Stanley v. Amoco Oil Co.
| Decision Date | 26 May 1992 |
| Docket Number | No. 91-3424,91-3424 |
| Citation | 965 F.2d 203 |
| Parties | Carl E. STANLEY and Joyce Stanley, Plaintiffs-Appellants, v. AMOCO OIL COMPANY, Defendant-Appellee. |
| Court | U.S. Court of Appeals — Seventh Circuit |
Stephen Owen Walker (argued), Cleveland, Ohio, for plaintiffs-appellants.
Joel C. Levy (argued), Munster, Ind., for defendant-appellee.
Before CUDAHY, EASTERBROOK, and KANNE, Circuit Judges.
Carl Stanley was injured when a forklift unloading his truck stalled and rolled backward, pinching his foot between the pallet and the bed of the truck. He and his wife filed suit against Thomas Keck (the operator of the forklift), P.D.Q. Maintenance, Inc. (Keck's employer), and Amoco Oil Company (on whose premises the accident occurred). The Stanleys, Keck, and P.D.Q. settled their dispute, leaving Amoco the sole defendant. A magistrate judge granted summary judgment to Amoco.
Appellate jurisdiction is the first question--one the parties slighted in their briefs despite the requirement of Circuit Rule 28(b)(2)(v) that when an appeal under 28 U.S.C. § 636(c)(3) is taken from the decision of a magistrate judge, the brief shall state "the dates on which each party consented in writing to the entry of final judgment by the magistrate." Plaintiffs' brief, prepared by Stephen Walker of Cleveland, did not mention consent, and Amoco's brief asserted that appellants' jurisdictional statement "is complete and correct." When we inquired at oral argument, plaintiffs' lawyer observed that he is from Ohio--as if lawyers from outside the circuit cannot be expected to read our rules!--and the lawyer for Amoco (Joel Levy of Munster, Indiana) lacked even such a sickly account.
We gave the parties ten days to file the consents, which we had been unable to locate in the record. The Stanleys' lawyer furnished a new "jurisdictional statement" to which he attached the district court's order referring the case to a magistrate judge but stunningly again omitted the dates of the consents and did not include copies. Amoco's lawyer filed nothing until, after several telephone calls from the clerk's office, he produced a document grumbling that, as he had agreed to let the Stanleys' lawyer speak for both sides, he did not see why he had to file separately. In the event, his filing mimicked appellants'.
So we still had neither copies of the consent forms nor the means to locate them. This panel accordingly prepared an order dismissing the case for want of appellate jurisdiction, because, in the absence of consent, review of a magistrate judge's decision lies in the district court. E.g., Jaliwala v. United States, 945 F.2d 221 (7th Cir.1991). While making a final check, however, we discovered that copies of the consents had been added to the record, belatedly, by the district court. Perhaps one or another lawyer arranged for this, but neither bothered to tell us.
Both lawyers are responsible for a substantial waste of our time. Failure to file proper jurisdictional materials the first time is bad enough. To file defective statements a second time, after the court has directed the attention of counsel to the subject with particularity, is unfathomable.
That is not the only jurisdictional problem. Federal jurisdiction depends on diversity of citizenship, yet despite Circuit Rule 28(b)(1) appellants' jurisdictional statement does not identify the citizenship of any of the parties. Amoco, recall, certified that this statement is "complete and correct." Neither lawyer had any explanation for this shortcoming other than ignorance and laziness. The court had checked the record and found the details there, with one exception: nothing established Amoco's principal place of business. So we directed counsel to amend the pleadings on appeal, as 28 U.S.C. § 1653 allows, to allege Amoco's principal place of business.
Neither side complied. Both the Stanleys and Amoco filed documents they captioned "jurisdictional statement" asserting that Amoco's principal place of business is in Illinois, which yields complete diversity of citizenship. Yet there is no affidavit to that effect and no motion to amend the pleadings. It is accordingly tempting to dismiss the case for want of subject-matter jurisdiction. But the parties have at least committed to paper their agreement on Amoco's principal place of business, and the consequence of dismissal for failure to supply this in the proper form would be a re-filing and more litigation, in either state or federal court (as we know from other sources that Amoco's corporate headquarters is indeed in Illinois). These lawyers, inexcusably nonchalant about jurisdiction, have already diverted enough time from other litigants' cases to their own. Lest they squander more, we proceed to the merits.
The Stanleys' lead argument on appeal is that Amoco, as owner of the premises where the accident occurred, is vicariously liable for Keck's torts, even though P.D.Q., Keck's employer, was an independent contractor. The magistrate judge ruled out the...
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...courts and, "in the absence of consent, review of a magistrate judge's decision lies in the district court." Stanley v. Amoco Oil Co., 965 F.2d 203, 204 (7th Cir.1992) (per curiam). Valid consent is essential to the constitutionality of § 636(c), and that consent must be explicit, clear, an......
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