appeal from the order denying its motion for reconsideration. Based on the 1991 amendment adopting Federal Rule of Appellate Procedure 4(a)(6), the district court concluded relief from judgment — almost a year after its entry — was not available under Rule 60(b). Appellant's motion for relief from judgment, thus, was denied.

II. STANDARD OF REVIEW

A district court's interpretation of federal procedural rules is subject to de novo review. See Pickett v. Iowa Beef Processors, 209 F.3d 1276, 1279 (11th Cir. 2000) (holding a district court's interpretation of the Federal Rules of Civil Procedure is a question of law subject to de novo review); Silvious v. Pharaon, 54 F.3d 697, 700 (11th Cir.1995) (same); Grayson v. K Mart Corp., 79 F.3d 1086, 1096-97 (11th Cir.1996) (same).

III. DISCUSSION

This appeal concerns the circumstances under which a district court can extend the time for filing an appeal when a party does not receive actual notice of the judgment. Appellant argues the district court erred in denying its motion for relief from judgment, arguing Rule 60(b) may be used to circumvent the deadlines for appeal set forth in Federal Rule of Appellate Procedure 4(a). Alternatively, Appellant argues it should be given additional time to file an appeal based on the unique circumstances arising from its lack of notice.²

A. Relief from Judgment Based on Lack of Actual Notice

Federal Rule of Appellate Procedure 4(a) prescribes strict time limits for filing a notice of appeal after entry of a final judgment or order by the district court. Generally, notice of an appeal must be filed within 30 days after the judgment or order being appealed is entered. Fed. R.App. P. 4(a)(1)(A). Although the district court clerk's office is obligated to serve parties with notice of judgments and orders, "[l]ack of notice of the entry by the clerk does not affect the time to appeal or relieve or authorize the court to relieve a party for failure to appeal within the time allowed, except as permitted in Rule 4(a) of the Federal Rules of Appellate Procedure." Fed.R.Civ.P. 77(d).

Prior to 1991, neither the Federal Rules of Civil Procedure nor the Federal Rules of Appellate Procedure contained provisions permitting an extension of the time limit for filing an appeal when a party entitled to receive notice of the entry of a judgment or order fails to receive such notice. In 1991, however, Federal Rule of Appellate Procedure 4(a) was amended to include subsection (6), which states:

(6) Reopening the Time to File an Appeal. The district court may reopen the time to file an appeal for a period of 14 days after the date when its order to reopen is entered, but only if all the following conditions are satisfied:

(A) the motion is filed within 180 days after the judgment or order is entered or within 7 days after the moving party receives notice of the entry, whichever is earlier;

(B) the court finds that the moving party was entitled to notice of the entry of the judgment or order sought to be appealed but did not receive the notice from the district court or any party within 21 days after entry; and

(C) the court finds that no party would be prejudiced.

Fed. R.App. P. 4(a)(6). By providing a limited opportunity to reopen the time for appeal, Rule 4(a)(6) balances the inequity of foreclosing appeals by parties who do not receive actual notice of a dispositive order against the need to protect the finality of judgments.

Having failed to receive actual notice of the district court's October 26, 1999 order denying its motion for reconsideration until almost a year after the order was entered, Appellant did not appeal the order within the 30-day time period set forth in Rule 4(a). Unfortunately for Appellant, the deadline for seeking to reopen its time for appeal pursuant to Rule 4(a)(6) also had passed. Although Appellant likely could meet the second and third conditions for reopening the time for appeal, the first condition could not be satisfied because more than 180 days had elapsed since the judgment was entered.

Unable to seek an extension of time to appeal under Rule 4(a)(6), Appellant filed a motion for relief from judgment pursuant to Rule 60(b). Rule 60(b) allows a district court to relieve a party from final judgment for "mistake, inadvertence, surprise, or excusable neglect, ... or ... any other reason justifying relief from the operation of the judgment." Fed.R.Civ.P. 60(b). Prior to 1991, relief from judgment under Rule 60(b) was a recognized method of avoiding the otherwise harsh results imposed upon parties failing to receive actual notice of a judgment until after the time for appeal had passed. See, e.g., Harnish v. Manatee County, Florida, 783 F.2d 1535, 1538 (11th Cir.1986) ("By availing itself of the escape valve provided by Rule 60(b) of the Federal Rules of Civil Procedure in vacating and reentering its order on the Rule 59 motion, the court avoided the manifest injustice worked by a rigid application of the provisions of Rule 77(d) to the above-recited facts.").

At issue is whether, in light of the 1991 amendment adopting Rule 4(a)(6), Rule 60(b) continues to be a viable means of de facto granting an extension of the time in which a party failing to receive notice of a final judgment or order may file an appeal.³ The amendment itself acknowledges the unfairness of enforcing the strict Rule 4(a) deadlines for filing an appeal when a party does not receive notice of a judgment or order. By way of remedying such inequities, the amendment permits an extension of the time to appeal. Such extension, however, is not unlimited. In the interest of protecting the finality of judgments, Rule 4(a)(6) specifically conditions extension on the filing of a motion for relief within 180 days after the judgment or order is entered. Under the plain meaning of Rule 4(a)(6), district courts are authorized to reopen the time for filing an appeal based on lack of notice solely within 180 days of the judgment or order.

Also instructive on the effect of Rule 4(a)(6) are the explanatory notes of the advisory committee adopting the 1991 amendment:

The amendment provides a limited opportunity for relief in circumstances where the notice of entry of a judgment or order, required to be mailed by the clerk of the district court pursuant to Rule 77(d) of the Federal Rules of Civil Procedure, is either not received by a party or is received so late as to impair the opportunity to file a timely notice of appeal. The amendment adds a new subdivision (6) allowing a district court to reopen for a brief period the time for appeal upon a finding that notice of entry of a judgment or order was not received from the clerk or a party within 21 days of its entry and that no party would be prejudiced....

Reopening may be ordered only upon a motion filed within 180 days of the entry of a judgment or order or within 7 days of receipt of notice of such entry, whichever is earlier. This provision establishes an outer time limit of 180 days for a party who fails to receive timely notice of entry of a judgment to seek additional time to appeal....

Fed. R.App. P. 4 advisory committee's notes to 1991 amendment (emphasis added). As with the language of the amendment itself, the advisory committee's notes evidence an intent to provide an...