Jefferson v. Security Pacific Financial Services, Inc.

162 F.R.D. 123, 1995 U.S. Dist. LEXIS 8150, 1995 WL 382613
District Court, N.D. Illinois·Decided June 12, 1995·No. No. 94 C 3476·Published·Cited by 18 cases

Opinion

MEMORANDUM OPINION AND ORDER

CASTILLO, District Judge.

Plaintiff Carolyn Jefferson (“Jefferson”) has filed a Motion to Reconsider the Court’s Memorandum Opinion and Order (“Opinion”) of April 13, 1995, denying Jefferson’s Motion for Class Certification pursuant to Federal Rule of Civil Procedure (“Rule”) 23. After reviewing our Opinion and the parties’ briefs, the Court concludes that the denial of certification is appropriate under the Truth In Lending Act (“TILA”), 15 U.S.C. § 1635(b), and the case law interpreting this statute.

LEGAL STANDARDS

Although motions for reconsideration are not specifically authorized by the Federal Rules of Civil Procedure, the Seventh Circuit and this district apply Rule 59(e) standards to these motions. See Sutliff, Inc. v. Donovan Cos., Inc., 727 F.2d 648, 652 (7th Cir.1984); see also, Quaker Alloy Casting Co. v. Gulfco Indus., Inc., 123 F.R.D. 282, 288 n. 9 (N.D.Ill.1988).

The Seventh Circuit has repeatedly cautioned that:

Motions for reconsideration serve a limited function: to correct manifest errors of law or fact or to present newly discovered evidence. Such motions cannot in any case be employed as a vehicle to introduce new evidence that could have been adduced during pendency of the summary judgment motion. The nonmovant has an affirmative duty to come forward to meet a properly supported motion for summary judg-ment____ Nor should a motion for reconsideration serve as the occasion to tender new legal theories for the first time.

Rothwell Cotton Co. v. Rosenthal & Co., 827 F.2d 246, 251 (7th Cir.1987) (quoting, Keene Corp. v. International Fidelity Ins. Co., 561 F.Supp. 656, 665-66 (N.D.Ill.1982), aff'd, 736 F.2d 388 (7th Cir.1984)); Publishers Resource, Inc. v. Walker-Davis Publications, Inc., 762 F.2d 557, 561 (7th Cir.1985). More recently, the Seventh Circuit observed that a motion for reconsideration performs a valuable function where:

the Court has patently misunderstood a party, or has made a decision outside the [125] adversarial issues presented to the Court by the parties, or has made an error not of reasoning but of apprehension. A further basis for a motion for reconsideration would be a controlling or significant change in the law or facts since the submission of the issue to the Court. Such problems rarely arise and the motion to reconsider should be equally rare.

Bank of Waunakee v. Rochester Cheese Sales, Inc., 906 F.2d 1185, 1191 (7th Cir.1990) (quoting, Above the Belt, Inc. v. Mel Bohannan Roofing, Inc., 99 F.R.D. 99, 101 (E.D.Va. 1988)). Bank of Waunakee arguably adds grist to the court’s discretionary mill in considering a Rule 59(e) motion. However, it remains true that “motions to reconsider are not at the disposal of parties who want to ‘rehash’ old arguments,” In re Oil Spill by “Amoco Cadiz”, 794 F.Supp. 261, 267 (N.D.Ill.1992), aff'd, 4 F.3d 997, 1993 WL 360955 (7th Cir.1993), and such motions are not appropriate vehicles for introducing evidence that could have been produced prior to the entry of judgment or for tendering new legal theories for the first time. Publisher’s Resource, 762 F.2d at 561.

In addition to these well-established standards, this Court has unfortunately had to address numerous ill-considered motions to reconsider, for example: MCI Telecommunications Corp. v. Ameri-Tel, Inc., 1994 WL 405945 (N.D.Ill.1994); Williams v. Katz, 1994 WL 405923 (N.D.Ill.1994); Fidelity Mut. Life Ins. Co. v. Chicago Title and Trust Co. of Chicago, 1994 WL 571903 (N.D.Ill. 1994) ; Wagner v. Nutrasweet Co., 873 F.Supp. 87 (N.D.Ill.1994); Sather v. Neiman Marcus Group, Inc., 1995 WL 9193 (N.D.Ill. 1995) ; Arenson v. Whitehall Convalescent and Nursing Home, Inc., 161 F.R.D. 355 (N.D.Ill.1995). As the above standards indicate, however, these motions should not be filed as a matter of routine by the party who has been adversely impacted by a court’s ruling. This Court, just like the National Football League (“NFL”), has done away with the concept of “instant replay.” This Court, just like all other courts, works diligently and strives carefully to issue its best opinion while deciding any motion. Unless the parties can convince this Court that the standards described above have been met (i.e., to correct “manifest errors of law or to present newly discovered evidence”), this Court strongly believes that the parties’ energies can be better served by pursuing their rearguments at the proper time on appeal. Filing a motion to reconsider should not be a “Pavlovian Response” to an adverse ruling.

ANALYSIS

The standards for reconsideration are not met in this case because Jefferson simply rehashes the arguments presented in her earlier motion. However, for the sake of clarity, the Court will address Jefferson’s primary objections to the Court’s ruling.

Jefferson’s first claim is that the Supreme Court’s decision in Califano v. Yamasaki, 442 U.S. 682, 99 S.Ct. 2545, 61 L.Ed.2d 176 (1979), requires certification under rule 23 in any civil action unless there is an “express limitation of class relief.” Id. at 700, 99 S.Ct. at 2557. Jefferson maintains that Section 1635(b) does not contain such a limitation and therefore certification should be granted in this case.

Although Califano holds that Rule 23 applies to any civil action unless there is an “express limitation of class relief,” the case still requires a plaintiff seeking certification to meet all the requirements of Rule 23. Jefferson has not only failed to satisfy the predominance requirement of Rule 23(b)(3), but Section 1635(b) also operates as a condition precedent to class relief — a condition which “limits” the potential class members’ ability to obtain standing to sue under the allegations raised in the class complaint.

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Jefferson v. Security Pacific Financial Services, Inc., 162 F.R.D. 123, 1995 U.S. Dist. LEXIS 8150, 1995 WL 382613 (N.D. Ill. 1995).

162 F.R.D. 123 (Jefferson v. Security Pacific Financial Services, Inc.) — published by Counsel Stack Legal Research, free access to 12M+ legal documents.

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