Publish United States Court of Appeals For The Tenth Circuit
Publish United States Court of Appeals For The Tenth Circuit
Publish United States Court of Appeals For The Tenth Circuit
FILED
United States Court of Appeals
Tenth Circuit
August 8, 2012
Elisabeth A. Shumaker
Clerk of Court
No. 12-706
(D.C. No. 5:09-ML-02048-C)
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ORDER
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Before LUCERO, HARTZ, and O'BRIEN, Circuit Judges.
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This matter is before the court to consider the plaintiffs petition for
permission to appeal the district courts denial of their request for class
certification filed pursuant to Fed. R. Civ. P. 23(f) and Fed. R. App. P. 5. The
petition is denied.1
I
The plaintiffs filed this action against Cox Enterprises, Inc., on behalf of
themselves as well as a putative class consisting of all persons in the United
States who subscribe to Cox for so-called premium cable and who paid Cox a
monthly rental fee for the accompanying set-up box. In order to receive full
access to Coxs premium cable services the plaintiffs had to rent the set-up box
from Cox. The plaintiffs alleged that this constituted an illegal tie-in in violation
of the Sherman Act, 15 U.S.C. 1.
II
Fed. R. Civ. P. 23(f) provides that a court of appeals may permit an appeal
from an order granting or denying class-action certification under this rule if a
petition for permission to appeal is filed with the circuit clerk within 14 days
after the order is entered.
runs from the denial of a timely petition ... rather than from the date
of the order itself.).
Id. at 4 n.2.
Thus, the plaintiffs had 14 days from the date the district court denied the
motion for reconsideration to file their petition in this court. Because the petition
was filed within that time, it was timely.
The concurrence would consider the notice of appeal timely by construing
the Motion to Reconsider as one brought under Fed. R. Civ. P. 60, so that Fed. R.
App.P. 4(a)(4)(B)(ii) delayed the time for appeal until the motion was decided.
But Rule 60(b) is limited to relief from a final judgment, order, or proceeding.
As the advisory committee note to the 1946 Amendment to Rule 60 states: The
addition of the qualifying word final emphasizes the character of the judgments,
orders or proceedings from which Rule 60(b) affords relief; and hence
interlocutory judgments are not brought within the restrictions of the rule. In
any event, the application of Rule 60(b) is irrelevant. As observed by the
Seventh Circuit: [F]ederal courts long have held that a motion for
reconsideration tolls the time for appeal, provided that the motion is made within
the time for appeal. The practice is independent of [Appellate] Rule 4(a)(4), or
any other rule. Blair v. Equifax Check Services, Inc., 181 F.3d 832, 837 (7th
Cir. 1999) (citations omitted).
III
The decision whether to grant the petition is purely discretionary. See Fed.
R. Civ. P. 23(f); Vallario v. Vandehey, 554 F.3d 1259, 1262 (10th Cir. 2009) (this
discretion is unfettered and akin to the discretion exercised by the Supreme
Court in acting on a petition for certiorari.) (quoting Fed. R. Civ. P. 23(f)
advisory committees note). [C]ourts of appeals have remained ever mindful that
interlocutory appeals are traditionally disfavored . . . . Id. [T]he grant of a
petition for interlocutory review constitutes the exception rather than the rule.
Id. (citations and quotations omitted). We will exercise restraint in accepting
Rule 23(f) petitions and will not accept such petitions as a matter of course. Id.
(citations and quotations omitted).
Upon a careful review of the materials filed with this court and the
applicable law, we conclude that this matter is not appropriate for immediate
review. None of the concerns noted by this court in Vallario to justify an
interlocutory appeal is present here. See id. at 1263-64.
Accordingly, the petition is DENIED.
I concur in parts I and III of the Courts opinion and concur in the result. I cannot
join part II because it suggests a Motion to Reconsider, that cannot be construed to be
one of the motions mentioned in Appellate Rule 4(a)(4)(A), might, nevertheless, extend
the time for filing a notice of appeal. There is no need for such speculation.
Rule 5 of the Federal Rules of Appellate Procedure provides in relevant
part:
(a) Petition for Permission to Appeal.
(1) To request permission to appeal when an appeal is within
the court of appeals' discretion, a party must file a petition
for permission to appeal. The petition must be filed with
the circuit clerk with proof of service on all other parties
to the district-court action.
(2) The petition must be filed within the time specified by the
statute or rule authorizing the appeal or, if no such time is
specified, within the time provided by Rule 4(a) for filing
a notice of appeal.
Fed. R. App. P. 5(a)(1) and (2).
Civil Rule 23(f) reads as follows: A court of appeals may permit an appeal
from an order granting or denying class-action certification under this rule if a petition for
permission to appeal is filed with the circuit clerk within 14 days after the order is
entered. An appeal does not stay proceedings in the district court unless the district judge
or the court of appeals so orders. Fed. R. Civ. P. 23(f).
Appellate Rule 4(a) specifies in exquisite detail the kinds of motions that extend
the time for filing a notice of appeal. In relevant part, it provides:
(4) Effect of a Motion on a Notice of Appeal.
Nowhere in Rule 4 does the term motion for reconsideration appear. In fact, the
term is nowhere mentioned or even recognized in the Federal Rules of Appellate
Procedure or the Federal Rules of Civil Procedure. We noted that omission in Hatfield v.
Bd. of Cnty. Comm'rs for Converse Cnty., 52 F.3d 858, 861 (10th Cir. 1995).1 Our
Hatfield decision charted the path for dealing with such motions. It requires us to look
past the title of the motion to its substance. If the substance of the motion can reasonably
be construed to identify it as one of the motions mentioned in Appellate Rule 4(a)(4)(A),
we will treat it as such and the time for filing the notice of appeal is extended; otherwise
not.
In this case we can easily construe plaintiffs Motion to Reconsider as one brought
under Fed. R. Civ. P. 60; it expressly refers to and relies upon Rule 60 as the basis for
reconsideration. So construed, the appeal time runs from the filing of the order disposing
of it. Fed. R. App. P. 4(a)(4)(B)(ii). That resolves this matter. Nothing need be said
about non-qualifying motions.
According to the majority,
1
See also Warren v. Am. Bankers Ins. of Florida, 507 F.3d 1239, 1243 (10th Cir.
2007) (For nearly twenty years. . .we have admonished counsel that the Federal Rules of
Civil Procedure do not recognize that creature known all too well as the motion to
reconsider or motion for reconsideration. We are not alone. See, e.g., Auto Serv. Co.,
Inc. v. KPMG, LLP, 537 F.3d 853, 855 (8th Cir. 2008); Hope v. United States, 43 F.3d
1140, 1142 n. 2 (7th Cir. 1994).
3
Majority Opinion at 5.
The order denying class certification may not have been final, but that does not
mean Rule 60 is inapplicable. Civil Rule 23(f), adopted in 1998, is an exception to the
general finality rule. In authorizing an appeal from the granting or denial of class action
certification, it necessarily recognizes that orders granting or denying class certification
are not final, but it treats them as final for appeal purposes. In like manner, Appellate
Rule 5, adopted in 1965, recognizes that some permitted appeals are from non-final
orders; it, too, treats them as final and sets the time for appeal as dictated in the statute
or rule (Civil Rule 23 in this case) or as provided in Appellate Rule 4. While Rule 23
sets the appeal time at 14 days, neither it nor Appellate Rule 5, speak to motions which
might extend the time for filing a notice of appeal. There is no need to do so because
Rule 5 specifically refers to Rule 4. That reference would seem to make Rule 4 the place
to look for such exceptions, as it specifically deals with them; it makes no mention of a
"Motion to Reconsider."
I am not convinced that the Seventh Circuits opinion in Blair v. Equifax Check
Services, Inc., 181 F.3d 832, 837 (7th Cir. 1999) gives license to this panel to ignore
Tenth Circuit cases discouraging the promiscuous use of undifferentiated motions to
reconsider. Restricting time extensions triggered by nominal motions to reconsider to
4
those which are, in fact, motions identified in Appellate Rule 4, as we have historically
done, maintains the spirit of the rules and discourages lazy practice or misuse.