Webster v. Pacesetter, Inc.

• Decision Date: 01 July 2003
• Docket Number: No. CIV.A. 01-0928(ESH).,CIV.A. 01-0928(ESH).
• Parties: Arnold W. WEBSTER, et al., Plaintiffs, v. PACESETTER, INC. Defendant.
• Court: U.S. District Court — District of Columbia

270 F.Supp.2d 9

Arnold W. WEBSTER, et al., Plaintiffs, v. PACESETTER, INC. Defendant.

No. CIV.A. 01-0928(ESH).

United States District Court, District of Columbia.

July 1, 2003.

Herbert Vincent McKnight, Jr., Ashcraft & Gerel, Washington, DC, for Plaintiffs.

Paul Joseph Maloney, Carr Maloney P.C., Washington, DC, James A. Gale, Gregg Metzger, Derek V. Lewis, Michael J. Weber, Feldman, Gale & Weber, P.A., Miami, FL, for Defendant.

MEMORANDUM OPINION

HUVELLE, District Judge.

On April 16, 2003, this Court granted defendant's motion for summary judgment in this products liability suit. This in turn spawned the three motions that are currently before the Court. First, on May 6, 2003, plaintiffs filed a motion for reconsideration pursuant to Fed.R.Civ.P. 59 and 60. Next, on May 20, 2003, defendant filed a motion to strike plaintiffs' motion for reconsideration as untimely. Finally, two days later, plaintiffs moved to withdraw their motion for reconsideration, conceding that it was filed untimely, and to obtain an extension of time to file a notice of appeal pursuant to Fed. R.App. P. 4(a)(5).¹ The Court will grant plaintiffs' motion to withdraw their motion for reconsideration² and, for the reasons discussed below, deny their motion to obtain an extension to file a notice of appeal,

BACKGROUND

This matter arises from plaintiffs' product liability suit alleging a defect in one of the components of defendant's pacemaker system. The Court granted defendant's motion for summary judgment on April 16, 2003. See Webster v. Pacesetter, Civ. No. 01-928, 2003 WL 1889246 (D.D.C. April 16, 2003).³ On May 6, 2003, plaintiffs filed a motion for reconsideration. Plaintiffs conceded that the motion had not been filed within ten days of the April 16, 2003 Order, but they initially argued that the motion was timely because "the clerk of the Court had not filed an entry of judgment on a separate document, as required by Fed.R.Civ.P. 58," and, as a result, the ten-day period for filing a Rule 59(b) motion had not begun to run. (Memorandum in Support of Plaintiffs' Motion for Reconsideration ["Pl's Mem. I"] at 1 n. 1.) Later, plaintiffs acknowledged their error, blaming it on a law clerk's advice that there "were no [] cases" interpreting when entry of judgment has occurred.⁴ (Memorandum in Support of Plaintiffs' Motion to Withdraw Their Motion for Reconsideration and to Obtain an Extension to File Their Notice of Appeal ["Pl's Mem. II"] at 4.) Plaintiffs also have admitted that the "extraordinary circumstances" needed for granting relief from judgment under Rule 60(b) do not exist here. Id. at 5.) See Anderson v. Chevron, 190 F.R.D. 5 (D.D.C.1999). Realizing that there is no relief available under Rules 59 and 60, plaintiffs have moved to withdraw their Motion for Reconsideration and seek relief through the appeal process. As the thirty-day period for filing an appeal has lapsed, plaintiffs have requested an extension of time pursuant to Fed. R.App. P. 4(a)(5).⁵

LEGAL ANALYSIS

The filing of a timely notice of appeal is mandatory and jurisdictional. Browder v. Director, Dep't ofCorr., 434 U.S. 257, 264, 98 S.Ct. 556, 54 L.Ed.2d 521 (1978). "Filing a notice of appeal in compliance with the Federal Rules of Appellate Procedure is therefore of the `utmost importance.'" Reynolds v. Wagner, 121 F.3d 716, 1997 WL 423012, at *1 (9th Cir.1997) quoting 16A Charles A. Wright et al., Federal Practice and Procedure § 3950.1 (2d ed.1996)). Rule 4 clearly requires that parties file a notice of appeal within 30 days after judgment or the order appealed from is entered. Fed. R.App. P. 4(a)(1)(A). The same rule also grants district courts limited authority to extend the time for filing an appeal if the moving party shows either "excusable neglect" or "good cause" for failing to file a timely notice of appeal and the request is made within thirty days after the initial period for filing has expired. Fed. R.App. P. 4(a)(5). Thus, the question before the Court is whether plaintiffs have demonstrated either "excusable neglect" or "good cause" to justify their request for an extension of time to file their appeal.

I. Excusable Neglect

"[I]nadvertence, ignorance of the rules, or mistakes construing the rules do not usually constitute `excusable' neglect." Pioneer Inv. Servs. Co. v. Brunswick Assoc. Ltd., 507 U.S. 380, 392, 113 S.Ct. 1489, 123 L.Ed.2d 74 (1993). However, the Supreme Court considers excusable neglect an "elastic concept" that encompasses "situations in which the failure to comply with a filing deadline is attributable to negligence." Id. at 394, 113 S.Ct. 1489. A determination of whether neglect is "excusable" is "at bottom an equitable one, taking account of all relevant circumstances." Id. at 395, 113 S.Ct. 1489. In Pioneer, the Supreme Court announced four factors to be considered in making this determination: (1) the danger of prejudice to the opposing party; (2) the length of delay and its potential impact on the proceedings; (3) the reason for the delay and whether the delay was within the reasonable control of the moving party; and (4) whether the late party acted in good faith. Id. at 395, 113 S.Ct. 1489.

Despite the widespread recognition that Pioneer applies to Rule 4 motions,⁶ the circuit courts applying Pioneer give great weight to the long-standing principle that a mistake of law generally cannot form the basis of excusable neglect. See Advanced Estimating Sys., Inc., 130 F.3d at 999 ("The ancient legal maxim continues to apply: ignorance of fact may excuse; ignorance of law does not excuse."). Some have explicitly ruled "that a mistake of law does not constitute excusable neglect." Reynolds, 121 F.3d 716, 1997 WL 423012, at *1. See also Advanced Estimating Sys., 130 F.3d at 998 ( "[A]n attorney's misunderstanding of the plain language of a rule cannot constitute excusable neglect such that a party is relieved of the consequences of failing to comply with a statutory deadline."); Ceridian Corp. v. SCSC Corp., 212 F.3d 398, 404 (8th Cir.2000) ("Pioneer did not alter the traditional rule that mistakes of law do not constitute excusable neglect."); Deym, 127 F.3d 1102, 1997 WL 650933, at *2 (listing cases). Others recognize that Pioneer allows some room for judgment in determining whether mistakes of law are excusable but that such a determination would be "rare" or "extraordinary" and would require some ambiguity in the law. See United States v. Clark, 51 F.3d 42, 44 (5th Cir.1995) (finding no "dramatic ambiguity" in the law that would mandate the "extraordinary determination" that a mistake of law is excusable neglect); Midwest Employers Cos. Co., v. Williams, 161 F.3d 877, 879-80 (5th Cir.1998) ("We continue to leave open the possibility that some misinterpretations of the federal rules could constitute excusable neglect" but holding that this is the "rare case."). Prizevoits, 76 F.3d at 134 ("`excusable neglect' as used in Rule 4(a)(5) refers to the missing of a deadline as a result of such things as misrepresentations by judicial officers, lost mail, and plausible misinterpretations of ambiguous rules.").

Under either interpretation, counsel's mistaken belief that this Court's April 16, 2003 Order in the underlying case did not constitute a Rule 58(a) entry of judgment does not amount to excusable neglect. This Circuit's ruling in Kidd v. District of Columbia clearly states that "a single document that disposes of all ... claims can satisfy Rule 58 so long as it is sufficiently terse." 206 F.3d at 37. There is no ambiguity under Kidd that this Court's Order granting defendant's motion for summary judgment and dismissing plaintiffs' complaint satisfies the requirements of Rule 58 and Kidd. The Order was "sufficiently terse," id., and, as required by Rule 58, it was set out in a single document "distinct from any opinion or memorandum." See Fed.R.Civ.P. 58, Advisory Committee's Note to the 1963 amendment. Finally, plaintiffs' excuse for their oversight is simply insufficient. They argue that their failure to file a timely appeal was due to inadequate research that resulted in a misinterpretation of the requirements for entry of judgment. Plaintiffs, however, are not proceeding pro se here; they have the benefit of experienced counsel. And, there is no ambiguity in the law. Accordingly, this Court concludes that this is not one of the rare or extraordinary occasions that justifies "deviating from the general rule that a mistake of law does not constitute excusable neglect." Reynolds, 121 F.3d 716, 1997 WL 423012, at*3.

Plaintiffs rely heavily on City of Chanute v. Williams Natural Gas Co., 31 F.3d 1041 (10th Cir.1994), to demonstrate that excusable neglect may exist where an untimely filing is due to "unawareness of a precedent." (See Pl's Reply at 8.) In Chanute, plaintiffs filed a notice of appeal identifying the appealing parties as "City of Chanute, Kansas, et al," rather than listing all of the appealing cities in the caption as required by Supreme Court precedent. The Tenth Circuit ruled that the delay in filing a properly captioned notice of appeal due to plaintiffs' error amounted to excusable neglect. Chanute, 31 F.3d at 1047. This case is unpersuasive for a number of reasons.

First, the trend among the circuits goes decidedly the other way. Two circuits have ruled that neglect is not excusable in cases, similar to Chanute and the instant matter, where counsel concede that their mistakes resulted from their failure to identify precedential case law unambiguously interpreting the applicable statutes. See Ceridian Corp., 212 F.3d at 403, 405 (no excusable neglect justifying relief from judgment where counsel conceded that it "mistakenly overlooked" the relevant Minnesota law interpreting state garnishment statute, and as a result, failed to file a motion within the twenty-day statutory period); Webb v. James, 147 F.3d 617, 622 (7th Cir.1998) (no excusable neglect justifying relief from judgment where...