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Reinforcements for the Judge Rader Docket

By Michael C. Smith

District judges nationwide will really appreciate the poetic justice of this one!

Lest Judge Rader be twiddling his thumbs during his visit to Marshall because his cases are all resolving by summary judgment or settlement, Judge Leonard Davis just gave him a really fun one to add to his docket - the retrial of the Clearvalue, Inc. v. Pearl River Polymers case.  Now I know you're saying to yourself "where have I heard that case before?"  Well, it was the case in 2007 which Judge Davis dismissed the plaintiff's case during the trial as a sanction for failure to disclose adverse test results - see post here and the Federal Circuit reversed and remanded for a new trial last year, finding that the sanction assessed against the plaintiff was excessive.  As I mentioned the other day (and Judge Lee Yeakel confirmed to me a couple of weeks ago that yes, he said this, or at least wants credit for having said it) the worst words for a trial judge are not "reversed" but the next two words "... and remanded."  So the irony of having the appellate court that reversed the judgment and remanded for a new trial send its new chief judge down to handle the retrial is just exceptional.

No, the panel didn't include Judge Rader.  You know you were wondering.

 

Full post as published by Eastern District of Texas Federal Court Practice on March 30, 2010 (boomark / email).