Opinion ID: 165959
Heading Depth: 2
Heading Rank: 2

Heading: March 2004 Order

Text: On March 16, 2004, the magistrate judge recommended that the district court grant pending motions for dismissal/summary judgment filed by defendants Jefferson County Department of Health and Environment and Chris Schmidt. The recommendation was mailed the same day, but not stamped filed until March 18. Calculated from the date of service, see 28 U.S.C. § 636(b)(1), and extended by Fed. R. Civ. P. 6(a) (excluding weekends and holidays from deadlines of ten days or less) and Fed. R. Civ. P. 6(e) (adding three days when relevant period follows service by mail), the deadline for objections was April 2, 2004. On that date, the district court entered an order in which it noted that no objections had been filed, -4- reviewed the matter de novo nevertheless, and summarily adopted the magistrate judge’s recommendation. No objections from plaintiff arrived that day or in the days that followed. Instead, plaintiff eventually filed this appeal. Based on the principles set out above, we conclude that plaintiff has waived her right to appellate review in connection with this order. The only argument she advances against application of the waiver rule here is unpersuasive, and no others appear from the record. She argues, based on the March 18 filing date stamped on the magistrate judge’s recommendation, that she believed (and still contends) that the deadline for objections was April 5 and, thus, the order was premature. Aplt. Opening Br. at 8. Actually, as just noted, the deadline properly determined from the date of mailing was April 2, the day on which the district court entered its order. And any argument regarding deadline confusion loses its force in light of plaintiff’s unexplained failure to file objections when she thought they were due. Finally, given the thorough, reasoned, and authoritatively supported analysis set out by the magistrate judge and adopted by the district court after its de novo review, this is not a case where special concerns about the merits compel us to overlook the other considerations and excuse plaintiff’s waiver. -5-