Storage Technology Corp. v. U.S. District Court for the District of Colorado

934 F.2d 244
CourtCourt of Appeals for the Tenth Circuit
DecidedMay 23, 1991
DocketNo. 90-1342
StatusPublished
Cited by1 cases

This text of 934 F.2d 244 (Storage Technology Corp. v. U.S. District Court for the District of Colorado) is published on Counsel Stack Legal Research, covering Court of Appeals for the Tenth Circuit primary law. Counsel Stack provides free access to over 12 million legal documents including statutes, case law, regulations, and constitutions.

Bluebook
Storage Technology Corp. v. U.S. District Court for the District of Colorado, 934 F.2d 244 (10th Cir. 1991).

Opinion

PER CURIAM.

Petitioners seek an order of this court directing the district court to dismiss all the respondents (would-be appellants in the district court on appeal from a decision of the bankruptcy court) not named in the notice of appeal. We grant the petition for writ of mandamus.1

Plaintiffs Storage Technology Corporation and Storage Technology de Puerto Rico, Inc. (STC) filed a complaint in the United States Bankruptcy Court for the District of Colorado on December 21, 1987, against approximately sixty-eight individuals, and an organization, collectively Com-ite Pro Rescate de la Salud, et al. (CPR).2

The action brought by STC sought to restrain CPR from further prosecuting claims discharged in the bankruptcy action and to obtain a declaratory judgment “determining that the Plan and the Confirmation Order have fully and completely discharged all claims of the defendants against the Debtors ... to the extent that such claims .... arise out of any conduct ... which occurred prior to June 18, 1987.” Reply to Respondent-Litigant’s [sic] Supplement to Record, ex. A, at 6. An amended complaint adding additional defendants was filed January 7, 1988.

The bankruptcy court granted summary judgment for STC in August of 1988, CPR appealed, and the district court reversed and remanded the matter for further proceedings. A second amended complaint was filed September 29, 1989. Following a trial held in January and February of 1990, the bankruptcy court on July 18, 1990, again entered judgment in favor of STC. Storage Technology Corp. v. Comite Pro Rescate De La Salud (In re Storage Technology Corp.), 117 B.R. 610 (Bankr.D.Colo.1990).

The body of the notice of appeal to the district court reads in part as follows:

Comité Pro Rescate de la Salud, et al., and all the Defendants of record herein, appeal to the District Court for the District of Colorado from the Judgment, Memorandum Opinion and Order of the Bankruptcy Court, Judge Roland J. Brumbaugh, filed on July 18, 1990, and received by defendants on July 23, 1990.

[246]*246The caption of the notice recites the names of the plaintiffs-appellees as “Storage Technology Corporation and Storage Technology de Puerto Rico, Inc.” and of the defendants-appellants as “Comité Pro Rescate, et al.”

STC moved to dismiss the appeal as to all defendants not specifically named in the notice of appeal.3 STC also moved to dismiss the appeal as moot on the ground that no meaningful relief could be granted the Comite as the only appellant.

Following a hearing, the district court denied the motion, holding that “if the Tenth Circuit were to rule on this particular caption and this particular notice of appeal that they would also decide that there is no ambiguity, and ‘all of the defendants of record herein’ does indeed mean all the defendants in the case that is being appealed from.” The court further stated her “opinion that the Tenth Circuit would follow the more broad interpretation of the Second, Ninth and Third” Circuits. Application for Writ of Mandamus, ex. C, Tr. of Hearing on Motion to Dismiss held November 15, 1990, at 7-8. This petition followed.

We review our jurisdiction to entertain a petition for writ of mandamus under 28 U.S.C. § 1651. As recently explained by the Supreme Court in Mallard v. United States District Court, 490 U.S. 296, 109 S.Ct. 1814, 1822, 104 L.Ed.2d 318 (1989):

“The traditional use of the writ in aid of appellate jurisdiction both at common law and in the federal courts has been to confine an inferior court to a lawful exercise of its prescribed jurisdiction or to compel it to exercise its authority when it is its duty to do so.” Roche v. Evaporated Milk Assn., 319 U.S. 21, 26, 63 S.Ct. 938, 941, 87 L.Ed. 1185 (1943). See also Will v. Calvert Fire Ins. Co., 437 U.S. 655, 661, 98 S.Ct. 2552, 2556, 57 L.Ed.2d 504 (1978); Kerr v. United States District Court, 426 U.S. 394, 402, 96 S.Ct. 2119, 2123, 48 L.Ed.2d 725 (1976); Will v. United States, 389 U.S. 90, 95, 88 S.Ct. 269, 273, 19 L.Ed.2d 305 (1967). Mallard alleged that the District Court did not lawfully exercise its jurisdiction in appointing him and that the Court of Appeals should therefore order the District Court to grant his motion to dismiss his appointment; he did not seek to compel the District Court to exercise some authority it wrongfully declined to use. Although “we have not limited the use of mandamus by an unduly narrow and technical understanding of what constitutes a matter of ‘jurisdiction,’ ” Kerr, supra, 426 U.S. at 402, 96 S.Ct., at 2124; see Will v. United States, supra, 389 U.S., at 95, 88 S.Ct., at 273 we have required that petitioners demonstrate a “clear abuse of discretion,” Bankers Life & Casualty Co. v. Holland, 346 U.S. 379, 383, 74 S.Ct. 145, 148, 98 L.Ed. 106 (1953), or conduct amounting to “usurpation of [the judicial] power,” De Beers Consolidated Mines, Ltd. v. United States, 325 U.S. 212, 217, 65 S.Ct. 1130, 1133, 89 L.Ed. 1566 (1945), to be entitled to issuance of the writ. To ensure that mandamus remains an extraordinary remedy, petitioners must show that they lack adequate alternative means to obtain the relief they seek, see, e.g., Kerr, supra, 426 U.S., at 403, 96 S.Ct. at 2124; Allied Chemical Corp. v. Daiflon, Inc., 449 U.S. 33, 35, 101 S.Ct. 188, 190, 66 L.Ed.2d 193 (1980) (per curiam), and carry “the burden of showing that [their] right to issuance of the writ is ‘clear and indisputable.’ ” Bankers Life, supra, 346 U.S. at 384, 74 S.Ct. at 148, quoting United States v. Duell, 172 U.S. 576, 582, 19 S.Ct. 286, 287, 43 L.Ed. 559 (1899).

We have limited issuance of mandamus writs to “ ‘those exceptional cases where the inferior court acted wholly without jurisdiction or so clearly abused its discretion as to constitute usurpation of [247]*247power.’ ” United States v. Carrigan, 804 F.2d 599, 602 (10th Cir.1986) (quoting In re Dalton, 733 F.2d 710, 716 (10th Cir.1984)), cert. dismissed, 469 U.S. 1185, 105 S.Ct. 947, 83 L.Ed.2d 959 (1985). See also United States v. Carrigan, 778 F.2d 1454, 1466 (10th Cir.1985).

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