Witherspoon v. White

• Citation: 111 F.3d 399
• Decision Date: 02 May 1997
• Docket Number: No. 95-40856,95-40856
• Parties: Tyrone Lamel WITHERSPOON, Plaintiff-Appellant, v. Ivan WHITE, in his official capacity as Warden, FCI Texarkana; Janet Reno, in her official capacity as U.S. Attorney General; Up Springfellow, in his official capacity as Doctor, FCI Texarkana, Wade Lee Medical Center, Texarkana, Arkansas; Kathleen Hawk, in her official capacity as Director of U.S. Bureau of Prisons, CMC Cord Texarkana, AR, FCI, Defendants-Appellees. Summary Calendar.
• Court: United States Courts of Appeals. United States Court of Appeals (5th Circuit)

Page 399

111 F.3d 399

37 Fed.R.Serv.3d 856

Tyrone Lamel WITHERSPOON, Plaintiff-Appellant, v. Ivan WHITE, in his official capacity as Warden, FCI

Texarkana; Janet Reno, in her official capacity as U.S.

Attorney General; Up Springfellow, in his official capacity

as Doctor, FCI Texarkana, Wade Lee Medical Center,

Texarkana, Arkansas; Kathleen Hawk, in her official

capacity as Director of U.S. Bureau of Prisons, CMC Cord

Texarkana, AR, FCI, Defendants-Appellees.

No. 95-40856

Summary Calendar.

United States Court of Appeals, Fifth Circuit.

May 2, 1997.

Robin P. Hartman, Haynes & Boone, Dallas, TX, for Plaintiff-Appellant.

Dane H. Smith, Office of the U.S. Attorney, Tyler, TX, for Defendants-Appellees, White, Springfellow, Hawk and CMC Cord Texarkana, AR, FCI.

John Louis Tidwell, Glen Carter Hudspeth, Gooding & Dodson, Texarkana, TX, for Defendant-Appellee Wade Lee Medical Center, Texarkana, AR.

Appeal from the United States District Court for the Eastern District of Texas.

Before JOHNSON, WIENER and DENNIS, Circuit Judges.

JOHNSON, Circuit Judge:

Tyrone Lamel Witherspoon appeals the dismissal of his 42 U.S.C. § 1983 action. However, because the district court failed to render a final judgment in this action, we dismiss the present appeal for lack of jurisdiction.

I. Facts and Procedural History

Witherspoon, a federal prisoner, filed a civil rights complaint pursuant to 42 U.S.C. § 1983 against Warden Ivan White, United States Attorney General Janet Reno; a physician at the Federal Correctional Institute in Texarkana, Texas, Dr. Stringfellow; Director of United States Bureau of Prisons Kathleen Hawk (federal defendants); ¹ and Wadley Medical Center (Wadley), alleging that the defendants violated his Eighth Amendment rights by failing to provide medical treatment and a safe environment. In Witherspoon's complaint, he requested appointment of counsel. The magistrate judge denied this request and stated that the questions presented in this action were "rather routine" and "that the applicable law [was] well settled." Furthermore, the magistrate judge found that Witherspoon was "able to articulate his claim," thus alleviating the need for assistance of counsel. ²

Wadley filed an answer to Witherspoon's complaint. The federal defendants, however, filed a motion to dismiss, or alternatively, a motion for summary judgment. The magistrate judge ordered Witherspoon to respond to the federal defendants' motion. Witherspoon filed a handwritten letter, requesting the assistance of appointed counsel in order to respond to the federal defendants' motion. Additionally, Witherspoon made a third request for the appointment of counsel in a formal motion drafted with the help of a fellow inmate. Apparently, neither the magistrate nor district judge reconsidered Witherspoon's potential need for appointment of counsel at this juncture in the litigation; indeed, no specific ruling on either of these last two requests appears in the record.

The magistrate judge reviewed the federal defendants' motion to dismiss and alternative motion for summary judgment and recommended granting the motion as a motion for summary judgment. ³ After the magistrate judge made his report and recommendation to the district court, Wadley filed its own motion for summary judgment, which neither the magistrate judge nor the district court appears to have ever reviewed.

The district court adopted the magistrate judge's report and recommendation regarding the federal defendants' motion and issued a separate final judgment in accordance with Federal Rule 58. In the district court's final judgment, the court granted the "defendants' motion to dismiss" ⁴ and purported to dismiss Witherspoon's entire complaint with prejudice. See discussion infra pp. 402-03. Witherspoon filed a notice of appeal from the district court's entry of "Final Judgment."

II. Discussion

None of the parties to this action have raised the issue of the existence of appellate jurisdiction; nevertheless, we are obligated to raise the matter on our own motion. See United States v. Garner, 749 F.2d 281, 284 (5th Cir.1985). In general, federal appellate courts have jurisdiction pursuant to 28 U.S.C. § 1291 to hear appeals from "final decisions," although in limited circumstances, an appellate court's jurisdiction may extend to reviewing nonfinal or interlocutory orders. ⁵

A final judgment is one that "ends the litigation on the merits and leaves nothing for the court to do but execute the judgment." Coopers & Lybrand v. Livesay, 437 U.S. 463, 467, 98 S.Ct. 2454, 2457, 57 L.Ed.2d 351 (1978) (internal quotations and citations omitted); see also Pan Eastern Exploration Co. v. Hufo Oils, 798 F.2d 837, 838 (5th Cir.1986). Merely labeling a judgment as final does not make it so. See Stillman v. Travelers Ins. Co., 88 F.3d 911, 913 (11th Cir.1996). The order must adjudicate the rights and liabilities of all parties properly before the court. See Arango v. Guzman Travel Advisors Corp., 621 F.2d 1371, 1374 (5th Cir.1980). In circumstances in which a court order is ambiguous as to what parties and claims are being disposed of and "the district court ... intend[ed] to effect a final dismissal of a claim, we will construe its order accordingly, despite ambiguous language that might indicate otherwise." Picco v. Global Marine Drilling Co., 900 F.2d 846, 849 n. 4 (5th Cir.1990); see also 15A WRIGHT, ET AL., supra, § 3914.6. However, when the record clearly indicates that the district court failed to adjudicate the rights and liabilities of all parties, the order is not and cannot be presumed to be final, irrespective of the district court's intent. See Patchick v. Kensington Publishing Corp., 743 F.2d 675, 677 (9th Cir.1984) (holding that when the record indicates that a served defendant remains a party to an action, the court cannot assume finality).

In the present case, the district court issued an order entitled "Final Judgment," apparently intending to dismiss Witherspoon's case in its entirety. In the order, the court granted the "defendants' motion to dismiss" and denied all other outstanding motions. The face of the order appears unclear as to whom the district court is referring when it states "defendants' motion to dismiss." As stated above, the federal defendants filed a motion to dismiss, or alternatively, a motion for summary judgment and Wadley filed a separate motion for summary judgment. However, after thoroughly reviewing the record, we find that the district court only granted the federal defendants' motion.

First, the court granted "defendants' motion to dismiss," whereas Wadley never filed a motion to dismiss. The federal defendants, however, file a motion titled, "Defendants' Motion to Dismiss or Alternatively, Motion for Summary Judgment." Thus, when the district court used the phrase "defendants' motion to dismiss" the court was simply referencing the name of the specific document filed by the federal defendants. Second, the district court issued its judgment in accordance with the magistrate judge's report and recommendation which dealt solely with the federal defendants' motion. While the magistrate never specifically addressed for which defendants he recommended granting summary judgment, it is clear after reviewing the record that the recommendation applied only to the federal defendants. The record indicates that Wadley was not represented in this action by the United States Attorney who filed the motion reviewed by the magistrate judge, and that Wadley did not file its separate motion for summary judgment until after the magistrate judge issued his report. Thus, Wadley's motion was never before the magistrate judge.

Because we find that the district court was solely granting the federal defendants' motion for summary judgment in its final judgment order, Wadley's motion for summary judgment remained live and undetermined. The record indicates that neither the district court nor the magistrate judge ever ruled on Wadley's motion. Moreover, Wadley's motion asserted different grounds than those asserted by the federal defendants, and the magistrate's report, which the district court adopted, did not address the grounds asserted by Wadley. Further complicating matters, the district judge stated in its final judgment order that "all motions by either party not previously ruled on [were] denied." Normally, this phrase is merely boilerplate language used by district courts to insure the finality of its order. In the present case, however, the district court actually achieved an inverse result. Since the district court had not ruled on Wadley's motion, the final judgment order effectively denied Wadley's motion for summary judgment and left Wadley as a party to the action with Witherspoon's claims against Wadley intact. Irrespective of the district court's intent to dismiss Witherspoon's entire action and issue a final judgment, we hold that Witherspoon's claims against Wadley are still viable and that the district court's "Final Judgment" order lacks finality.

We do, however, recognize that a decision failing to adjudicate the rights and liabilities of all parties, while not technically final, can be certified as final pursuant to Federal Rule of Civil Procedure 54(b). See Thompson v. Betts, 754 F.2d 1243, 1245 (5th Cir.1985). In certifying a decision...