Beukema's Petroleum Company, Suburban Oil Company, Intervenor v. Admiral Petroleum Company, Appeal of Marathon Oil Company

613 F.2d 626, 53 A.L.R. Fed. 590, 28 Fed. R. Serv. 2d 822, 1979 U.S. App. LEXIS 9307
CourtCourt of Appeals for the Sixth Circuit
DecidedDecember 28, 1979
Docket79-1549
StatusPublished
Cited by31 cases

This text of 613 F.2d 626 (Beukema's Petroleum Company, Suburban Oil Company, Intervenor v. Admiral Petroleum Company, Appeal of Marathon Oil Company) is published on Counsel Stack Legal Research, covering Court of Appeals for the Sixth Circuit primary law. Counsel Stack provides free access to over 12 million legal documents including statutes, case law, regulations, and constitutions.

Bluebook
Beukema's Petroleum Company, Suburban Oil Company, Intervenor v. Admiral Petroleum Company, Appeal of Marathon Oil Company, 613 F.2d 626, 53 A.L.R. Fed. 590, 28 Fed. R. Serv. 2d 822, 1979 U.S. App. LEXIS 9307 (6th Cir. 1979).

Opinion

PER CURIAM.

This matter has been referred to a special panel of the court for the purpose of considering a motion filed herein by defendant and appellant Marathon Oil Company “for stay of preliminary injunction pending appeal and for advancement of hearing,” filed in this court on October 15, 1979.

Upon consideration of that motion and of the supporting documents and records before the court, including the opinion of Chief District Judge Noel P. Fox, entered in the district court on September 10, 1979, it appears that no preliminary injunctive order from which an appeal can be taken has yet been filed in the district court. Therefore, any appeal therefrom or any motion for stay is premature.

The express provisions of Federal Rule of Civil Procedure 58 require that every judgment shall be set forth on a separate document. Preliminary injunctions are made appealable pursuant to 28 U.S.C. § 1292(a)(1). Furthermore, Federal Rule of Civil Procedure 54(a) provides in part that “ ‘Judgment’ as used in these rules includes a decree and any order from which an appeal lies.” Therefore, it appears to the court that the express provisions of Rule 58 for entry of judgment on a separate document applies not only to final judgments in the ordinary sense but also to preliminary injunctions entered pursuant to Rule 65, Fed.R.Civ.P., and made appealable under 28 U.S.C. § 1292(a)(1). 1

The United States Supreme Court, in United States v. Indrelunas, 411 U.S. 216, 93 S.Ct. 1562, 36 L.Ed.2d 202 (1973), originally stated that Rule 58 must be mechanically applied in order to avoid uncertainties as to the date on which a judgment is entered. That case, however, involved the effect of a jury verdict for purposes of determining whether a final judgment for monetary damages had been entered pursuant to 28 U.S.C. § 1291, rather than injunctive relief under Section 1292(a)(1). Further, the Indrelunas decision must be considered in light of Bankers Trust Co. v. Mallis, 435 U.S. 381, 98 S.Ct. 1117, 55 L.Ed.2d 357 (1978), where the Court modified the separate-document requirement of Rule 58 to the extent that it is viewed as subject to waiver by the parties, and is not considered a categorical imperative.

Specifically, the Mallis Court stated;

The separate document requirement was thus intended to avoid the inequities that were inherent when a party appealed from a document or docket entry that appeared to be a final judgment of the *628 District Court only to have the Appellate Court announce later that an earlier document or entry had been the judgment and dismiss the appeal as untimely. The 1963 amendment to Rule 58 made clear that a party need not file a notice of appeal until a separate judgment has been filed and entered. See United States v. Indrelunas, 411 U.S. 216, 220-222, 93 S.Ct. 1562, 36 L.Ed.2d 202 (1973). Certainty as to timeliness, however, is not advanced by holding that appellate jurisdiction does not exist absent a separate judgment. If, by error, a separate judgment is not filed before a party appeals, nothing but delay would flow from requiring the Court of Appeals to dismiss the appeal. Upon dismissal, the District Court would simply file and enter the separate judgment, from which a timely appeal would then be taken. Wheels would spin for no practical purpose.

Id. at 385, 98 S.Ct. at 1120 2

We do not view the rationale of Indrelunas as being affected by Mallis under the circumstances here, especially since this appeal involved injunctive relief under Section 1292(a)(1). In Mallis the district court had evidenced an intent that the opinion and order would represent the final decision in that case, and a judgment of dismissal was recorded in the clerk’s docket. Id. at 387, 98 S.Ct. 1117. No such docket entry is reflected here and the memorandum opinion of the court expressly provides that “A preliminary injunction will be issued. . . ” Under such circumstances we believe that the memorandum opinion of the court can not and should not act independently as an operable judgment within the meaning of Rule 58. This is especially true where the order is in the form of a mandatory injunction and certainty, concerning not only its express commands but also the effective date of its operation, is of paramount importance to all parties.

Other courts haye similarly perceived the need for requiring that district court orders comply with the separate judgment rule. Although the policy announced in Bankers Trust Co. v. Mallis, 435 U.S. 381, 98 S.Ct. 1117, 55 L.Ed.2d 357 (1978), is salutary when the issue involves filing requirements for a timely appeal, the potential problems which may stem from injunctive relief would seem to require greater efforts toward compliance. A typical example is found in Herschensohn v. Hoffman, 593 F.2d 893 (9th Cir. 1979), which involved an attempt to hold defendants in contempt of court for allegedly violating an injunctive order. Since no separate document was ever filed, however, the Ninth Circuit reversed a subsequent finding of contempt by holding that “no injunction was issued, but only direction for the entry of a permanent injunction against infringement.” Id. at 899. The Herchensohn court interpreted the effect of Mallis on Rule 58 as providing for waiver by the parties in certain cases but perceived difficulty in determining the effect of a memorandum and order purportedly issuing an injunction stated in the future tense. Further, the court noted that the memorandum decision did not comply with Fed.R.Civ.P. 65(c), in that no bond was required.

In Turner v. Air Transport Lodge 1894, 585 F.2d 1180 (2d Cir.), cert. denied, 442 U.S. 919, 99 S.Ct. 2841, 61 L.Ed.2d 286 (1978), the Second Circuit stated that although the absence of a separate document does not foreclose appellate review, the “better [practice] is to set forth the decision in a separate document called a judgment.” Id. at 1182. In addition, the court stated, “In any event we believe that the question raised by this appeal can be more fully considered if the decision below is made

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613 F.2d 626, 53 A.L.R. Fed. 590, 28 Fed. R. Serv. 2d 822, 1979 U.S. App. LEXIS 9307, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/beukemas-petroleum-company-suburban-oil-company-intervenor-v-admiral-ca6-1979.