Marvin Gill v. David Wells, et al

Filing

Opinion issued by court as to Appellant Marvin C. Gill. Decision: Affirmed. Opinion type: Non-Published. Opinion method: Per Curiam.

Case: 14-12303

Date Filed: 04/16/2015

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[DO NOT PUBLISH]

IN THE UNITED STATES COURT OF APPEALS
FOR THE ELEVENTH CIRCUIT
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No. 14-12303
Non-Argument Calendar
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D.C. Docket No. 5:99-cv-00119-LC-WCS

MARVIN C. GILL,
Plaintiff-Appellant,
versus
SGT. DAVID WELLS,
SGT. HOWELL,
JEFFRY D. PIPPIN,
CO REYNOLDS,
SUPT. H. ALFORD, et al.,
Defendants-Appellees.
________________________
Appeal from the United States District Court
for the Northern District of Florida
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(April 16, 2015)
Before TJOFLAT, HULL and WILSON, Circuit Judges.

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PER CURIAM:
In this 42 U.S.C. § 1983 action, Plaintiff Marvin Gill, pro se, appeals the
district court’s order refusing to allow him to file his 2014 motion for relief from
the 2004 judgment. After review, we affirm.
I. FACTS
In 1999, Plaintiff Gill, a Florida prisoner, brought a § 1983 action against six
state prison officials, alleging, inter alia, claims of excessive force. After the
district court denied the Defendants’ motion for summary judgment on Gill’s
excessive force claims, Gill retained counsel. Shortly before trial, the parties
entered into settlement negotiations and reached a verbal agreement to settle.
On June 2, 2004, the Defendants’ counsel advised the district court that the
parties had settled the case, and the district court entered an order dismissing Gill’s
action. The district court retained jurisdiction for sixty days—until August 1,
2004—to amend, vacate or set aside the dismissal order if the settlement was not
consummated. Over the course of the next two months, the attorneys for the
parties disagreed about the precise terms of the settlement agreement. On July 21,
2004, Gill’s attorney advised the Defendants’ attorney that he had “no choice but
to seek judicial intervention.” However, Gill did not do so before the August 1,
2004 deadline.

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Instead, Gill waited until September 7, 2004 to file a petition to enforce the
settlement agreement, advising the district court that the parties were unable to
execute a formal settlement agreement. In response, the Defendants quoted at
length from the district court’s dismissal order and argued that because the motion
was not filed within the required sixty-day period, the district court lacked
jurisdiction to enforce the settlement. On September 30, 2004, the district court
denied Gill’s petition because the deadline for reinstating Gill’s case had expired,
and the district court no longer had jurisdiction to provide the relief Gill sought.
Gill did not file a Rule 60(b) motion at that time or appeal the district court’s 2004
order. 1
Over eight years later, on June 28, 2012, Gill filed a Motion for Relief from
Order of Dismissal. On July 6, 2012, the district court entered an order returning
Gill’s motion and explaining that Gill’s case had been “closed on June 2, 2004
upon entry of a final judgment.” Gill did not appeal the district court’s 2012 order.
About two years later, on May 1, 2014, Gill filed another Motion for Relief
from Order of Dismissal. On May 6, 2014, the district court entered an order again

1

According to Gill’s appeal brief, Gill filed a 2006 action to enforce the settlement in
Florida state court, which was dismissed. In addition, Gill filed a 2008 action in federal district
court against the attorneys in the Florida Attorney General’s office who negotiated the settlement
on behalf of the Defendants, alleging that the attorneys tortiously interfered with the settlement
contract. The district court dismissed Gill’s 2008 action for lack of subject matter jurisdiction.
See Gill v. McCollum, 4:08-cv-376, 2008 WL 4540275 (N.D. Fla. Oct. 9, 2008). This Court
affirmed. See Gill v. McCollum, 361 F. App’x 69 (11th Cir. 2010).
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returning Gill’s motion and explaining that Gill’s case was closed. Gill filed this
appeal of the district court’s May 6, 2014 order.

II. DISCUSSION
On appeal, Gill states that he filed his motion pursuant to Federal Rule of
Civil Procedure 60(b)(4) and (6). According to Gill, the basis for his Rule 60(b)
motion is that the underlying 2004 judgment in his case is void because neither he
nor his attorney received notice at the time that the district court intended to
dismiss his action or that the action had been dismissed. Gill contends that his
delay in filing his Rule 60(b) motion was caused by his hospitalization for
complications from open heart surgery and an infected pacemaker beginning in
2010 and extending for “a considerable amount of time.” 2
Under Rule 60(b)(4), a district court “may relieve a party . . . from a final
judgment, order, or proceeding [if] the judgment is void.” Fed. R. Civ. P. 60(b)(4).
A judgment is “void” under Rule 60(b)(4) “if the court that rendered it lacked
jurisdiction of the subject matter, or of the parties, or if it acted in a manner
inconsistent with due process of law.” Burke v. Smith, 252 F.3d 1260, 1263 (11th
Cir. 2001) (quotation marks omitted).

2

We review a district court’s denial of Rule 60(b)(6) motion only for an abuse of
discretion, but review de novo a district court’s denial of a Rule 60(b)(4) motion. Burke v.
Smith, 252 F.3d 1260, 1263 (11th Cir. 2001).
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Under Rule 60(b)(6), a district court may set aside a final judgment for “any
other reason that justifies relief.” Fed. R. Civ. P. 60(b)(6). Relief under Rule
60(b)(6) “is an extraordinary remedy which may be invoked only upon a showing
of exceptional circumstances.” Griffin v. Swim-Tech Corp., 722 F.2d 677, 680
(11th Cir. 1984). Even when the movant shows exceptional circumstances, the
decision “whether to grant the requested relief is a matter for the district court’s
sound discretion.” Toole v. Baxter Healthcare Corp., 235 F.3d 1307, 1317 (11th
Cir. 2000) (quotation marks and alteration omitted). Accordingly, to prevail on
appeal, the “appellant must demonstrate a justification so compelling that the
[district] court was required to vacate its order.” Solaroll Shade & Shutter Corp.,
v. Bio-Energy Sys., Inc., 803 F.2d 1130, 1132 (11th Cir. 1986).
Generally, Rule 60(b) motions “must be made within a reasonable time.”
Fed. R. Civ. P. 60(c)(1). What constitutes a “reasonable time” depends upon the
circumstances of each case, including “whether the parties have been prejudiced by
the delay and whether a good reason has been presented for failing to take action
sooner.” BUC Int’l Corp. v. Int’l Yacht Council Ltd., 517 F.3d 1271, 1275 (11th
Cir. 2008) (quotation marks omitted).
We have indicated, however, that the time for filing a Rule 60(b)(4) motion
“is not constrained by reasonableness.” Hertz Corp. v. Alamo Rent-A-Car, Inc., 16
F.3d 1126, 1130 (11th Cir. 1994). Nonetheless, it is not error for a district court to
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deny a Rule 60(b)(4) motion where the party seeking relief “knowingly sat on his
rights,” and “does not give an acceptable reason for this delay.” Stansell v.
Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia, 771 F.3d 713, 736-38 (11th Cir. 2014)
(involving a Rule 60(b)(4) movant who claimed he had no notice of garnishment
proceedings but did not explain why he waited nine months after becoming aware
of the judgment to file his motion); see also United Student Aid Funds, Inc. v.
Espinosa, 559 U.S. 260, 275, 130 S. Ct. 1367, 1380 (2010) (“Rule 60(b)(4) does
not provide a license for litigants to sleep on their rights.”).
Here, the district court did not commit reversible error when it refused to
accept for filing Gill’s Rule 60(b) motion filed in 2014. This was Gill’s second
such motion and was filed almost ten years after the 2004 judgment was entered
and the case was closed. The choice to refuse to accept Gill’s motion was within
the district court’s inherent power to manage its docket. See Smith v. Psychiatric
Solutions, Inc., 750 F.3d 1253, 1262 (11th Cir. 2014), cert. denied, No. 14-690,
2015 WL 731905 (Feb. 23, 2015).
Even assuming arguendo that the district court should have accepted Gill’s
Rule 60(b) motion, the motion was due to be denied as untimely. To the extent
Gill brought his motion under Rule 60(b)(6), he did not attempt to file it within a
reasonable time. To the extent Gill’s motion proceeded under Rule 60(b)(4), the

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record demonstrates that Gill knowingly and without sufficient explanation sat on
his rights.
Gill, despite knowing of the judgment, failed to file a Rule 60(b)(4) motion
for many years. Even if, as Gill claims, his attorney did not receive notice when
the dismissal order was entered in June 2004, both Gill and his attorney were on
notice of the dismissal order by September 2004 at the latest, when Gill’s attorney
sought unsuccessfully to enforce the settlement agreement. See Link v. Wabash R.
R. Co., 370 U.S. 626, 634, 82 S. Ct. 1386, 1390 (1962) (explaining that a party “is
considered to have notice of all facts, notice of which can be charged upon the
attorney”) (quotation marks omitted). Yet, Gill waited almost ten years, until May
2014, to try set the judgment aside on Rule 60(b)(4) grounds.3 Gill’s only
explanation for his delay is his extended hospitalization beginning in 2010, which
does not explain why Gill sat on his rights between 2004 and 2010, a period of six
years. Under the circumstances, we readily conclude that Gill’s 2014 Rule 60(b)
motion is untimely.
Finally, even if we ignore Gill’s delays, his 2014 motion was due to be
denied because Gill had not shown either “exceptional circumstances” under Rule
60(b)(6), or that the district court, in entering the dismissal order, had “acted in a
3

Because Gill’s first Rule 60(b) motion in 2012 is not in the record, it is unclear whether
that motion argued that the judgment was void under Rule 60(b)(4) for lack of notice. But, even
if it did, Gill waited almost eight years before raising the argument as a basis for setting aside the
judgment. He also failed to appeal the district court’s 2012 refusal to file his motion.
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manner inconsistent with due process of law” under Rule 60(b)(4). Based on the
record before us, Gill did not carry his burden to show he is entitled to relief under
either Rule 60(b)(4) or Rule 60(b)(6).
AFFIRMED.

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