Opinion ID: 899528
Heading Depth: 3
Heading Rank: 2

Heading: The Accord & Satisfaction

Text: We turn now to the settlement agreement at issue in this case. Pursuant to the Accord and Satisfaction, the parties agreed to withdraw all post-trial motions. Defendants also agreed to pay Jones $11,000 in punitive damages, plus costs and attorney’s fees, and to expunge all records of the disciplinary charge. For his part, Jones gave up the nominal damages and acknowledged receipt of the agreed-upon payment “in full satisfaction of the judgment entered herein.” There is only one judgment to which the statement “the judgment entered herein” could possibly refer: the “Judgment in a Civil Action” entered by the district court on March 31, 2010. On its face, that judgment makes no mention of Jones’ individual causes of action. It simply states that “[t]he court has ordered that . . . Jones[] recover from [Officer Drain] $1.00 in nominal damages, and $4,000.00 in punitive damages, and that [Jones] recover from [Warden McDaniel] $1.00 in nominal damages, and $7,000.00 in punitive damages.” 12 JONES V . MCDANIEL Jones maintains that because the “Judgement in a Civil Action” does not mention his First Amendment claims, it does not encompass the district court’s earlier partial summary judgment order as to those claims. Thus, he argues, the Accord and Satisfaction also does not cover those claims. Not so. Orders granting partial summary judgment “are not final appealable orders.” Dannenberg v. Software Toolworks Inc., 16 F.3d 1073, 1074 (9th Cir. 1994) (internal quotation marks omitted). “As a result, parties ordinarily must obtain Rule 54(b) certification in order to appeal partial summary judgments.” Id.; see Fed. R. Civ. P. 54(b). Absent such certification, “[a] ruling on a motion for partial summary judgment merges with the final judgment.” Adkins v. Mireles, 526 F.3d 531, 538 (9th Cir. 2008); see also 15B Charles Alan Wright, Arthur R. Miller, & Edward H. Cooper, Federal Practice and Procedure § 3914.28 (2d ed. 1991 & 2008 Supp.). Jones did not seek Rule 54(b) certification of the district court’s order granting defendants summary judgment on the First Amendment claims. Accordingly, that order merged with the district court’s final judgment, i.e., the “Judgment in a Civil Case.” Ordinarily, a partial summary judgment order that has merged with the final judgment “is reviewable on appeal from the final judgment.” Adkins, 526 F.3d at 538. Here, however, the parties executed an agreement “in full satisfaction” of the final judgment. By its plain terms, then, the Accord and Satisfaction encompasses the district court’s prior summary judgment ruling on Jones’ First Amendment claims. Moreover, at no point did Jones attempt to reserve his right to appeal or otherwise exclude his First Amendment JONES V . MCDANIEL 13 claims from the agreement. We can find no authority (and Jones cites none) supporting Jones’ claim that his right to appeal the First Amendment claims was automatically preserved. To the contrary, we have held in related contexts that “[i]n general, a party cannot appeal a judgment entered with its consent” unless it “specifically preserves its right to appeal.” Slaven v. Am. Trading Transp. Co., 146 F.3d 1066, 1070 (9th Cir. 1998). In executing the Accord and Satisfaction, Jones essentially consented to the “full satisfaction of the judgment entered herein,” which, as noted, included the court’s prior ruling on Jones’ First Amendment claims. The circumstances surrounding the execution of the Accord and Satisfaction confirm the parties’ intent to settle all of Jones’ claims. At the June 29, 2010 Settlement Conference, Judge McQuaid explained to Jones that, under the terms of the agreement, Jones “will execute a release of all claims, releasing defendants from all claims arising out of this lawsuit.” At the parties’ request, Judge McQuaid indicated that the agreement would be designated a “satisfaction of judgment” instead of a “release,” meaning that “the defendants paid the judgment and it’s satisfied.” Judge McQuaid then asked Jones, “[n]ow, you agree to that settlement, Mr. Jones?” to which Jones responded, “[y]es, I do, Your Honor.” Although Judge McQuaid’s statement that Jones would release “all [of the] claims arising out of this lawsuit” was not memorialized in the Accord and Satisfaction, that does not mean Jones may escape the legal consequences of his assent. Under Nevada law, a contract may be formed “when the parties have agreed to the material terms, even though the contract’s exact language is not finalized until later.” May, 14 JONES V . MCDANIEL 121 Nev. at 672. What matters, therefore, is that parties intended to resolve the entire dispute at the settlement conference, and so indicated orally. Nothing in the written document is inconsistent with that intent. In light of that intent, Jones’ reliance on the “usual rule in the federal courts . . . that payment of a judgment does not foreclose an appeal,” Milicevic v. Fletcher Jones Imports, Ltd., 402 F.3d 912 (9th Cir. 2005), is misplaced. See also Stanton Rd. Assocs. v. Lohrey Enters., 984 F.2d 1015, 1020 (9th Cir. 1993) (“The fact that payments have been made in satisfaction of a money judgment does not foreclose an appeal.”). As we noted in Milicevic, that general rule does not apply where, as here, “there is some contemporaneous agreement not to appeal, implicit in a compromise of the claim after judgment.” Milicevic, 402 F.3d at 915. The Nevada Supreme Court similarly recognizes that satisfaction of a judgment “waives the right to appeal or renders the matter moot when the payment is intended to compromise or settle the matter.” Wheeler Springs Plaza, LLC v. Beemon, 119 Nev. 260, 265 (2003). That plainly is the case here. Finally, it makes sense that Jones would have agreed to resolve the entire dispute with defendants, so as to preclude an appeal by the defendants. Jones initially sought in his amended complaint “damages in excess of $10,000.” Under the terms of the Accord and Satisfaction, that is precisely what he received. That $11,000 punitive damages award, moreover, represented a penalty against defendants for taking disciplinary action against Jones following discovery of the letter—namely, placing him in disciplinary segregation. Although that damages award would not, by itself, preclude Jones from seeking nominal damages for the alleged First Amendment violations, it is unlikely that Jones would be JONES V . MCDANIEL 15 entitled to additional damages for the disciplinary sanctions. See, e.g., Elyousef v. O’Reilly & Ferrario, LLC, 245 P.3d 547, 549 (Nev. 2010) (holding that “[a] plaintiff may not recover damages twice for the same injury simply because he or she has two legal theories” (internal quotation marks omitted)). Further, defendants had already returned the letter to Jones, and they agreed in the Accord and Satisfaction to remove all records pertaining to the MJ-28 disciplinary charges. In fact, much of the discussion at the June 2010 Status Conference centered on whether and how defendants would expunge Jones’ disciplinary record. The expungement was not part of the jury award; rather, it was relief bargained for at the Status Conference. By agreeing to relinquish his remaining claims against defendants in exchange for that benefit, Jones obtained a remedy responsive to his First Amendment concerns and not obtained in the course of litigating the due process issue. Having received that relief, it is difficult to see what further injunctive relief Jones could have obtained were he permitted to proceed with his First Amendment claims. In short, given that Jones had obtained $11,000 in damages, return of the letter, and expungement of the violation and disciplinary sanctions, it is unsurprising that he agreed to release his remaining claims against defendants and did not seek to exclude his First Amendment claims from the agreement. Finally, we note that there is little reason to remand Jones’ case to the district court for a determination as to the scope of the settlement agreement. The district court has already weighed in on the matter, stating its “opinion that the 16 JONES V . MCDANIEL case was fully and finally settled on [June 29, 2010] with no issues remaining.” We agree and, accordingly, dismiss Jones’ appeal as moot. See Gator.com Corp., 398 F.3d at 1132. DISMISSED.