Sieverding v. Colorado Bar Assoc

244 F. App'x 200
Court of Appeals for the Tenth Circuit·Decided July 17, 2007·No. 06-1465, 06-1466, 06-1524·Published·Cited by 5 cases

Opinion

ORDER AND JUDGMENT *

MONROE G. McKAY, Circuit Judge.

Kay, David, Ed and Tom Sieverding are all parties in at least one of the three *204 appeals that we have consolidated for procedural purposes. These appeals arise out of contempt proceedings that were instituted as a result of Ms. Sieverding’s alleged violations of two filing restrictions orders that were entered by the district court in March 2004 and January 2006. On September 25, 2006, after a hearing on the defendants’ motion for an order to show cause against Ms. Sieverding for new contempt of court, the district court issued a warrant for Ms. Sieverding’s arrest. After this hearing and the issuance of the arrest warrant, Ms. Sieverding and her husband and sons filed the appeals in case Nos. 06-1465 and 06-1466. Ms. Sieverding also filed a petition for habeas corpus relief in the district court, which was dismissed. That dismissal is the subject of the appeal in case No. 06-1524.

Nos. 06-1465/06-1466

In these two appeals, Ms. Sieverding filed a notice of appeal and then the next day Mr. Sieverding and the Sieverdings’ children, Ed and Tom, filed a notice of appeal. The Sieverdings have filed a motion seeking to consolidate the appeals for the purpose of paying a single filing fee. All four of the Sieverdings were parties in the underlying district court action. The second notice of appeal indicates that Mr. Sieverding, Ed and Tom are filing a joint appeal and joint briefings with Ms. Sieverding. After two separate appeals were docketed, Ms. Sieverding filed a notice of errata in the district court indicating that the appeals should be combined. The Sieverdings argue that the appeals should be consolidated pursuant to Fed. R.App. P. 3(c)(2), which states: “A pro se notice of appeal is considered filed on behalf of the signer and the signer’s spouse and minor children (if they are parties), unless the notice clearly indicates otherwise.” Given these circumstances, we grant the motion to consolidate the appeals solely for the purpose of paying a single filing fee.

The Sieverdings assert that they are appealing an oral order by the district court to “terminate all litigation against ‘these’ defendants.” Aplt. Br. at 1. It is not clear to this court what exactly the Sieverdings are appealing, but the Sieverdings did attach to their brief a copy of a transcript from a September 22, 2006 hearing. The hearing was in response to the defendants’ motion for an order to show cause for new contempt based on two alleged violations by Ms. Sieverding of the district court’s written filing restrictions orders.

Defendants argued that Ms. Sieverding had violated the orders by filing motions to reconsider in her federal cases pending in the D.C. Circuit and by filing an appeal to this court from the dismissal of her District of Kansas case. See R., Doc. 862 at 2-3. During the hearing, the district court implicitly found Ms. Sieverding in contempt and instructed her court-appointed attorney that, in order to purge her contempt, Ms. Sieverding had to dismiss all outstanding litigation that she had filed against these defendants. We therefore construe the Sieverdings’ appeal as an appeal from the district court’s oral finding of contempt on September 22, 2006.

On November 14, 2006, we issued an opinion in which we determined that the district court could not restrict Ms. Sieverding’s filings in federal district courts outside of this circuit, could not restrict her filings in state courts, and could not restrict Ms. Sieverding’s appellate filings in this court or any other court of appeal. See Sieverding v. Colo. Bar Ass’n, 469 F.3d 1340, 1344 (10th Cir.2006). As a result, we modified the January 2006 filing restrictions order and affirmed that order *205 as modified. We also instructed the district court under our supervisory powers that it could not enforce the filing restrictions in its March 2004 order to the extent that they were contrary to our opinion. Id. at 1844-45.

In light of this court’s decision modifying the filing restrictions, Ms. Sieverding’s court-appointed attorney filed a motion to reconsider the civil contempt proceedings, requesting that the district court reconsider the contempt matter, vacate the show cause order, and cancel the arrest warrant issued in September. In May 2007, Ms. Sieverding was arrested and taken into custody. On June 1, a hearing was held in the district court. At the close of the hearing, the district court granted the motion to reconsider, vacated the order directing the marshals to take Ms. Sieverding into custody and ordered the marshals to release Ms. Sieverding.

On June 13, we ordered the parties to file supplemental briefs on the issue of whether the proceedings in the district court on June 1 mooted the Sieverdings’ appeals. “Generally, a case becomes moot when the issues presented are no longer live or the parties lack a legally cognizable interest in the outcome.” Oyler v. Allenbrand, 23 F.3d 292, 294 (10th Cir.1994) (quotation omitted). If this case is moot, then we lack jurisdiction to consider it. See id.

Ms. Sieverding argues that there continues to be a live controversy for this court to resolve on appeal, but she does not present a legally reasoned argument to support this position. She fails to address the fact that there are currently no outstanding contempt proceedings against her, that her arrest warrant has been vacated, and that she has been released from custody. We note that the district court did indicate that the defendants could continue to seek contempt sanctions against Ms. Sieverding if she continues to violate the modified filing restrictions orders, but that does not make this appeal a live controversy. If defendants seek further contempt sanctions against Ms. Sieverding and the district court imposes further contempt sanctions against Ms. Sieverding then she can appeal from any such sanctions at that time.

Because the district court has granted the motion to reconsider its September 2006 contempt order, has vacated the September 2006 arrest warrant, and has ordered Ms. Sieverding released, there is no longer an active controversy for this court to consider. Accordingly, Ms. Sieverding’s appeal in No. 06-1465 is dismissed as moot. Because none of the other Sieverdings were the subject of the September 2006 contempt order, they lack standing to challenge that order and their appeal in No. 06-1466 is dismissed for lack of standing. See generally Buchwald v. Univ. of New Mexico Sch. of Medicine, 159 F.3d 487, 493 (10th Cir.1998) (outlining factors for establishing standing).

No. 06-1524

On November 8, 2006, Ms. Sieverding filed an “Independent Action for Habeas Corpus” in the district court seeking to challenge the arrest warrant issued by the district court on September 25, 2006. The district court construed Ms.

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