Williams v. City of Cleveland

848 F. Supp. 2d 646, 2012 WL 245228, 2012 U.S. Dist. LEXIS 8307
CourtDistrict Court, N.D. Mississippi
DecidedJanuary 25, 2012
DocketCiv. Action No. 2:10cv215-SA-JMV
StatusPublished
Cited by4 cases

This text of 848 F. Supp. 2d 646 (Williams v. City of Cleveland) is published on Counsel Stack Legal Research, covering District Court, N.D. Mississippi primary law. Counsel Stack provides free access to over 12 million legal documents including statutes, case law, regulations, and constitutions.

Bluebook
Williams v. City of Cleveland, 848 F. Supp. 2d 646, 2012 WL 245228, 2012 U.S. Dist. LEXIS 8307 (N.D. Miss. 2012).

Opinion

MEMORANDUM OPINION AND ORDER

SHARION AYCOCK, District Judge.

This cause comes before the Court on the motion [85] of the Plaintiff to transfer trial of this case to Greenville. Plaintiff filed suit in the Delta Division of the Northern District of Mississippi. The matter was assigned to this Court and set for trial in Aberdeen, seat of the Eastern Division, as the customary practice in this district is for judges to try cases at their respective “duty stations.” The Plaintiff seeks to move this trial to Greenville pursuant to 28 U.S.C. § 1404. Plaintiff also challenges the Court’s jury selections practices on constitutional and statutory grounds. The Defendants oppose Plaintiffs motion and request that the trial be held in Aberdeen.

Before turning the merits of Plaintiffs arguments, the Court notes that there is no shortage of litigation in the Northern District of Mississippi concerning intradistrict transfer motions filed by both plaintiffs and defendants alike. See, e.g., Beck v. Koppers, Inc., 2006 WL 2228918, at *1 (N.D.Miss. July 25, 2006); Johnson [649]*649v. Lewis, 645 F.Supp.2d 578 (N.D.Miss. 2009); Johnson v. Merchant, 628 F.Supp.2d 695 (N.D.Miss.2009); Dulin v. Board of Com’rs of Greenwood Leflore Hosp., 2009 WL 3349169 (N.D.Miss. Oct. 15, 2009); Estate of Boles v. Nat’l Heritage Realty, Inc., 2010 WL 2038570 (N.D.Miss. May 20, 2010); In re Gibson, 423 Fed. Appx. 385 (5th Cir.2011). Likewise, until fully resolved, either through case law or congressional action, litigation over these matters does not appear to be coming to an end — or even slowing pace — with the passage of time. Given this, many of the issues raised by Plaintiff have already been thoroughly addressed by judges in the Northern District and, in the interest of not “reinventing the wheel,” this Court first turns to and adopts Chief Judge Mills’ reasoning, as it relates to this action, in Johnson v. Lewis, 645 F.Supp.2d 578 (N.D.Miss.2009) and Johnson v. Merchant, 628 F.Supp.2d 695 (N.D.Miss.2009).

A. Practices in the Northern District of Mississippi

In the two Johnson cases, Chief Judge Mills provided a detailed account not only of the legislative history concerning divisional venue but also of this Court’s own history, as well as the policy considerations driving the Northern District’s practices governing the allocation of civil cases. The most suitable beginning point for detailing the practices of this Court is explaining the Northern District’s standing orders and the policy reasons fueling the adoption of such orders.

For the last decade, the judges of the Northern District have operated under a series of substantially similar standing orders relating to divisional venue and case assignments which are based upon policy considerations specific to the litigation needs of this District. Legislative history indicates that, since 1988, it has been Congress’ intent to permit federal district courts to establish, if they so choose, their own standards relating to divisional venue. Prior to its repeal, the divisional venue statute, 28 U.S.C. § 1393 provided that:

(a) Except as otherwise provided, any civil action, not of a local nature, against a single defendant in a district containing more than one division must be brought in the division where he resides, (b) Any such action, against defendants residing in different divisions of the same district or different districts in the same State, may be brought in any of such divisions.

Section 1393 was repealed in 1988. Comments found in the U.S.Code Annotated give some guidance as to Congress’ intent in doing so:

Citing the elimination of divisional venue in criminal cases years earlier, that nothing at all seems to have been lost by its erasure, and that the breakup of a district into divisions is not related either to size or population anyway, Congress repealed as well the divisional venue for which § 1393 had provided on the civil side.
While statutory direction may now be out of the picture, districts that are divided into divisions may still be affected by distinctions between divisions emanating from the court’s own rules. See Moysi v. Trustcorp, Inc., 725 F.Supp. 336 (N.D.Ohio, E.D.1989). It was said in Jordon v. Bowman Apple Products Co., 728 F.Supp. 409 (WD.Va.1990), “that the purpose in repealing § 1393 was not to prohibit divisional venue, but rather not to require it. Where divisional venue is mandated by local rule ... those mandates must be complied with”, but if there is no local rule, venue need be set only on a district basis, disregarding divisions.

[650]*65032A Am.Jur.2d Federal Courts § 1190 “Venue in multidivision districts” similarly explains that:

The current version of the general venue statute does not speak in terms of divisions within a district, but rather requires that venue be laid in the proper district. The repeal of 28 U.S.C.A. § 1393 casts some doubt on whether any vitality remains in the concept of divisional venue. However, the purposes of the repeal of divisional venue were to provide the courts with greater flexibility to accommodate the convenience of the parties and promote the efficient delivery of judicial services. The repeal was not intended to act as a prohibition against districts distributing their business by a divisional venue process.... If a district lacks local rules concerning divisional venue, a case may be heard in any division within the district with or without the consent of the parties, and a court may transfer a case to another division under 28 U.S.C.A. § 1404(a), which provides for transfers to other divisions.

The repeal of § 1393 provided an opportunity for the Northern District to establish its own standards regarding divisional venue. It also provided a reason for doing so. Section 1393 had limited plaintiffs in multi-divisional districts to filing suit in the division where the defendant resided. With the repeal of this statute, the freedom of plaintiffs to file suit in various divisions within a district increased, as did the potential for mischief in this context.

The potential for shopping for a particular judge or jury has been a matter of longstanding concern among the bench in the Northern District. The judges of this district wish to avoid the perception that one form of justice will be available to litigants filing suit in one division in this district as opposed to those filing suit in another. The judges also wish to avoid a situation whereby any particular division comes to be seen as a “fiefdom” of sorts, in which the idiosyncrasies and preferences of one judge come to dominate the local litigation practice.

Finally, there is the matter of the named standing divisions in the Northern District as opposed to divisional allocation in reality. In 1996, the Clarksdale Courthouse, site of the Delta Division, was closed. Though this courthouse was closed, Mississippi’s divisional statute was not amended, see 28 U.S.C. § 104, thereby leaving the Northern District with a division without a courthouse.

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Bluebook (online)
848 F. Supp. 2d 646, 2012 WL 245228, 2012 U.S. Dist. LEXIS 8307, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/williams-v-city-of-cleveland-msnd-2012.