[DO NOT PUBLISH]

IN THE UNITED STATES COURT OF APPEALS
FOR THE ELEVENTH CIRCUIT

________________________ No. 18

- 11542 Non

- Argument Calendar

________________________ D.C. Docket No. 5:18

- cv
- 00111

- TES

RODNEY MICHAEL MCCOLLIGAN,
Plaintiff

- Appellant,

versus VENDOR RESOURCE MANAGEMENT, Author ized Agent for the Secretary of Veteran Affairs, JOHN AND OR JANE DOES, Unknown Investors and Agents,
Defendants

- Appellees.

________________________ Appea l from the United States District Court for the Middle District of Georgia

________________________ (March 13, 2019) Before ED CARNES , Chief Judge, BRANCH, and JULIE CARNES, Circuit Judges. Case: 18-11542 Date Filed: 03/13/2019 Page: 1 of 52 PER CURIAM: In this interlocutory appeal, Rodney McColligan, pr oceeding pro se , contends that the district court abused its discretion by de nying his motions to enjoin Vendor Resource Management from evicting him from his former property , which was sold in a foreclosure sale after he defaulted on his mortgage.
I.
In August 2007 McColligan received a $ 96,000 loan from Market Street Mortgage Corporation

. To receive that loan, he executed a security deed giving
Market Street a mortgage on his property in Houston County, Georgia. Market
Street assigned the mortgage to the Georgia Housing and Finance Authority , which
entitled Georgia Housing to sell McColligan ’s property through a foreclosure sale
if McColligan defaulted on his loan. He did

. A fter a n April 2017 foreclosure sale, the United States Secretary of Veterans Affairs obtained the rights to the property. When McColligan stayed on the property, the Secretary had Vendor Resource Management initiate a proceeding in Georgia state court to evict McColligan . T he

court granted Vendor a writ of possession , which allowed Vendor to evict McColligan

. In March 2018 McColligan responded by filing this suit against Vendor to
obtain , among other things, $1,000,000 in damages. T he complaint alleges that
Vendor violated the Truth in Lending Act and the Fair Debt Collection Practices

Case: 18-11542 Date Filed: 03/13/2019 Page: 2 of 53 Act

. On the same day, McColligan filed a motion requesting a preliminary injunction and other equitable relief to prevent Vendor from executing the writ of possession and, as a result, evicting him from the property

. A week later he filed

a nother motion seeking to enjoin Vendor from evicting him

. The district court issued an order den ying both of McColligan’s motions , fin ding that the Anti

- Injunction Act barred McColligan’s requests for equitable
relief. 1 After the district court issued its order, Vendor executed the writ of possession and evicted McColligan from the property. This is McColligan ’s interlocutory appeal fr om the denial of equitable relief

. ( I t does not involve his request for monetary damages

. ) See 28 U.S.C. § 1292(a)(1)

. II. Article III of the Constitution limits our jurisdiction to the consideration of

“ c ases” and “ c ontroversies.” U.S. Const. art. III, § 2 . “T he doctrine of mootness is
derived from this limitation because an action that is moot cannot be characterized

as an active case or controversy. ” Adler v. Duval Cty. Sch. Bd. , 112 F.3d 1475, 1477 (11th Cir. 1997)

. “ [I] t is incumbent upon this court to consider issues of

mootness

. . . and, absent an applicable exception to the mootness doctrine, to

1 “Under the Anti

– Injunction Act, an injunction halting a state court proceeding is inappropriate, ‘e xcept as expressly authorized by Act of Congress, or where necessary in aid of its jurisdiction, or to protect or effectuate its judgments. ’ ” Burr & Forman v. Blair , 470 F.3d 1019, 1027 (11th Cir. 2006) (quoting 28 U.S.C. § 2283).

Case: 18-11542 Date Filed: 03/13/2019 Page: 3 of 54 dismiss any appeal that no longer presents a viable case or controversy.” Hunt v.
Aimco Props. , L.P. , 814 F.3d 1213, 1220 (11th Cir. 2016)

. Because equitable relief is “a prospective remedy,” a “ plaintiff ’ s claims for equitable relief become moot ” when that relief can no longer “ prevent the
defendant ’ s future conduct from causing future injury. ” Adler , 112 F.3d at 1477

. That is because the plaintiff would “no longer need[ ] protection from [the] future injury.” Id. So, for example, a case in which a plaintiff reques ts only equitable

re lief to prevent a pending eviction becomes moot when he is evicted

. See A.B. ex
rel. Kehoe v. Hous. Auth. of S. Bend , 683 F.3d 844, 845 (7th Cir. 2012) (“ Once the [eviction] occurs, any possible use for a preliminary injunction is expired. ”) ; cf. United States v. Sec’y, Fla. Dep ’ t of Corr. , 778 F.3d 1223, 1228 (11th Cir. 2015) (“ An appeal is moot when, by virtue of an intervening event, a court of appeals cannot grant any eff ectual relief whatever in favor of the appellant .”) (quotation marks omitted). McColligan’s claims for equitable re lief to prevent Vendor from evicting
him are moot

. Vendor evicted McColligan , which means that e quitable relief can no longer prevent that conduct. See Adler , 112 F.3d at 1477

. And because no exception to the mootness doctrine applies , this appeal is not an active case or controversy. See Hunt , 814 F.3d at 1220

. As a result, we lack jurisdiction to
consider it. Case: 18-11542 Date Filed: 03/13/2019 Page: 4 of 55 III. The general rule is that, “when a case becomes moot after the district court enters its judgment but before this court has issued a decision, we are divested of jurisdiction and must dismiss the appeal and vacat e the underlying judgment.”
Brooks v. Ga. State Bd. of Elections , 59 F.3d 1114, 1122 (11th Cir. 1995) (quotation marks and brackets omitted). But “[i] n the case of interlocutory appeals, the usual practice is just to dismiss the appeal as moot and not vac ate the order appealed from.” Id. (quotation marks omitted). We follow that practice here and, as a result, DISMISS this interlocutory appeal as moot, leave undisturbed the order appealed from, and REMAND the case to the district court for further proce edings. 2

2 See Brooks , 59 F.3d at 1122 (“ We emphasize that our dismissal of this appeal as moot is necessarily limit ed to the specific order before us

. . . . Still pending before the district court is the broader issue of the merits of [ McColligan’s underlying] claim.”).

Case: 18-11542 Date Filed: 03/13/2019 Page: 5 of 5