Mmar Group, Inc. v. Dow Jones & Co.

187 F.R.D. 282, 1999 U.S. Dist. LEXIS 14941, 1999 WL 336291
CourtDistrict Court, S.D. Texas
DecidedApril 8, 1999
DocketNo. Civ.A. H-95-1262
StatusPublished
Cited by7 cases

This text of 187 F.R.D. 282 (Mmar Group, Inc. v. Dow Jones & Co.) is published on Counsel Stack Legal Research, covering District Court, S.D. Texas primary law. Counsel Stack provides free access to over 12 million legal documents including statutes, case law, regulations, and constitutions.

Bluebook
Mmar Group, Inc. v. Dow Jones & Co., 187 F.R.D. 282, 1999 U.S. Dist. LEXIS 14941, 1999 WL 336291 (S.D. Tex. 1999).

Opinion

MEMORANDUM OPINION

WERLEIN, District Judge.

Pending is Defendants’ Amended Rule 60(b) Motion (Document No. 286), to which Plaintiff MMAR Group, Inc. has filed its Response in Opposition. Defendants’ motion was filed after the filing of Defendants’ Notice of Appeal from the Final Judgment, which divested this Court of further jurisdiction. See Alvestad v. Monsanto Co., 671 F.2d 908, 911 n. 2 (5th Cir.1982). Although this Court has power to consider and to deny a Fed.R.Civ.P. 60(b) motion for new trial while an appeal is pending, it cannot grant such a motion without leave of the Court of Appeals. See Lairsey v. Advance Abrasives Co., 542 F.2d 928, 932 (5th Cir.1976). After Defendants’ Rule 60(b) motion was filed, the Court of Appeals ordered a stay of the appeal pending this Court’s consideration of the Rule 60(b) motion.

The parties have now concluded additional discovery pertinent to the Rule 60(b) motion, conducted under the oversight of Special Master, Tom Cunningham, Esq., who was appointed by this Court pursuant to agreement of the parties. When this discovery was completed, Defendants filed their Amended Rule 60(b) Motion, moving for relief from the Final Judgment pursuant to Fed.R.Civ.P. 60(b)(3) and (b)(2), which motion is now before the Court. A full record has been presented by the parties, including excerpts of deposition testimony, affidavits, and numerous exhibits, and both sides have ably briefed their positions. On March 23, 1999, the Court also heard oral arguments presented by counsel for both sides.

Rule 60(b) Standards

Rule 60(b)(3) provides that the Court may relieve a party from a final judgment because of “fraud (whether heretofore denominated intrinsic or extrinsic), misrepresentation, or other misconduct of an adverse party.” The Fifth Circuit has summarized the requirements for Rule 60(b)(3) as follows:

One who asserts that an adverse party has obtained a verdict through fraud, misrepresentation or other misconduct has the burden of proving the assertion by clear and convincing evidence. The conduct [285]*285complained of must be such as prevented the losing party from fully and fairly presenting his case or defense. Although Rule 60(b)(3) applies to misconduct in withholding information called for by discovery, it does not require that the information withheld be of such nature as to alter the result of the case. This subsection of the Rule is aimed at judgments which were unfairly obtained, not at those which are factually incorrect.

Rozier v. Ford Motor Co., 573 F.2d 1332, 1339 (5th Cir.1978) (internal citations and footnote omitted). In Rozier the Fifth Circuit observed the “greater discretion” of district courts within one year after the entry of a Final Judgment

to balance the policy of finality of judgments against the other salutary policies embodied in the alternate grounds for relief provided in subsections (1) through (3) of Rule 60(b). Essentially, this discretion, as guided by the Rule, furnishes an escape valve to protect the fairness and integrity of litigation in the federal courts.

Id. at 1338-39.

“Misconduct,” as used in Rule 60(b)(3), does not require a showing of “nefarious intent or purpose as a prerequisite to redress.” Anderson v. Cryovac, Inc., 862 F.2d 910, 923 (1st Cir.1988).

For the term [“misconduct”] to have meaning in the Rule 60(b)(3) context, it must differ from both “fraud” and “misrepresentation.” Definition of this difference requires us to take an expansive view of “misconduct.” The term can cover even accidental omissions — edgewise it would be pleonastic, because “fraud” and “misrepresentation” would likely subsume it. Cf. United States v. One Douglas A-26B Aircraft, 662 F.2d 1372, 1374-75 n. 6 (11th Cir.1981) (to avoid redundancy, “misrepresentation” in Rule 60(b)(3) must encompass more than false statements made with intent to deceive). We think such a construction not overly harsh; it takes scant imagination to conjure up discovery responses which, though made in good faith, are so ineptly researched or lackadaisical that they deny the opposing party a fair trial. Accidents — at least avoidable ones — ■ should not be immune from the reach of the rule. Thus, we find ourselves in agreement with the Fifth Circuit that, depending upon the circumstances, relief on the ground of misconduct may be justified “whether there was evil, innocent or careless, purpose.” Bros. Inc. v. W.E. Grace Manufacturing Co., 351 F.2d 208, 211 (5th Cir.1965), cert. denied, 383 U.S. 936, 86 S.Ct. 1065, 15 L.Ed.2d 852 (1966).

Id.

Rule 60(b)(2) provides that the Court may relieve a party from a final judgment because of “newly discovered evidence which by due diligence could not have been discovered in time to move for a new trial under Rule 59(b).”

To succeed on a motion brought under 60(b)(2) based on newly discovered evidence, the movant must demonstrate (1) that it exercised due diligence in obtaining the information and (2) “the evidence is material and controlling and clearly would have produced a different result if presented before the original judgment.”

New Hampshire Ins. Co. v. Martech USA Inc., 993 F.2d 1195, 1200-01 (5th Cir.1993) (footnotes omitted) (quoting Brown v. Petrolite Corp., 965 F.2d 38, 50 (5th Cir.1992)). “The newly discovered evidence must be in existence at the time of trial and not discovered until after trial.” Longden v. Sunderman, 979 F.2d 1095, 1102-03 (5th Cir.1992).

Background for the Instant Motion

MMAR, which was a Houston brokerage firm that bought and sold securities for its customers, brought this libel action for recovery of damages occasioned by allegedly false and defamatory statements contained in an article (“Article”) written by Laura Jereski and published in The Wall Street Journal on October 21, 1993. It was MMAR’s contention that the libelous content of the Article caused MMAR to go out of business. Numerous specific statements in the Article were alleged by MMAR to have been false and defamatory. After rulings on Defendants’ motions for summary judgment and a full trial to the jury, eight statements were submitted for the jury to determine whether [286]

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187 F.R.D. 282, 1999 U.S. Dist. LEXIS 14941, 1999 WL 336291, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/mmar-group-inc-v-dow-jones-co-txsd-1999.