Judiciary
Federal Judge Hit for ‘Unseemly Haste’ in Dismissing Case
Posted Nov 15, 2007, 05:28 am CST
By Debra Cassens Weiss
A federal appeals court said Tuesday that U.S. District Judge Manuel Real acted with “unseemly haste” when he dismissed a case brought by a no-show lawyer with a good excuse.
The lawyer, Stanley Raskin, received e-mail notice of a hearing even though there was no evidence he had agreed to receive electronic service of documents, the Recorder reports. Raskin did not check his e-mail regularly, and he didn’t show up.
The hearing had been scheduled for Raskin to explain why he hadn’t served one of the defendants in the case. When he learned of the dismissal, he served the defendant within the time limit and moved to vacate the dismissal. Real refused, without arguments.
“The district judge’s unseemly haste in dismissing this case, and his failure to heed the perfectly plausible (and meritorious) explanation proffered by plaintiff in his motion for reconsideration, has cost the parties significant money and delay in pursuing this wholly unnecessary appeal,” the court said in its per curiam opinion (PDF).
"Justice suffers when judges act in such an arbitrary fashion. We apologize to the parties and admonish the district judge to exercise more care and patience in the future.”