Castro v. United States

104 F.R.D. 545, 2 Fed. R. Serv. 3d 312, 1985 U.S. Dist. LEXIS 22700
CourtDistrict Court, D. Puerto Rico
DecidedFebruary 11, 1985
DocketCiv. No. 83-3001(PG)
StatusPublished
Cited by4 cases

This text of 104 F.R.D. 545 (Castro v. United States) is published on Counsel Stack Legal Research, covering District Court, D. Puerto Rico primary law. Counsel Stack provides free access to over 12 million legal documents including statutes, case law, regulations, and constitutions.

Bluebook
Castro v. United States, 104 F.R.D. 545, 2 Fed. R. Serv. 3d 312, 1985 U.S. Dist. LEXIS 22700 (prd 1985).

Opinion

OPINION AND ORDER

PEREZ-GIMENEZ, Chief Judge.

On April 6, 1984, we entered an Opinion and Order dismissing, with prejudice, plaintiffs’ action and enjoining plaintiffs Eligió Castro and Rafael Diaz Diaz from filing any additional pleadings in this case and from commencing any new action against the United States or the Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation (FDIC) with respect to the nonrenewal of their temporary appointments with the FDIC.1 In our Opinion and Order we advised plaintiffs that any violation by them of the injunction could result in the imposition of a fine and/or imprisonment as punishment for contempt of this Court, and, further that should they feel that our order was wrong, their remedy was to file an appeal to the First Circuit rather than a new lawsuit in the district court. Costs were assessed against plaintiffs.

The case is once more before us upon several motions filed by plaintiffs requesting that they be exempted from the injunction for the purpose of objecting to the taxation of costs by the Clerk and for other matters. From our review of the record it appears that a controversy has been generated regarding the taxation of costs; specifically, with relation to the question whether plaintiffs have been impeded from making their objections thereto because of the operation of the injunction issued by us on April 6, 1984. In the interest of setting the record straight once and for all, we will proceed to outline in detail the proceedings in this case since we issued our Opinion and Order on April 6.

Judgment was entered by the Clerk of the Court on April 16, 1984. Thereafter, on May 9, 1974, defendants filed their verified Bill of Costs,2 as required by 28 U.S.C. §§ 1920 and 1924, and Rule 331.1 of the Local Rules of the United States District Court for the District of Puerto Rico (1984). The Clerk then entered an order setting defendants’ Bill of Costs for taxation before the Chief Deputy Clerk, Juan M. Masini Soler, on August 9, 1984, and advising plaintiffs that they could submit their ob[547]*547jections to the taxation of any or all items claimed by defendant at that time.

The meeting for taxation of costs was held as scheduled on August 9. As it appears from the Minutes of the meeting and from the Sworn Statement of Juan M. Masini-Soler, Chief Deputy Clerk (hereafter, “Statement of Masini”), attached to defendants’ “Motion Requesting Order” of February 1, 1985, plaintiff Castro appeared pro se and defendants were represented by Assistant U.S. Attorneys Osvaldo Carlo Linares and Celestino Matta; plaintiff Diaz Diaz did not appear. At said meeting, Chief Deputy Clerk Masini heard the parties’ arguments, including plaintiff Castro’s opposition to the taxation of costs—to the effect that he understood that he could not elaborate on his objections because he had been enjoined from filing any additional pleadings. The Chief Deputy Clerk informed plaintiff Castro that the taxation proceeding was completely independent from the injunction issued by the Court and that, therefore, he could present all objections deemed pertinent. Defense attorneys concurred with Mr. Masini’s explanation and so informed plaintiff Castro. Notwithstanding the clear explanations given by the Chief Deputy Clerk, plaintiff Castro refused to participate in the taxation proceeding and left the meeting. Despite Castro’s departure, the Chief Deputy Clerk noted his verbal objections and proceeded to tax the costs claimed by defendants. Although defendants requested a total of $2,369.64, Mr. Masini taxed costs only in the amount of $1,396.95; i.e., almost $1,000.00 less ($972.69, to be exact) than the requested amount.

In the interim, plaintiffs filed a Notice of Appeal to the United States Court of Appeals for the First Circuit on April 10, 1984; appeal was taken from our April 6 Opinion and Order dismissing their case and enjoining them from filing further pleadings in this case. To the best of our knowledge, plaintiffs’ appeal is still pending before the Court of Appeals. However, we are aware of the fact that the Court has ruled upon several motions to lift the district court’s injunction and petitions for writs of mandamus filed by appellants (plaintiffs herein), denying the same. For instance, on August 24, 1984, the Court of Appeals issued an order denying a “Motion to Lift the Injunction” filed by plaintiffs-appellants. In said order, the Court informed appellants, as they had been informed by Chief Deputy Clerk Masini, that the filing in the district court “of an objection [presumably, to the taxation of costs] at the request of the Court does not come within the term of the injunction and appellants may file their objection without fear of being found in contempt.” See, Attachment 1 to plaintiff Castro’s “Objection and Request for Exemption from District Court’s Injunction”, filed on September 12, 1984. In the same order, the Court of Appeals advised appellants to file all future requests for exemption from the district court’s injunction in the district court.

Thereafter, on September 12, 1984, plaintiff Castro filed the first of a series of motions—some of which were filed jointly with plaintiff Diaz Diaz—requesting (1) exemptions from the injunction and (2) reconsideration of the taxation of costs. Defendants filed an opposition thereto. In his September 12 motion, as well as in several other motions filed with this Court, plaintiff Castro states that he appeared at the August 9 meeting for taxation of costs and informed the Chief Deputy Clerk that because of the April 6 injunction he was prohibited from objecting to the taxation of costs. Castro then seems to argue that because the Court of Appeals established in its August 24 Order (mentioned above) that he is free to file his objections to the taxation of costs this Court should “grant a reconsideration for taxation of costs.” Finally, plaintiff asks this Court to inform him whether a number of “potential suits” (loosely described on page 2 of his motion) are exempted from the injunction.

It seems to us that plaintiff Castro is reading far more into the Court of Appeals’ order than it provides for. In its order, the Court of Appeals simply confirmed what the Chief Deputy Clerk had [548]*548told plaintiff Castro during the meeting for taxation of costs to the effect that he could file his objections without fear of being found in contempt. The fact remains that Castro was never prohibited from filing his objections, but, rather, that he himself chose not to do so. In addition, that the Court of Appeals advised plaintiffs to file all future requests for exemption from the injunction in the district court, does not mean, as plaintiffs apparently believe, that they are free to request from this Court an opinion on whether the injunction would bar them from filing any imaginable “potential suit” (to borrow plaintiffs’ term) which they could, now or in an undetermined future, bring against the defendants herein. As defendants very well point out in their opposition, the request made by Castro that we inform him whether a number of “potential suits” are exempted from the injunction, amounts to a request for an advisory opinion and, thus, is one that we are not about to grant. It is settled that federal courts are forbidden by Article III of the United States Constitution from giving advisory opinions. Boston Chapter, NAACP v. Beecher,

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Cite This Page — Counsel Stack

Bluebook (online)
104 F.R.D. 545, 2 Fed. R. Serv. 3d 312, 1985 U.S. Dist. LEXIS 22700, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/castro-v-united-states-prd-1985.