Buggs v. Elgin, Joliet & Eastern Ry. Co.

• Decision Date: 25 July 1988
• Docket Number: 87-3097,Nos. 87-1343,s. 87-1343
• Parties: 47 Fair Empl.Prac.Cas. 774, 47 Empl. Prac. Dec. P 38,168, 11 Fed.R.Serv.3d 931 Robert L. BUGGS, Plaintiff-Appellee, v. ELGIN, JOLIET & EASTERN RAILWAY COMPANY, Defendant-Appellant.
• Court: U.S. Court of Appeals — Seventh Circuit

Page 318

852 F.2d 318

47 Fair Empl.Prac.Cas. 774,

47 Empl. Prac. Dec. P 38,168, 11 Fed.R.Serv.3d 931

Robert L. BUGGS, Plaintiff-Appellee, v. ELGIN, JOLIET & EASTERN RAILWAY COMPANY, Defendant-Appellant.

Nos. 87-1343, 87-3097.

United States Court of Appeals, Seventh Circuit.

Argued May 25, 1988.

Decided July 25, 1988.

William M. Stevens, Rooks, Pitts & Poust, Chicago, Ill., for defendant-appellant.

Richard S. Tebik, Shozen & Tebik, Munster, Ind., for plaintiff-appellee.

Before WOOD, Jr. and FLAUM, Circuit Judges, and WILL, Senior District Judge ^*.

FLAUM, Circuit Judge.

The defendant-appellant, Elgin Joliet & Eastern Railway Co. ("E J & E"), appeals from a Corrected Judgment Order entered in favor of the plaintiff-appellee, Robert L. Buggs. For the reasons set forth below, we affirm and remand for further proceedings.

I.

The facts giving rise to this appeal are undisputed. On September 26, 1980, Buggs filed a complaint against E J & E alleging that he was discharged in July 1977 on account of his race in violation of Title VII of the Civil Rights Act of 1964, 42 U.S.C. Sec. 2000e et seq. A trial was held on February 18 and 19, 1986, and on October 3 the presiding magistrate entered judgment in favor of Buggs. ¹ The magistrate awarded Buggs the following relief:

Based upon the foregoing Findings of Fact and Conclusions of Law, the Court now finds that the plaintiff, Robert L. Buggs, is entitled to judgment against the defendant, Elgin, Joliet and Eastern Railway Company, as a result of his discharge on July 12, 1977. The Court further finds that the plaintiff is entitled to reinstatement, back pay in the amount of $36,000, and attorney fees. The plaintiff is GRANTED 30 days in which to submit an appropriate claim for attorney fees.

(emphasis added).

On November 3, 1986, Buggs filed a Motion to Correct Judgment pursuant to Federal Rules of Civil Procedure 60(b)(1) and (b)(6). The motion requested that the October 3 judgment be amended to provide additional relief. Specifically, the motion stated:

That Plaintiff is further entitled to reinstatement, backpay and fringe benefits calculated at the rate of Plaintiff's loss from the date of termination up to and including the time of reinstatement which includes $36,000.00 representing amount loss [sic] based upon Plaintiff's earnings at the time of termination and such other increases Plaintiff would have received if he continued employment; Plaintiff also to be awarded all benefits loss [sic] from the time of termination up to and including the date of reinstatement; and attorney fees.

The magistrate heard arguments on January 21, 1987 and concluded that the motion should be denied for three reasons. First, to the extent that the Motion to Correct Judgment was in effect a Rule 59(e) Motion to Alter or Amend a Judgment, the motion was untimely because it was not filed within 10 days of the entry of judgment. See Fed.R.Civ.P. 59(e). Second, if the Motion to Correct Judgment was properly premised upon Rule 60(b), the motion was defective because Buggs neglected to explain why he had not introduced any evidence concerning these additional issues at trial. Third, because Buggs failed to timely appeal the judgment, the magistrate denied his motion on the ground that Rule 60 may not be used as a substitute for appeal. See Andrews v. Heinold Commodities Inc., 771 F.2d 184, 188 (7th Cir.1985). The magistrate did, however, award Buggs attorneys' fees, even though his fee petition was submitted 66 days after the deadline initially set by the court's order.

Following the withdrawal of his court-appointed counsel, on February 27 Buggs filed pro se a Motion to Reconsider the Motion to Correct Judgment. This motion was denied on February 13. That same day, Buggs filed both a Notice of Appeal from the denial of his motion for reconsideration ² and a new Motion to Clarify Judgment. In his Motion to Clarify, Buggs once again requested an amendment of the magistrate's October 3 judgment to provide him with retroactive seniority and appropriate fringe benefits. E J & E moved to dismiss the Motion to Clarify on the same grounds on which Buggs' initial Motion to Correct had been rejected; E J & E also filed, on February 27, a Notice of Appeal (No. 87-1343) from both the October 3 judgment and the January 21 fee award. ³ A status hearing was held on April 13 at which Buggs, apparently once again assisted by counsel, informed the court that his Motion to Clarify was in the nature of a Motion to Enforce Judgment. As a result, the court entered an order requiring Buggs to provide E J & E with a list of alleged violations of the October 3 judgment. It is unclear whether Buggs ever furnished such a list to the defendant.

Finally, without further proceedings and at a time when the parties' own Notices of Appeal had vested appellate jurisdiction in this court, the magistrate on September 30 (almost one year after the date of Buggs' Title VII judgment) entered an advisory order conditionally granting the Motion to Clarify. ⁴ Relying alternatively on Rules 60(a) and 60(b), the magistrate's order stated, inter alia:

After finding that Buggs was discharged because of his race, the October 3rd order specifically held that Buggs was entitled to reinstatement and back pay. The order did not address the issues of fringe benefits and retroactive seniority. Because of this oversight, Buggs alleges that he was reinstated without receiving the appropriate seniority and fringe benefits.

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* * *

... Buggs automatically was entitled to his retroactive seniority. In finding in favor of Buggs, this Court intended to order his reinstatement in a manner which would effectively eliminate the affects [sic] of the discrimination.

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* * *

As discussed previously, the October 3, 1986 order was intended to reinstate Buggs and to provide him with back pay and the other equitable relief available under Title VII. Since the failure to mention retroactive seniority and fringe benefits was an oversight, appropriate relief may be granted under Rule 60(a) without reference to when the request was made.

* * *

* * *

In the instant case, the [Rule 60(b) ] mistake or inadvertence was on the part of the court, and not one of the parties.

In light of the magistrate's order and pursuant to Federal Rule of Civil Procedure 60(a), we remanded the case to the magistrate who, on November 23, corrected the disputed portion of the original October 3 judgment to read:

The Court further finds that the plaintiff is entitled to reinstatement with retroactive seniority and appropriate fringe benefits, back pay in the amount of $36,000.00, and attorney fees.

On December 18, E J & E filed a second Notice of Appeal (No. 87-3097) from this now final order.

II.

On appeal, E J & E raises essentially three arguments. First, it maintains that the magistrate was without authority under either Rule 60(a) or 60(b)(1) to correct the October 3 judgment. Second, it contends that the court acted improperly in granting Buggs' fee petition, which was submitted more than two months late. Third, E J & E argues that the magistrate's subsequent amendment of the original order reopened the entire Title VII judgment to allow an appeal on the merits. We consider these arguments in turn.

In his September 30, 1987 order, the magistrate predicated his authority to amend the October 3 judgment on Federal Rules of Civil Procedure 60(a) and 60(b)(1). Rule 60(a), entitled "Clerical Mistakes," states in relevant part: "Clerical mistakes in judgments, orders or other parts of the record and errors therein arising from oversight or omission may be corrected by the court at any time of its own initiative or on the motion of any party...." Whether or not a proposed correction of a judgment qualifies as a Rule 60(a) "clerical mistake" depends on whether "... the flaw lies in the translation of the original meaning to the judgment[; if so,] Rule 60(a) allows a correction, if the judgment captures the original meaning but is infected by error, then the parties must seek another source of authority to correct the mistake." United States v. Griffin, 782 F.2d 1393, 1396-97 (7th Cir.1986). Within 31 days after the magistrate's October 3 judgment, Buggs presented the court with a Motion to Correct Judgment seeking the same correction that was ultimately granted almost a year later. The court's emphatic denial of Buggs' initial request to amend the judgment persuades us that it did not originally contemplate awarding retroactive seniority and foregone fringe benefits when entering its October 3 order. Hence, this is not the sort of "scrivener's error" which Rule 60(a) ordinarily addresses. See e.g., Charles v. Daley, 799 F.2d 343, 347 (7th Cir.1986).

Rule 60(b)(1), however, does give the magistrate the authority to correct its earlier judgment. Rule 60(b)(1) empowers district courts to "relieve a party ... from a final judgment ... for ... inadvertence." The inadvertence can be on the part of the court rather than the parties. Bank of California v. Arthur Andersen & Co., 709 F.2d 1174, 1176 (7th Cir.1983). The magistrate admitted that the failure to include retroactive seniority and fringe benefits in its October 3 order was its own error and was not attributable to the parties. Apparently, the court simply failed to apprehend the extent of the relief that was necessary to make Buggs "whole" in light of his discriminatory discharge. See e.g. Franks v. Bowman Transp. Co., Inc., 424 U.S. 747, 763, 96 S.Ct. 1251, 1263, 47 L.Ed.2d 444 (1976) (one of the central purposes of Title VII is to make persons whole for injuries suffered on account of unlawful employment discrimination). Thus, Rule 60(b)(1) was the proper procedural vehicle to correct the magistrate's oversight and to effectuate the broad remedial purposes of Title VII.

E J & E's second argument is that the magistrate was without authority to grant Buggs' fee petition because the petition...