Opinion ID: 542293
Heading Depth: 1
Heading Rank: 2

Heading: effect of prior proceedings

Text: 7 On appeal, plaintiff's primary contention is that in the course of Sandstrom I ChemLawn represented that Maine enjoyed jurisdiction over ChemLawn's corporate person and that ChemLawn should be bound by this representation in Sandstrom II, thereby forestalling its assertion of a jurisdictional defense. Having scrutinized the record, we find neither plaintiff's premise nor his conclusion to be tenable.
8 The record is clear that ChemLawn never explicitly represented that it transacted business in Maine or was subject to service of process there. Similarly, there has been no persuasive showing that ChemLawn impliedly made such a representation. Although appellee's 1988 statement that jurisdiction was available in the district represented by the plaintiff (quoted supra p. 85) seems ambiguous on its face, the ambiguity vanishes once the statement has been placed in context. Court filings, like other documents, must be read as a whole. Reading ChemLawn's memorandum to the Pennsylvania district court in its entirety, ChemLawn asserted only that, as to each of the plaintiffs (Sandstrom included), personal jurisdiction existed in either the district where the exposure occurred or a district where the plaintiff resided. Since the parties agree that personal jurisdiction was available in Connecticut at all times material hereto, there was no misrepresentation. Infelicity of phrase notwithstanding, we are unable to accept as plausible any more sinister interpretation of the disputed language. 9 This is so despite an ingenious smoke-and-mirrors argument which plaintiff belatedly constructs around Hoffman v. Blaski, 363 U.S. 335, 80 S.Ct. 1084, 4 L.Ed.2d 1254 (1960). Certainly, Hoffman suggests that, from the perspective of venue, Sandstrom I should not have been dispatched to a district where the defendant was unamenable to process. See id. at 343-44, 80 S.Ct. at 1089-90. Inasmuch as Hoffman was never mentioned at the time of transfer, the most logical inference to be drawn, however, is that all of the protagonists--plaintiff, defendant, and the transferor court--overlooked it. Furthermore, neither the intricacies of Hoffman nor its potential impact upon this litigation require exploration: because the argument was not made to the district court or in appellant's opening brief, surfacing only in his reply brief, it has been waived. See Clauson v. Smith, 823 F.2d 660, 666 (1st Cir.1987) (arguments not made below cannot ordinarily be raised for the first time on appeal); Johnston v. Holiday Inns, Inc., 595 F.2d 890, 894 (1st Cir.1979) (same); Pignons S.A. de Mecanique v. Polaroid Corp., 701 F.2d 1, 3 (1st Cir.1983) (appellant cannot instate omitted point merely by referring to it in a reply brief or at oral argument); United States v. Weber, 668 F.2d 552, 561 (1st Cir.1981) (same), cert. denied, 457 U.S. 1105, 102 S.Ct. 2904, 73 L.Ed.2d 1313 (1982).
10 Even if we assume, contrary to the record, that there was some intimation in the course of Sandstrom I that ChemLawn would not contest personal jurisdiction in Maine, any such commitment would be irrelevant to the situation in Sandstrom II. Absent explicit conditions to the contrary--and there were none here--a voluntary dismissal under Fed.R.Civ.P. 41(a) wipes the slate clean, making any future lawsuit based on the same claim an entirely new lawsuit unrelated to the earlier (dismissed) action. See Hill v. W. Bruns & Co., 498 F.2d 565, 567 n. 2 (2d Cir.1974); Bomer v. Ribicoff, 304 F.2d 427, 428 (6th Cir.1962); Bryan v. Smith, 174 F.2d 212, 214 (7th Cir.1949); see also 9 C. Wright & A. Miller, Federal Practice and Procedure: Civil Sec. 2367 at 186 (1971). Agreements do not automatically survive from one suit to the next. 11 In this regard, we find persuasive the reasoning in In re Piper Aircraft Distribution System Antitrust Litigation, 551 F.2d 213 (8th Cir.1977). There, plaintiff Van-S Aviation, a former dealer, had initiated civil antitrust litigation against Piper Aircraft Corporation and various Piper distributors in seven different judicial districts. Van-S sought to represent all victimized Piper dealers. Id. at 215-16. In May 1974, a federal district judge in the Southern District of Florida resolved the class action issue against the plaintiff. The following day, plaintiff filed a notice of voluntary dismissal, Fed.R.Civ.P. 41(a)(1)(i), in the Florida case. Later, the six remaining suits were consolidated for pretrial proceedings in the Western District of Missouri. The Missouri district court refused to consider granting class action status, ruling that the Florida decision conclusively resolved the class certification issue. Piper, 551 F.2d at 216. The Eighth Circuit reversed, stating: The effect of a voluntary dismissal without prejudice is to render the [dismissed] proceedings a nullity and leave the parties as if the action had never been brought. Id. at 219. The voluntary dismissal of plaintiff's Florida action, therefore, carrie[d] down with it previous proceedings and orders in the action, and all pleadings, both of plaintiff and defendant, and all issues, with respect of plaintiff's claim. Id. (quoting 27 C.J.S., Dismissal and Nonsuit, Sec. 39 (1959)). Our own precedent corroborates the same rule. See Cambrera v. Municipality of Bayamon, 622 F.2d 4, 6 (1st Cir.1980). 12 Sandstrom I ended in a prototypical, garden variety voluntary dismissal. Absent explicit conditions to the contrary, the prior proceedings became a nullity. We agree with the Piper and Cambrera panels that, once an action has been voluntarily discontinued, all markings are erased and the page is once again pristine. 4 It follows inexorably that, in filing Sandstrom II, plaintiff could not exhume any alleged jurisdictional consent in Sandstrom I for the purpose of establishing jurisdiction in Sandstrom II. The two cases were separate and independent, and had to be treated in that manner. 13 Nor do we sense any gross inequity arising out of the evenhanded application of this settled rule. Plaintiff--who planned all along to refile his action--could have sought to condition voluntary dismissal on an agreement that ChemLawn would not subsequently contest the jurisdiction of Maine's courts. He did not do so. Absent an agreement, plaintiff could have asked the district court to impose a specific condition to that effect, see Fed.R.Civ.P. 41(a)(2). He did not do so. Or, plaintiff could have proceeded to trial on the assigned date rather than attempting to accommodate his counsel's convenience. 5 Having eschewed these avenues, plaintiff's invocation of equitable principles rings hollow. Equity, after all, ministers to the vigilant, not to those who slumber upon their rights.
14 Plaintiff makes two additional arguments, claiming that (1) principles of judicial estoppel, see, e.g., Patriot Cinemas, Inc. v. General Cinema Corp., 834 F.2d 208, 211-15 (1st Cir.1987) (discussing concept), barred ChemLawn from contesting personal jurisdiction in Sandstrom II, and (2) ChemLawn's jurisdictional challenge amounted to fraud on the court, see Aoude v. Mobil Oil Corp., 892 F.2d 1115, 1118-19 (1st Cir.1989) (discussing concept). We consider these closely related sorties in the ensemble. 15 As a threshold matter, we note that this double-barrelled jeremiad--which was coherently pulled together for the first time in Sandstrom's reply brief in this court--is procedurally defaulted. See supra p. 86 and cases cited. We reaffirm the rule that in the absence of exceptional circumstances, see, e.g., United States v. LaGuardia, 902 F.2d 1010, 1013 (1st Cir.1990) (discussing criteria for exception), arguments which could have been timely raised, but were not, will be rejected. If counsel are routinely allowed to approach the district court with studied nonchalance and are excused from doing their homework until the case is on appeal, scarce judicial resources will be squandered. Moreover, such casualness ultimately deprives an appellate tribunal of both a properly developed record and the district judge's insights into the point. When, as here, the argument is not seasonably presented on appeal, the difficulties we have just enumerated are compounded: the appellee is given no fair chance to respond to a theory which emerges for the first time in the appellant's reply brief and the court of appeals is left with but one side of a two-sided story. 16 We could, of course, stop at this juncture. Yet, because the plaintiff's allegations contain accusations of impropriety and impugn defense counsel's integrity, we believe it is fitting to announce an alternate holding and summarize why we deem these charges to be not only untimely but unfounded. 17 As we have explained, judicial estoppel should be employed when a litigant is 'playing fast and loose with the courts' and when 'intentional self-contradiction is being used as a means of obtaining unfair advantage'. Patriot Cinemas, 834 F.2d at 212 (quoting Scarano v. Central R.R., 203 F.2d 510, 513 (3d Cir.1953)); see also United States v. Levasseur, 846 F.2d 786, 792 (1st Cir.) (observing that the primary concern of the doctrine of judicial estoppel is to protect the integrity of the judicial process), cert. denied, 488 U.S. 894, 109 S.Ct. 232, 102 L.Ed.2d 222 (1988). By the same token, a fraud on the court requires that a litigant and his lawyer concoct some unconscionable scheme calculated to impair the court's ability fairly and impartially to adjudicate a dispute. See Aoude, 892 F.2d at 1118. 18 This case has none of the requisite hallmarks. ChemLawn did not benefit at all from the transfer of Sandstrom I to Maine rather than Connecticut; the choice of a Maine situs benefited plaintiff. Similarly, ChemLawn did not induce the plaintiff to discontinue Sandstrom I; that was the plaintiff's idea, implemented for the plaintiff's sake, to accommodate his attorney. There is no sign that defendant played fast and loose; it was at the worst guilty of a sin of syntax, using an awkward locution in its moving papers in Sandstrom I. The plaintiff's strident attempt to bend these facts to fit palustrine theories grounded in misconduct constitutes an unfortunate elevation of rhetoric over reason. We can see no basis for the claim that appellee intentionally led appellant down the garden path.