8th Amendment – Timely Filing

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7th Circuit Court of Appeals

Case Name: Timothy Bell v. Eugene McAdory, et al

Case No.: 15-1036

Officials: POSNER, EASTERBROOK, and KANNE, Circuit Judges

Focus: 8^th Amendment – Timely Filing

Appellant fails to make timely appeal, however, his filing is treated as a request for an extension.

“The Rules of Appellate Procedure nonetheless offer some assistance to litigants who misunderstand when an appeal must be filed. Rule 4(a)(5)(A)(i) permits a district judge to add another 30 days to the time for appeal, if “a party so moves no later than 30 days after the time prescribed by this Rule 4(a) expires”. It is unclear to us why the district judge did not treat Bell’s motion as one under that rule. After all, the judge knew that the motion had been miscaptioned. It called itself a Rule 59 motion for reconsideration; the judge recognized that it was too late to be that and treated it as if it were a Rule 60 motion. Why not treat it as a Rule 4(a)(5) motion instead? The judge did not say.”

Remanded with instructions to treat filing as a request for an extension under Rule 4(a)(5)

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Attorney Derek A. Hawkins is the managing partner at Hawkins Law Offices LLC, where he heads up the firm’s startup law practice. He specializes in business formation, corporate governance, intellectual property protection, private equity and venture capital funding and mergers & acquisitions. Check out the website at www.hawkins-lawoffices.com or contact them at 262-737-8825.