Dupuy, Belinda v. Samuels, Bryan

Procedural entryThis page is a short order in Dupuy, Belinda v. Samuels, Bryan. Read the opinion of the Court — 465 F.3d 757
Court of Appeals for the Seventh Circuit·Decided October 12, 2006·No. 06-1027·Published

Opinion

In the United States Court of Appeals For the Seventh Circuit ____________

No. 06-1027 BELINDA DUPUY, et al., Plaintiffs-Appellants, v.

BRYAN SAMUELS, Director, Illinois Department of Children and Family Services, Defendant-Appellee. ____________ Appeal from the United States District Court for the Northern District of Illinois, Eastern Division. No. 97 C 4199—Rebecca R. Pallmeyer, Judge. ____________ ARGUED SEPTEMBER 20, 2006—DECIDED OCTOBER 3, 2006 ____________

Before POSNER, EASTERBROOK, and EVANS, Circuit Judges. POSNER, Circuit Judge. This class action suit by parents, now in its tenth year, challenges a range of practices by Illinois’ child-welfare agency claimed to infringe parental rights that are protected by the due process clause of the Fourteenth Amendment; for background, see Dupuy v. Samuels, 397 F.3d 493 (7th Cir. 2005). The present appeal is from a preliminary injunction that the plaintiffs, who are the appellants, contend does not go far enough; the defendant has not cross-appealed. The plaintiffs are also attempting to 2 No. 06-1027

appeal from the judge’s class certification order, which they contend defined the plaintiff class too narrowly. But their time to appeal from that order has long expired. Fed. R. Civ. P. 23(f). The injunction of which the plaintiffs complain violates Rule 65(d) of the civil rules, which requires that an injunc- tion be a self-contained document rather than incorporate by reference materials in other documents. The purpose is to minimize disputes over what has been enjoined. Schmidt v. Lessard, 414 U.S. 473 (1974) (per curiam); International Longshoremen’s Ass’n v. Philadelphia Marine Trade Ass’n, 389 U.S. 64, 74-76 (1967); D. Patrick, Inc. v. Ford Motor Co., 8 F.3d 455, 461 (7th Cir. 1993); 11A Charles Alan Wright, Arthur R. Miller & Mary Kay Kane, Federal Practice and Procedure § 2955 (2d ed. 1995); 13 Moore’s Federal Practice § 65.60, pp. 475-77 (13th ed. 2006). The Ninth Circuit allows incorpora- tion by reference if the material thus incorporated is physi- cally attached, as by stapling, to the injunction order. Reno Air Racing Ass’n, Inc. v. McCord, 452 F.3d 1126, 1132-33 (9th Cir. 2006); California v. Campbell, 138 F.3d 772, 783 (9th Cir. 1998). But there is no reason to complicate the administra- tion of the rule by such an interpretation. There are times when literal interpretation is best; this is one of them. The Ninth Circuit’s approach would encourage just the kind of mistake that the rule aims to prevent—the thoughtless attachment of separately composed documents when if the judge had integrated their contents into the injunction order he might have realized that they would not cohere with the rest of the order without changes. Rule 65(d) is simple, clear, sensible, easily complied with and not even new; we are distressed by the failure of the parties and the district judge to have complied with it in this case—a case that underscores the good sense of the No. 06-1027 3

rule. What the parties and the district judge understand to be the injunction begins with an opinion by the judge in which she says that “the court approves the DCFS proposal, with certain modifications, outlined below,” and the “outline” follows. If the “certain modifications” were literally an “outline,” there would be no injunction but merely the sketch of one. But it is apparent that the word “outlined” was used imprecisely; and likewise that when the court, as one of its modifications, said vaguely that “the court would add a statement to this effect . . .” (emphasis added), it meant that the language that followed was part of the injunction. Yet one of the “modifications” modifies nothing; it says merely that “the court recom- mends that the plan provide” etc.—and a recommenda- tion cannot be an injunction. Both sides are complicit in the violation of Rule 65(d), having expressed no concern with the form of the injunc- tion. But the appellants in addition violated 7th Cir. R. 30(d), which requires certification that the appendix contain all materials required by Rule 30(a) to be included in the appendix. For among the required materials are the judg- ment, and the judgment in this case includes not only the judge’s order modifying the defendant’s proposed injunc- tion, Chicago & North Western Transportation Co. v. Railway Labor Executives’ Ass’n, 908 F.2d 144, 149-50 (7th Cir. 1990), but also those portions of that proposed injunction that the judge (improperly) incorporated by reference. They do not appear in the appellants’ appendix but instead are deeply buried in the record; the lawyers could not find them when asked for them at argument. So Rule 65(d) was flouted. But a violation of the rule does not deprive the appellate court of jurisdiction to review the injunction (e.g., Combs v. Ryan’s Coal Co., 785 F.2d 970, 978 (11th Cir. 1986)) unless as a result of the violation it is so 4 No. 06-1027

unclear what the defendant is enjoined from doing that he could not be punished for violating the injunction. For in that event he would lack standing to challenge the injunc- tion because, being unenforceable, it would place no burden on him. He could thumb his nose at it with impunity. Marseilles Hydro Power, LLC v. Marseilles Land & Water Co., 299 F.3d 643, 646-47 (7th Cir. 2002); Chicago & North Western Transportation Co. v. Railway Labor Executives’ Ass’n, supra, 908 F.2d at 149-50; see also Bates v. Johnson, 901 F.2d 1424, 1428 (7th Cir. 1990). “[A]n unenforceable order is no order at all.” Marseilles Hydro Power, LLC v. Marseilles Land & Water Co., supra, 299 F.3d at 647. The power to review an injunction that violates Rule 65(d) extends to any adequately clear materials clearly incorpo- rated into the injunction by reference. Original Great Ameri- can Chocolate Chip Cookie Co. v. River Valley Cookies, Ltd., 970 F.2d 273, 275-76 (7th Cir. 1992); cf. Abbott Laboratories v. Unlimited Beverages, Inc., 218 F.3d 1238, 1241-42 (11th Cir. 2000). And that is this case. The core of the injunction is clear enough to be enforceable; it requires the defendant to provide informal administrative review of “safety plans.” But there is tension between Original Great American Chocolate Chip Cookie Co. v. River Valley Cookies, Ltd., supra, and D. Patrick, Inc. v. Ford Motor Co., supra, which states that an injunction that incorporates materials by refer- ence cannot be enforced, though the court went on to find that in any event the incorporated material—a settlement agreement—was ambiguous. 8 F.3d at 461-62. D.

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