Armstrong v. Louden

Federal 7th Circuit Court
Civil Court
Appellate Procedure
Citation
Case Number: 
No. 15-1844
Decision Date: 
August 22, 2016
Federal District: 
S.D. Ill.
Holding: 
Affirmed

Dist. Ct. did not err in denying plaintiff’s initial motion to reopen his case, where: (1) Dist. Ct. had granted defendant’s motion for summary judgment in plaintiff’s section 1983 action; (2) plaintiff alleged that he did not receive defendant’s summary judgment motion or order granting same; (3) defendant waited over 8 months to file initial motion to reopen case after case had been dismissed; (4) after Dist. Ct. denied initial motion to reopen case, plaintiff failed to file notice of appeal from said order, but filed second motion to reopen case two months after denial of initial motion to reopen case; and (5) after Dist. Ct. denied second motion to reopen case, plaintiff filed instant notice of appeal. Instant appeal was untimely, where defendant had not filed timely notice of appeal from first denial of his motion to reopen case, and where second motion to reopen case did not serve as effective extension of time to appeal denial of first motion to reopen case. Ct. further noted that Appellate Rule 4(a)(6)(B) governs circumstances of instant case, where appellant did not receive timely notice of entry of judgment, but plaintiff failed to comply with said Rule, where, although he learned of original judgment order within 180 days after its entry, he waited approximately three more months (or beyond 180-day period) to ask Dist. Ct. for any sort of relief.