Joyce Ann Reynolds v. Golden Corral Corp.

213 F.3d 1344, 47 Fed. R. Serv. 3d 237, 2000 U.S. App. LEXIS 12237
Court of Appeals for the Eleventh Circuit·Decided June 6, 2000·No. 99-10598·Published

Opinion

PER CURIAM:

Joyce Ann Reynolds appeals from the magistrate judge’s opinion and order that granted summary judgment to Golden Corral on Reynolds’s claims for Title VII quid pro quo and hostile environment sexual harassment and for retaliation. The magistrate judge signed and entered its memorandum and order on March 11, 1999. Reynolds filed a notice of appeal on April 14, 1999. Federal Rule of Appellate Procedure 4(a)(1) requires that a notice of appeal be filed within 30 days after the judgment or order appealed from is entered. See Fed. R.App. P.4(a)(l)(A). Thus, Reynolds’s notice of appeal from the memorandum and order exceeded this 30-day time limit. However, the 30-day time limit begins to run when a final judgment is entered on a separate document pursuant to Federal Rules of Civil Procedure 68 and 79(a). 1 Although the parties consented to the jurisdiction of the magistrate judge to enter a final judgment, neither the magistrate judge nor the clerk entered a final judgment on a separate document pursuant to Rule 58. Our appellate jurisdiction is premised on 28 U.S.C. § 1291, which requires an appeal to be from a final judgment. We thus must address the question of whether this Court has appellate jurisdiction in view of the failure to comply with Rule 58. We conclude that the lack of a Rule 58 separate judgment does not preclude our jurisdiction.

In Bankers Trust Company v. Mallis, 435 U.S. 381, 98 S.Ct. 1117, 55 L.Ed.2d 357 (1978), the Supreme Court concluded that a district court’s decision can be a final decision for purposes of appellate jurisdiction despite the absence of a separate judgment. See id. at 383, 98 S.Ct. at 1119. The Court noted that the purpose of the separate-document requirement was to clarify when the time for appeal begins to run and that “[cjertainty as to timeliness ... is not advanced by holding that appellate jurisdiction does not exist absent a *1346 separate judgment.” Id. at 384-85, 98 S.Ct. at 1120. The Court found that the parties waived the separate judgment requirement where 1) the district court evidenced its intent that the opinion from which the appeal was taken represent the final decision in the case, 2) a judgment of dismissal was recorded in the clerk’s docket, and 3) the appellee did not object to the taking of the appeal in the absence of a separate document. See id. at 387-88, 98 S.Ct. at 1121. Thus, the Court held that the court of appeals had properly assumed appellate jurisdiction notwithstanding the fact that a separate judgment pursuant to Rule 58 had never been entered.

This court has upheld appellate jurisdiction in circumstances apparently identical to those in Mallis — i.e., where the district court has failed to enter a separate judgment but where the notice of appeal is timely filed from the otherwise final decision of the district court. See Kent v. Baker, 815 F.2d 1395, 1397-98 (11th Cir.1987). It is significant that neither the Supreme Court in Mallis nor this court in Kent v. Baker insisted upon the futile gesture of vacating, remanding to the district court, and requiring appellant to undergo the formality of obtaining a Rule 58 separate judgment and then filing a new notice of appeal. Rather, both the Supreme Court and this court permitted the assumption of appellate jurisdiction without that futile gesture. Indeed, in Kent v. Baker, we quoted language from Mallis as follows:

[I]f the only obstacle to appellate review is the failure of the District Court to set forth its judgment on a separate document, “there would appear to be no point in obliging the appellant to undergo the formality of obtaining a formal judgment.”

815 F.2d at 1397 (quoting Mallis, 435 U.S. at 387, 98 S.Ct. at 1121 (quoting 9 J. Moore, Federal Proc., para 110.08[2], p. 120 n. 7)).

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Joyce Ann Reynolds v. Golden Corral Corp., 213 F.3d 1344, 47 Fed. R. Serv. 3d 237, 2000 U.S. App. LEXIS 12237 (11th Cir. 2000).

213 F.3d 1344 (Joyce Ann Reynolds v. Golden Corral Corp.) — published by Counsel Stack Legal Research, free access to 12M+ legal documents.

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