Stevens v. Jiffy Lube Int'l, Inc.

911 F.3d 1249
CourtCourt of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit
DecidedDecember 27, 2018
DocketNo. 17-15965
StatusPublished
Cited by16 cases

This text of 911 F.3d 1249 (Stevens v. Jiffy Lube Int'l, Inc.) is published on Counsel Stack Legal Research, covering Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit primary law. Counsel Stack provides free access to over 12 million legal documents including statutes, case law, regulations, and constitutions.

Bluebook
Stevens v. Jiffy Lube Int'l, Inc., 911 F.3d 1249 (9th Cir. 2018).

Opinion

McKEOWN, Circuit Judge:

Three months and one day after an arbitrator ruled against them, Randy and Elissa Stevens petitioned the district court to vacate the arbitral award. Their petition was one day late, and we affirm on that basis the district court's denial of the petition. In so doing, we hold that Federal Rule of Civil Procedure 6(a) governs how to calculate the Federal Arbitration Act's three-month filing deadline, and we clarify how to perform that calculation.

BACKGROUND

For years, the Stevenses operated a service center as Jiffy Lube franchisees. In 2013, Jiffy Lube declined to renew its lease on the premises housing the service center, and the Stevenses tried unsuccessfully to negotiate a new lease directly with the landlord. Jiffy Lube terminated the franchise agreement because the Stevenses lost the right to possession of the premises.

Although the franchise agreement had a binding arbitration provision, the Stevenses sued Jiffy Lube. Soon after, however, the parties stipulated to dismissal in favor of arbitration. Following arbitral proceedings, the arbitrator issued a final award in favor of Jiffy Lube on September 14, 2016.

On December 15, 2016, the Stevenses petitioned the district court to vacate the arbitral award under the Federal Arbitration Act ("FAA"), 9 U.S.C. § 10. On February 8, 2017, the district court entered judgment and a final order that assumed without deciding that the petition was timely and denied the petition on the merits. The Stevenses timely filed a motion attacking the judgment under Federal Rules of Civil Procedure 59 and 60. The district court denied the motion, and the Stevenses appealed.

*1251ANALYSIS

I. The Stevenses Timely Appealed to the Ninth Circuit

Because a timely appeal is a jurisdictional prerequisite, we first address Jiffy Lube's contention that the Stevenses untimely filed their notice of appeal. Browder v. Dir., Dep't of Corr. of Ill. , 434 U.S. 257, 264-65, 98 S.Ct. 556, 54 L.Ed.2d 521 (1978). The Stevenses had 30 days to file an appeal, calculated "from the entry of the order disposing of" their timely post-judgment motion. Fed. R. App. P. 4(a)(4). The district court denied the post-judgment motion on April 11, 2017, and the Stevenses filed a notice of appeal 29 days later, on May 10, 2017.

Jiffy Lube invites us to disregard what it views as an "improper" post-judgment motion, calculate the appeal deadline from the entry of judgment, and deem the notice of appeal untimely. We have noted that "a judgment under § 13 of the FAA is not subject to Federal Rules of Civil Procedure 59 or 60." Chiron Corp. v. Ortho Diagnostic Sys., Inc. , 207 F.3d 1126, 1133 (9th Cir. 2000). But the unavailability of this remedy is not relevant for tolling purposes, as Federal Rule of Appellate Procedure 4(a)(4) does not consider the propriety of a post-judgment motion.1

Rather, to toll the appeal deadline, the post-judgment motion must merely be timely, "under the Federal Rules of Civil Procedure," and among the types of motions listed in Federal Rule of Appellate Procedure 4(a)(4)(A)(i)-(vi). Fed. R. App. P. 4(a)(4). Consistent with these minimal requirements, our sister circuits have disregarded post-judgment motions not when they merely lack merit, but when they contravene the Federal Rules of Civil Procedure. See, e.g. , State Nat'l Ins. Co. v. Cty. of Camden , 824 F.3d 399, 405-06 (3d Cir. 2016) (disregarding a Rule 60 motion challenging a non-final order, because Rule 60 permits relief from only a "final judgment, order, or proceeding"); Feldberg v. Quechee Lakes Corp. , 463 F.3d 195, 197 (2d Cir. 2006) (disregarding a "skeletal" Rule 59 motion, because the motion failed to satisfy Rule 7's requirement that it "state with particularity" the grounds on which it was based). To the extent the post-judgment motion must be proper, it is in this limited sense under the Federal Rules.

That the Stevenses' post-judgment motion was unavailing (or even unavailable) does not render it a procedural nullity. We decline the invitation to inject a "properness" requirement that tethers the tolling effects of a timely post-judgment motion to its merits. The notice of appeal was timely.

II. The Petition to Vacate Was Untimely

The petition to vacate the arbitral award is another matter. The FAA requires notice to be "served upon the adverse party or his attorney within three months after the award is filed or delivered." 9 U.S.C. § 12. The arbitrator delivered the final award on September 14, 2016, and the Stevenses filed this lawsuit and served Jiffy Lube on December 15, 2016.

*1252The threshold question is whether Federal Rule of Civil Procedure 6(a) or the FAA governs how to calculate the three-month deadline under 9 U.S.C.

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911 F.3d 1249, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/stevens-v-jiffy-lube-intl-inc-ca9-2018.