Weber v. Pierce

186 F. Supp. 3d 324, 2016 U.S. Dist. LEXIS 63752, 2016 WL 2771122
CourtDistrict Court, D. Delaware
DecidedMay 13, 2016
DocketCiv. No. 13-283-SLR
StatusPublished
Cited by6 cases

This text of 186 F. Supp. 3d 324 (Weber v. Pierce) is published on Counsel Stack Legal Research, covering District Court, D. Delaware primary law. Counsel Stack provides free access to over 12 million legal documents including statutes, case law, regulations, and constitutions.

Bluebook
Weber v. Pierce, 186 F. Supp. 3d 324, 2016 U.S. Dist. LEXIS 63752, 2016 WL 2771122 (D. Del. 2016).

Opinion

MEMORANDUM

Sue L. Robinson, United States District Judge

At Wilmington this 12th day of May, 2016, having reviewed the above captioned case, the court will deny petitioner Paul Edward Weber’s (“petitioner”) motion for an enlargement of time to file a motion for reargument or relief from judgment (D.I. 30), as well as his motion for reargument or relief from judgment (D.I. 31), for the reasons that follow:

1.Background. In 2001, a Delaware Superior Court jury convicted petitioner of second degree forgery and misdemeanor theft. See Weber v. State, 812 A.2d 226 (Table), 2002 WL 31235418, at *1 (Del. Oct. 4, 2002). He was sentenced to thirty days of imprisonment at Level V for each conviction. Id. Petitioner appealed his convictions and sentences to the Delaware Supreme Court, which dismissed the appeal for lack of jurisdiction because petitioner’s term of imprisonment for each conviction did not exceed one month. Id.

2. In 2004, petitioner was indicted on charges of attempted first degree robbery and attempted first degree carjacking. See Weber v. State, 38 A.3d 271, 274 (Del.2012). In 2005, a Delaware Superior Court jury convicted him of both charges, and he was sentenced to a total of twenty-eight years of imprisonment at Level V (twenty-five years for the robbery conviction and three years for the carjacking conviction). Id. On appeal, the Delaware Supreme Court affirmed petitioner’s conviction for attempted first degree carjacking, but reversed his conviction for attempted first degree robbery and remanded the case back to the Superior Court for a new trial. Id. In 2010, the State retried petitioner for attempted first degree robbery, and a Delaware Superior Court jury convicted him of that offense. Id. The State moved to declare petitioner a habitual offender, and the Superior Court granted that motion following a habitual offender hearing. Id. Petitioner was subsequently sentenced to twenty-five years of imprisonment at Level V for the robbery conviction. The Delaware Supreme Court affirmed that conviction and sentence in February 2012. Id. In February 2013, petitioner filed in the Superior Court a pro se Rule 61 motion for post-conviction relief. See State v. Weber, 2014 WL 4167492 (Del.Super. Ct. July 29, 2014). That Rule 61 proceeding is currently stayed. Id. at *5.

3. In February 2013, petitioner filed a counseled1 habeas application in this [327]*327court, challenging his 2010 conviction for attempted first degree robbery. (D.I. 1) The application asserts eight claims, and the habeas proceeding is currently stayed until the completion of petitioner’s pending Rule 61 proceeding. (D.I. 20)

4. Thereafter, petitioner filed a motion to amend or bifurcate claim .one (double jeopardy) of his application in order to independently assert it pursuant to 28 U.S.C. § 2241 and seek summary judgment on that claim while his other habeas claims remain stayed. (D.I. 23) In a memorandum and order dated February 4, 2016, the court denied the motion to amend/bifurcate as futile after determining that it lacked jurisdiction to consider petitioner’s post-conviction double jeopardy claim under § 2241. (D.I. 28 at 5) To the extent petitioner .was vaguely asking to bifurcate claim one and.still assert it under § 2254, the court denied the request in the name of judicial economy to avoid needless piecemeal litigation.

5. On March 8, 2016, thirty-two days after that decision, petitioner filed the instant motion for an enlargement of time to file a motion for reargument or relief from judgment under Federal Rule of Civil Procedure 6(b) (“Fed. R. Civ. P.”), as well as the actual motion for reargument or relief from judgment under District of Delaware Local Rule 7.1.5 (“D. Del. LR”) and Fed. R. Civ. P, 60(a),(b). (D.I. 30; D.I. 31)

6. Standards of Review. A court may, for good cause, grant a motion' to extend the time to perform an act that must be done within a specified time “if the party failed to act because of excusable neglect.” Fed. R. Civ. P. 6(b)(1)(B). A motion for reconsideration filed pursuant to Fed. R. Civ. P. 60(a) (hereinafter referred to as “Rule 60(a) motion”) permits a court to “correct a clerical mistake or a mistake arising from oversight or omission whenever one is found in a judgment, order, or other part of the record.” A motion for reconsideration filed pursuant to Fed. R. Civ. P. 60(b) (hereinafter referred to as “Rule 60(b) motion”) “allows a party to seek relief from a final judgment, and request reopening of his case, under a limited set of circumstances including fraud, mistake, and newly discovered evidence.” Gonzalez v. Crosby, 545 U.S. 524, 528, 125 S.Ct 2641, 162 L.Ed.2d 480 (2005). Rule 60(b) provides that a party may file a motion for relief from a final judgment for the following reasons:

(1) mistake, inadvertence, surprise, or excusable neglect; (2) newly discovered evidence by which due diligence could not have been discovered in time to move for a new trial under Rule 59(b); (3) fraud (whether heretofore denominated intrinsic or extrinsic), misrepresentation or other misconduct of an adverse party; (4) the judgment is void; (5) the judgment has been satisfied, released or discharged, or a prior judgment upon which it is based has been reversed or otherwise vacated, or it is no longer equitable that the judgment should have prospective application; or (6) any other reason justifying relief from the operation of the judgment.

Fed. R. Civ. P. 60(b).

7. Significantly, a “judgment is not final unless there has been a decision by the district court that ends the litigation on the merits and leaves nothing for the court to do but execute the judgment. [] An otherwise non-appealable order is final only if there are no longer any claims left to be resolved by the district court.” Royal Ins. Co. of Am., Inc. v. KTA-Tator, Inc., 239 Fed.Appx. 722, 724 (3d Cir.2007); see also Penn W. Assoc., Inc. v. Cohen, 371 F.3d 118, 125 (3d Cir.2004)(holding that “Rule 60(b) applies only to final judgments and orders” and defining a final judgment/order as “one which ends the litiga[328]*328tion on the merits and leaves nothing for the court to do but execute the judgment.”)- A court’s denial of a summary judgment order typically does not constitute a final appealable order. See Montanez v. Thompson, 608 F.3d 243, 248 (3d Cir.2010).

8. The decision to grant or deny relief from a final judgment under Rule 60(b) lies in the sound discretion of the trial court, consistent with accepted legal principles applied in light of all relevant circumstances. Pierce Assoc.

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Cite This Page — Counsel Stack

Bluebook (online)
186 F. Supp. 3d 324, 2016 U.S. Dist. LEXIS 63752, 2016 WL 2771122, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/weber-v-pierce-ded-2016.