Opinion ID: 2980117
Heading Depth: 2
Heading Rank: 3

Heading: the motion to enforce a settlement agreement

Text: CONSTITUTES WAIVER. Several of the other filings of the defendants before their second motion to dismiss for lack of personal jurisdiction present a close call as potential waivers. There is one filing, however, that in my view clearly stands out as showing the obvious intent of the defendants to submit to the personal jurisdiction of the court. I believe that the defendants’ July 6, 2007 filing of a motion to enforce a settlement agreement allegedly entered between the parties constituted the pivotal moment at which they undeniably waived their personal-jurisdiction defense. R. 42 (Motion to Enforce Settlement). This motion to enforce a settlement is clearly inconsistent with the idea that the district court lacked personal jurisdiction over the defendants; indeed, the motion to enforce a settlement directly seeks to have the district court use its power over the parties (including the defendants) to bind them to a settlement agreement. See Mobile Anesthesiologists, 623 F.3d at 443. This was also the defendants’ “first significant defensive move,” Rates Technology, 399 F.3d at 1307, and it “manifest[ed] an intent to submit to the court’s jurisdiction,” Continental Bank, 10 F.3d at 1297. The defendants’ act of waiting another twenty months to litigate personal jurisdiction also did not conform to the spirit of Rule 12(h), which calls for an early invocation of a personal-jurisdiction defense. Id. I believe, moreover, that the defendants themselves likely recognized that the motion to enforce the settlement agreement posed problems for their personal-jurisdiction defense, because they moved to withdraw that motion immediately before filing their second motion to dismiss for lack of personal jurisdiction. Compare R. 65 (Motion to Withdraw Motion to Enforce Settlement, filed March 27, 2009); with R. 67 (Order granting the defendants’ Motion to Withdraw, filed March 30, 2009); and R. 68 (Motion to Dismiss, filed April 1, 2009). The withdrawal of the motion to enforce the settlement agreement appears to have been gamesmanship: after unsuccessfully seeking to have the district court bind the parties to a settlement agreement, the No. 09-3790 Gerber v. Riordan, et al. Page 19 defendants then sought to remove this motion from the record to clear the way for a personal-jurisdiction defense. I believe that we should reject this attempt.