Opinion ID: 790117
Heading Depth: 1
Heading Rank: 4

Heading: Analysis of Emerald's Cross-Appeal

Text: 46 Briefly, we turn to Emerald's cross-appeal challenging the denial of its motion for expenses incurred as a result of the privilege log proceedings. At the closing of the original action, the district court terminated all pending motions, including the motion in question, apparently believing the motions to be moot. While that may have been true for the other motions, it was not true for this motion. That is because, even though subject matter jurisdiction was lacking, the district court still had the authority to adjudicate matters regarding sanctions. See Willy, 503 U.S. at 139, 112 S.Ct. 1076; Matos, 101 F.3d at 1196. Therefore, to the extent that Emerald's motion sought additional sanctions against Equitable in the form of attorneys' fees and costs incurred during the log proceedings, the district court erred in denying the motion as moot. Nonetheless, the district court reached the right result. As discussed above, Equitable did not engage in any sanctionable conduct during the log proceedings. Consequently, denial was the correct disposition of the motion, and we affirm that result. See Commonwealth Ins. Co. v. Titan Tire Corp., 398 F.3d 879, 887 (7th Cir.2004) (Despite its erroneous rationale, . . . the district court reached the correct result, and we affirm that result. `The rule is settled that if the decision below is correct, it must be affirmed, although the lower court relied upon a wrong ground or gave a wrong reason.' (quoting Payne v. Churchich, 161 F.3d 1030, 1038 (7th Cir.1998))).