Mary L. Kaercher v. The Trustees of Health and Hospitals of the City of Boston, Inc.

834 F.2d 31, 45 Fair Empl. Prac. Cas. (BNA) 688, 9 Fed. R. Serv. 3d 1309, 1987 U.S. App. LEXIS 15767
CourtCourt of Appeals for the First Circuit
DecidedDecember 3, 1987
Docket86-2020
StatusPublished
Cited by12 cases

This text of 834 F.2d 31 (Mary L. Kaercher v. The Trustees of Health and Hospitals of the City of Boston, Inc.) is published on Counsel Stack Legal Research, covering Court of Appeals for the First Circuit primary law. Counsel Stack provides free access to over 12 million legal documents including statutes, case law, regulations, and constitutions.

Bluebook
Mary L. Kaercher v. The Trustees of Health and Hospitals of the City of Boston, Inc., 834 F.2d 31, 45 Fair Empl. Prac. Cas. (BNA) 688, 9 Fed. R. Serv. 3d 1309, 1987 U.S. App. LEXIS 15767 (1st Cir. 1987).

Opinion

PER CURIAM.

The appeal before us arises from the district court’s dismissal of appellant’s complaint which alleged employment discrimination by her former employer and appel-lees, the Trustees of Health and Hospitals of the City of Boston, Inc. After dismissing and reopening the case on two occasions, the district court let its third and final dismissal stand, denying appellant’s motion to vacate the judgment of dismissal as well as her motion for reconsideration of the motion to vacate. We affirm the judgment of the district court.

Appellant, Mary Kaercher, filed her complaint alleging employment discrimination in July, 1979. At this time, appellant was represented by Attorney Kurnos. A pretrial conference was scheduled for October 19, 1981. At the conference, a notice of substitution of counsel was filed. According to appellant, without her knowledge Attorney Haber took over for Attorney Kurnos, who had joined another firm. Between October, 1981 and June 12, 1982, appellant, who complained of a lack of communication with counsel, seems to have acquired a third legal representative, one Attorney Rodgers. Attorney Rodgers reported to the court that the case had been settled, resulting in the dismissal of the case on September 15, 1982.

*33 On February 23, 1983, the district court vacated the dismissal and directed Attorney Rodgers to withdraw from the ease. Vacation of the judgment appears to have been based on appellant’s contention that the settlement had been effected without her knowledge. At this time, Attorney Dawkins was directed to enter his appearance for appellant, which he did in March, 1983.

The district court again dismissed appellant’s complaint on April 12, 1984, allowing appellees’ motion for an order pursuant to Fed.R.Civ.P. 37(b). This dismissal was based on the lack of prosecution arising from appellant’s failure to comply with a discovery order. Shortly thereafter, the district court granted appellant’s motion for reconsideration and vacated the dismissal.

Although a new trial date was scheduled for January 14, 1985, proceedings were again delayed, and a pretrial status conference was scheduled for June 14,1985. Neither appellant nor her attorney appeared. On June 20, 1985, the district court again dismissed the case for want of prosecution.

Over five months passed before appellant responded to the third dismissal of her case. On December 2, 1985, appellant filed a motion to vacate the judgment of dismissal. Appellant’s motion was accompanied by an affidavit supplied by her newly-retained counsel, John Laymon. Attorney Laymon attributed the most recent dismissal to the negligence of appellant’s previous counsel, and requested that appellant not be penalized for attorney misconduct. The district court denied appellant’s motion to vacate, remarking that, despite a sympathetic view of appellant’s position, there was a limit to the court’s indulgence. Contributing to the court's decision was its conclusion that appellant had been aware of her counsel's delinquency. Appellant next filed a motion for reconsideration of the denial on September 22, 1986. Appellant filed her notice of appeal from the judgment of dismissal on October 20, 1986.

Fed.R.App.P. 4(a) requires any party wishing to appeal from the judgment of a district court to file a notice of appeal within 30 days of the entry of that judgment. The Supreme Court has held, on more than one occasion, that timely filing of a notice of appeal is both mandatory and jurisdictional. E.g., Browder v. Director, Department of Corrections of Illinois, 434 U.S. 257, 98 S.Ct. 556, 54 L.Ed.2d 521 (1978); Berman v. United States, 378 U.S. 530, 84 S.Ct. 1895, 12 L.Ed.2d 1012 (1964). Thus, failure to file a timely notice of appeal deprives the appeals court of jurisdiction. Clearly, in the instant case, appellant failed to file a timely, notice of appeal. The district court entered its final judgment of dismissal on June 20, 1985. The next action taken by appellant did not occur until December 2, 1985. Appellant’s actual notice of appeal from the dismissal was not filed until October 20, 1986. Even if we were to treat appellant’s motion to vacate the judgment of dismissal filed on December 2, 1985 as a notice of appeal, there can be no question that, even from the most lenient perspective, appellant failed to file a timely notice of appeal by a substantial margin. Although the district court has the power to extend the time for filing a notice of appeal, such an extension is contingent upon the showing of excusable neglect or good cause made by motion not later than 30 days after the expiration of the original 30 day period set by Fed.R. App.P. 4(a)(1). Fed.R.App.P. 4(a)(5). Since appellant failed to file anything with the court until more than five months had elapsed from the district court’s entry of judgment, this exception obviously provides no relief to appellant. We addressed an analogous situation in Silvia v. Laurie, 594 F.2d 892 (1st Cir.1979), where a plaintiff, who was incarcerated, filed a notice of appeal approximately five months after entry of the district court judgment. Plaintiff contended that he was legitimately unable to comply with the provisions of Rule 4(a) because he did not receive timely notice of the entry of judgment. We concluded that, while failure to receive notice of the district court judgment might have constituted excusable neglect at an earlier stage of the proceedings, plaintiff had gone well beyond the time allowed for even seeking an extension under Rule 4(a). We noted that, while *34 the application of Rule 4(a) may lead to apparently harsh results in some cases, the time limits specified by the rule are a prerequisite to our jurisdiction and may not be waived at the discretion of the court. Id. at 893.

The appellee suggests that, viewing matters in the light most favorable to appellant, her motion to vacate the judgment of dismissal could be treated as a motion under Fed.R.Civ.P. 60(b)(1). Rule 60(b)(1) permits the district court to provide relief from judgment for surprise, mistake, inadvertence, or excusable neglect. Appellee further suggests that appellant’s motion for reconsideration of the denial of the motion to vacate was timely and therefore tolls the appeal period. By this conclusion, appellee apparently assumes that the motion for reconsideration is analogous to a motion to alter or amend a judgment pursuant to Rule 59(e). Assuming that appellee is correct, then appellant’s notice of appeal, filed October 20,1986, entitles her only to a review of district court’s denial of her motion under Rule 60(b), and to a review of the denial of her motion under Rule 59(e).

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Bluebook (online)
834 F.2d 31, 45 Fair Empl. Prac. Cas. (BNA) 688, 9 Fed. R. Serv. 3d 1309, 1987 U.S. App. LEXIS 15767, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/mary-l-kaercher-v-the-trustees-of-health-and-hospitals-of-the-city-of-ca1-1987.