Court Opinion

ID: 9496143
Source: CourtListenerOpinion
Date Created: 2023-08-05 16:18:53.686108+00
Date Added: 2024-06-11T17:57:23.366961
License: Public Domain

KING, Chief Judge,
with whom JERRY E. SMITH and BENAVIDES, Circuit Judges, join, dissenting:
The majority, appellate judges all, are plainly exercised about lawyer Paul Minor’s efforts to collect his clients’ judgment against Kmart. In their effort to declare the kind of behavior that will not be accepted by this court, they have short-circuited the inquiry mandated by Rule 11 and our own case law, with potentially far-reaching consequences. I respectfully dissent.
In evaluating a district court’s imposition of sanctions under Rule 11(b)(1), this and other circuits generally look first to the district court’s findings on whether the filing at issue was warranted by existing law or a nonfrivolous argument for a change in the law (as required by Rule 11(b)(2)); look next to the findings on whether the filing was presented for an improper purpose under Rule 11(b)(1); look next to the findings on whether the filing was also presented for a legitimate purpose; and finally look to the district court’s evaluation of whether any improper purpose is sufficient under the circumstances to support sanctions under Rule 11(b)(1). If the district court has correctly found a legitimate purpose for the filing, this and other circuits have been reluctant to approve the imposition of sanctions for an improper purpose under Rule 11(b)(1). Here, by contrast, the majority presents the two relevant subparts of Rule 11 as not intertwined for purposes of assessing Rule 11(b)(1) sanctions. The majority then goes on to credit the district court with making crucial findings on both legitimate and improper purposes that the district court plainly did not make. The majority winds up by affirming the district court’s conclu*810sion that sanctions are warranted under Rule 11(b)(1) where it is not at all clear that the district court concluded as much. This entire method of evaluating sanctions assessed under Rule 11 effectively eviscerates what were, up until this point, critical aspects of the Rule 11 framework.
I.
ANALYSIS OF THE FRAMEWORK FOR SANCTIONS UNDER RULE 11(b)(1)

A. The Interrelation of Rule 11(b)(1) and 11(b)(2)

Rule 11(b)(2) explicitly requires that an attorney submit a paper to the court only after forming a reasonable belief that it is warranted by existing law (or a non-frivolous argument for a change in the law) and Rule 11(b)(1) explicitly precludes an attorney from submitting a paper for certain “improper purposes.”1 The subsections thus appear to be quite discrete textually. However, our case law demonstrates that the subsections are actually interrelated in at least one situation: “When a [paper] is well grounded in fact and warranted by existing law, ‘only under unusual circumstances ... should the filing of [the paper] constitute sanctionable conduct.’ ” F.D.I.C. v. Calhoun, 34 F.3d 1291, 1300 (5th Cir.1994) (emphasis added) (quoting Sheets v. Yamaha Motors Corp., U.S.A., 891 F.2d 533, 538 (5th Cir.1990)). This circuit has extended this logic in concluding that “[a]lthough the filing of a paper for an improper purpose is not immunized from rule 11 sanctions simply because it is well grounded in fact and law, only under unusual circumstances — such as the filing of excessive motions — should the filing [ ] constitute sanctionable conduct.” Sheets, 891 F.2d at 538 (emphasis added).
What this precedent says is that (1) a favorable finding regarding Rule 11(b)(2) should influence a district court’s conclusion regarding the existence of an “improper purpose” sanction under Rule 11(b)(1), and (2) only in the most exceptional circumstances will this court uphold sanctions under Rule 11(b)(1) when a paper satisfies the Rule 11(b)(2) requirements.
Here, the majority first concludes, correctly, that “the two subparts [Rule 11(b)(1) and Rule 11(b)(2)] concern quite different considerations” but then concludes, incorrectly, that they need “not” be “intertwined” in the Rule 11(b)(1) inquiry. Our precedent does not support that. In the interest of bypassing an evaluation of the district court’s possibly incorrect finding under Rule 11(b)(2), the majority has announced a rule (that the Rule 11(b)(1) and 11(b)(2) inquiries need not be intertwined in a situation where Rule 11(b)(1) sanctions are to be imposed) that is directly at odds with our precedent. In my view, that is a serious mistake, now bad law.2

*811
B. The Necessary Predicate to Impose Sanctions under Rule 11(b)(1)

Our case law makes clear that the next step in the framework for imposing “improper purpose” sanctions is the consideration by the district court of legitimate and improper purposes the litigant or party may have had for submitting the relevant paper. In its quest to uphold the district court’s imposition of sanctions, the majority attributes findings to the district court regarding this legitimate purpose step that the district court clearly did not make, and attributes a legal conclusion to the district court regarding whether sanctions are warranted independently under Rule 11(b)(1) that the district court may not have even made.
Assuming the district court finds a legitimate purpose or purposes for the relevant filing, then it must weigh the legitimate purposes against any illegitimate purposes and evaluate whether the illegitimate purposes are sufficient in themselves to independently support sanctions under Rule 11(b)(1). As we stated in National Association of Government Employees, Inc. v. National Federation of Federal Employees, 844 F.2d 216 (5th Cir.1988):
We do not condone litigation instituted for ulterior purposes rather than to secure judgment on a well-grounded complaint in which the plaintiff sincerely believes. Yet the Rule 11 injunction against harassment does not exact of those ivho file pleadings an undiluted desire for just deserts ... [T]he court must focus on objectively ascertainable circumstances that support an inference that a filing harassed the defendant or caused unnecessary delay. As Judge Schwarzer has stated: “If a reasonably clear legal justification can be shown for the filing of the paper in question, no improper purpose can be found and sanctions are inappropriate” ... A plaintiff must file a complaint [ ] in order to vindicate his rights in court. We find no indication that the filing here was unnecessary, for the [defendants] had refused to retract the [alleged defamatory] statement. Under the circumstances, the [plaintiff] had a proper interest in suing to attempt to vindicate its reputation.
Id. at 223-24 (internal footnote omitted and emphasis added). Thus, as interpreted by our court, before a district court can impose sanctions under Rule 11(b)(1), it must consider any legitimate or proper purposes the litigant or attorney may have had in presenting a paper to the district court. Before today, we were loath to find *812that an attorney’s or litigant’s illegitimate purpose could independently support sanctions where a legitimate purpose for filing the relevant paper also existed.
Here, paying lip service to the required inquiry into legitimate purposes, the majority upholds as “not clearly erroneous” factual findings rejecting Minor’s proffered legitimate purposes for seeking the writ of execution (to satisfy part of the judgment for his client in order to pay medical bills and to encourage settlement). However, though I have thoroughly searched the district court’s order, I find no mention, much less discussion, of any possible legitimate or proper purpose. This necessary predicate is simply not there.
The Fourth Circuit case of In re Kunstler, 914 F.2d 505 (4th Cir.1990), discusses the importance of the critical step omitted by the district court:
Rule 11 defines the term “improper purpose” to include factors “such as to harass or to cause unnecessary delay or needless increase in the costs of litigation.” The factors mentioned in the rule are not exclusive. If a complaint is not filed to vindicate rights in court, its purpose must be improper. However, if a complaint is filed, to vindicate rights in court, and also for some other purpose, a court should not sanction counsel for an intention that the court does not approve, so long as the added purpose is not undertaken in bad faith and is not so excessive as to eliminate a proper purpose. Thus, the purpose to vindicate rights in court must be central and sincere ... In other words, it is not enough that the injured party subjectively believes that a lawsuit was brought to harass, or to focus negative publicity on the injured party.
Id. at 518 (emphasis added). Kunstler’s holding accords with our circuit precedent. If an illegitimate purpose does not engulf an individual’s legitimate purpose, sanctions under the “improper purpose” section of Rule 11 cannot stand. Because the district court overlooked this important inquiry, our court has no place upholding findings that are not even there.
In addition to attributing factual findings to the district court that it did not make, the majority jumps to the support of a legal conclusion that the district court may not have even made. The majority points to a single paragraph in the district court’s eighteen-page order that references Minor’s desire to embarrass Kmart and to gain publicity for himself as indisputably demonstrating an intention on the part of the district court to sanction Minor independently under Rule 11(b)(1). However, it is not clear, much less “indisputable,” from this single paragraph that the district court intended to sanction Minor under Rule 11(b)(1) as independent from Rule 11(b)(2), especially as this paragraph expressly states that “there was no basis whatsoever in fact or in law for the actions taken on August 21,1997.” Whether there is a basis in law is clearly the relevant inquiry under Rule 11(b)(2), not Rule 11(b)(1). Further, the district court does not use any of the descriptive language found in Rule ll(b)(l)’s non-exclusive list, such as “harass.” While this is not required, I would expect to see some discussion regarding a comparison between “harass” and “embarrass” if the district court truly intended (as the majority assumes) to use the terms interchangeably and to sanction Minor independently under Rule 11(b)(1).3 At a minimum, I would expect *813the district court to have at least mentioned either the subpart dealing with “improper purpose” or the term “improper purpose” itself in this paragraph, particularly given the extent of the discussion regarding Rule 11(b)(2).
In the past, when an order imposing sanctions contained such shortcomings, we refused to supply the necessary findings and conclusions on appeal because we, as appellate judges, must not become fact finders. See, e.g., F.D.I.C. v. Calhoun, 34 F.3d 1291, 1297 (5th Cir.1994) (“We have long held that a district court, in applying sanctions, may have to make a detailed explanation for its legal reasons .... The purpose of creating such a record is simple: In order to guard against the application of hindsight by district courts who have sat through long, complicated, and often contentious proceedings, we must not be put in the position of having to guess what unwarranted factual or legal errors were the basis of the sanctions.”); United States v. U.T. Alexander, 981 F.2d 250, 253 (5th Cir.1993) (“The district court here did not cite any ‘unusual circumstances’ that warranted sanctions. The court merely asserted the view that the claim was filed for an improper purpose. Even though detailed findings are not required to uphold an award of sanctions, there must be some record to review.”). Today the majority back-pedals from this precedent to supply — and, indeed, even credit the district court with — the necessary factual predicate omitted by the district court and to supply a legal conclusion that may not have been made by the district court. I cannot subscribe to this technique.
II.
THE “UNUSUAL” OR “EXCEPTIONAL” CIRCUMSTANCES REQUIREMENT
Our precedent is clear. Even assuming the district court had made appropriate factual findings on whether Minor had a legitimate purpose for obtaining the writ of execution here, in situations where an attorney or party submits a paper that is well-grounded in law under Rule 11(b)(2) — as the majority assumes ar-guendo to be the case here — “improper purpose” sanctions may be imposed by a district court only in “unusual” or “exceptional” circumstances. I disagree with the majority’s implied finding that this case presents such “unusual” circumstances.
To date, we have not found a case with such “unusual circumstances” to merit upholding an “improper purpose” finding where (as is assumed to be the case here) the filing of the paper satisfies the Rule 11(b)(2) requirements. See, e.g., Calhoun, 34 F.3d at 1300; Sheets, 891 F.2d at 538; Nat'l Assoc. of Gov’t Emp., 844 F.2d at 224.4 In this spirit, I disagree with the *814majority that this case should serve as the benchmark for district courts imposing “improper purpose” sanctions in the future. With only a finding by the district court of an intent to embarrass one’s opponent and an intent to gain publicity for oneself — both quite common characteristics in a judgment or debt collection setting — the case will serve as a poor litmus, particularly given that the district court did not even consider whether Minor had a legitimate purpose for the filing. As things appear to me, the majority employs an “I know it when I see it” approach to judging Minor’s technique, substituting its own findings where the district court made none.
The majority shames Minor for conduct it determines does not befit an upstanding officer of the court. Specifically, it appears most perturbed regarding Minor’s offensive tow of the media to the judgment collection. I admit that Minor’s technique here is colorful to say the least. However, other courts have looked at similar circumstances and have not been so critical of the litigants’ choice of litigation tactics. See, e.g., Revson v. Cinque & Cinque, P.C., 221 F.3d 71, 80 (2d Cir.2000) (stating that airing grievances and threatening litigation through letters “are commonplace” and that “[sjimilarly, the court’s concern that [plaintiff] had in fact tarnished [defendant’s] reputation by speaking with a news reporter was not a proper basis for sanctions” under Rule 11); Sussman v. Bank of Israel, 56 F.3d 450, 459 (2d Cir.1995) (“The district court held that the filing of the complaint with a view to exerting pressure on defendants through the generation of adverse and economically disadvantageous publicity reflected an improper purpose. To the extent that a complaint is not held to lack foundation in law or fact, we disagree. It is not the role of Rule 11 to safeguard a defendant from public criticism that may result from the assertion of nonfrivolous claims.”); In re Kunstler, 914 F.2d 505, 520 (4th Cir.1990) (“Holding a press conference to announce a lawsuit, while perhaps in poor taste, is not grounds for a Rule 11 sanction, nor is a subjective hope by a plaintiff that a lawsuit will embarrass or upset a defendant, so long as there is evidence that a plaintiffs central purpose in filing a complaint was to vindicate rights through the judicial process.”). Further, in each of the cases cited by the majority in support of its determination that “improper purpose” sanctions are warranted here, the district court had specifically found that the relevant filing was not well-grounded in law under Rule 11(b)(2). See Ivy v. Kimbrough, 115 F.3d 550, 553 (8th Cir.1997) (sanctioning the plaintiff and his attorney for bringing a frivolous action against a police officer and judge involved in his arrest subsequent to a marital dispute because “the court, with good cause, gave [the plaintiff and his attorney] repeated warning that their claims appeared to be frivolous, that much of *815their conduct seemed aimed at the media, and that failure to properly pursue this lawsuit risked dismissal and possible sanctions”); Kramer v. Tribe, 156 F.R.D. 96 (D.N.J.1994) (sanctioning an attorney under Rule 11(b)(1) and (b)(2), § 1927 and its inherent authority through fines, submission of counsel to attorney disciplinary authorities and submission of counsel to criminal authorities where the attorney had no legitimate purpose for filing the suit and had a history (at least 86 instances) of unethical conduct before the courts), aff'd without op., 52 F.3d 315 (3d Cir.1995); Elster v. Alexander, 122 F.R.D. 593, 604 (N.D.Ga.1988) (imposing Rule 11 sanctions where “pleadings and papers filed on behalf of plaintiff ... were filed without that reasonable inquiry which Rule 11 requires”). These cases thus provide little support for the majority because, in contrast to these cases, the majority here presumes (in the face of what may well be problematic findings to the contrary by the district court) that the writ filed by Minor was well-grounded in law as required by Rule 11(b)(2).
I agree with the original panel’s determination that Minor’s conduct, while perhaps in poor taste, does not merit sanctions under Rule 11(b)(1). We, as appellate judges, operate at a far remove from the business of collecting judgments or effecting settlements. We ought to refrain from excoriating a lawyer based upon our own sensibilities when the district court, closer to that business than we are, has not provided a clear and explicit predicate for the exercise of our judgment.
III.
WHAT WE SHOULD HAVE DONE
I think that we should take the district court at its word and review the judgment that it did enter — sanctions based on a violation of Rule 11(b)(2). I think that the district court’s conclusions on that violation are probably wrong, although I agree with Judge Barksdale’s original dissent insofar as it stated that neither the district court nor the panel was required upon to decide whether a motion is necessary to trigger the Mississippi Rule 62(a) automatic stay. As Judge Barksdale said, the inquiry is, instead, whether Minor undertook a reasonable inquiry into the authority regarding Fed.R.Civ.P. 62® and, if he did, whether his actions were objectively reasonable. My own conclusion is that Minor did make a reasonable inquiry into the authority (scarce as it is to this good day); I am less certain about whether his action in executing the judgment without prior court authorization was objectively reasonable, given the paucity of authority on the subject. But under the circumstances, I would not uphold sanctions against Minor for what amounts at most to a mistake of judgment on that score. I would vacate the sanctions order.

. The two relevant subparts of Rule 11 state that:
(b) By presenting to the court (whether by signing, filing, submitting, or later advocating) a pleading, written motion, or other paper, an attorney or unrepresented party is certifying that to the best of the person’s knowledge, information, and belief, formed after an inquiry reasonable under the circumstances,—
(1) it is not being presented for any improper purpose, such as to harass or to cause unnecessary delay or needless increase in the cost of litigation;
(2) the claims, defenses, and other legal contentions therein are warranted by existing law or by a nonfrivolous argument for the extension, modification, or reversal of existing law or the establishment of new law.
Fed.R.Civ.P. ll(b)(l)-(2).

. In footnote 4, the majority states that: "In any event, for purposes of deciding this appeal, it is not necessary to determine how *811Rule 11 in its present form might compel revising the test for improper purpose, as adopted for the former version of the Rule.” This statement underscores a critical shortcoming with the majority’s opinion. It announces a new rule (that the Rule 11(b)(1) and 11(b)(2) inquiries are unrelated in a fact pattern where Rule 11(b)(1) sanctions are to be imposed, even if the paper at issue was submitted in compliance with Rule 11(b)(2)), but says it does not, and then announces that, in any event, knowledge of the applicable Rule 11(b)(1) framework is not necessary for sanctions to be imposed here.
In contrast, I see the framework as critical. The facts related to the “improper” nature of Minor’s presenting the writ to the district court must be funneled through the correct framework before the imposition of sanctions can be deemed appropriate. As taught by our case law (which has not been questioned until today and which is plainly cited by the majority for the exact proposition for which the dissent cites the same case law), if the relevant filing satisfies Rule 11(b)(2) requirements and is found to have been presented for a legitimate purpose, we are extremely reluctant to approve the imposition of sanctions for an improper purpose under Rule 11(b)(1). If the majority seeks to alter this clear rule, it should say so (and maybe it has, who’s to say?) and then apply its new rule to the facts of this case.

. Further, the majority goes so far as to state, without discussion, that “[o]n this record, there is no meaningful distinction between these two purposes ['harass' and ‘embarrass’], especially in the light of our deferential standard of review.” In support *813of this statement, it cites to Flaherty v. Torquato, 623 F.Supp. 55, 59-60 (W.D.Pa.1985), aff'd without op., 800 F.2d 1133 (3d Cir.1986), as "using harass and embarrass interchangeably in context of Rule 11 improper purpose discussion.” However, a cursory read of this non-binding district court opinion reveals that the court does not use these terms interchangeably in its decision to decline to award sanctions. Id. Moreover, we have on occasion discussed “harass” in the context of Rule 11(b)(1) to cover conduct such as the "filing of excessive motions.” Nat'l Assoc. of Gov't Empl., 844 F.2d at 224. This connotation comports with the general usage and understanding of "harass” — annoyance or exhaustion with the added characteristic of persistency or repetitiveness — as opposed to "embarrass” — mere distress or self-consciousness. See Webster’s New Collegiate Dictionary 370, 522 (1977).

. Coats v. Pierre, 890 F.2d 728 (5th Cir.1989), is the closest we have come to such a finding. There, a teacher who was denied tenure and *814not rehired brought a civil rights action alleging wrongful termination in retaliation for exercising free speech. Id. at 731. We upheld Rule 11 sanctions for the plaintiff's harassing filings, which stated that opposing counsel "acted like a little nasty dumb female Mexican pig in heat” and that she was "nothing but garbage.” Id. at 734. Although the district court failed there to make a specific finding that the suit was groundless, it concluded that sanctions were warranted because the plaintiffs allegations were "totally unsupported by any of the people [he] called from the university” and his filing was "worse than outrageous,” was "unconscionable” and was worthy of "contempt” proceedings. Id. The case before us is clearly distinguishable from Coats. The district court in Coats found the lawsuit unsupportable in law whereas here, the majority assumes the opposite — that is, it assumes that it was objectively reasonable under existing fact and law for Minor to file the writ of execution with the district court.