Court Opinion

ID: 9450500
Source: CourtListenerOpinion
Date Created: 2023-08-04 16:50:39.704468+00
Date Added: 2024-06-11T17:32:21.607610
License: Public Domain

WATERMAN, Circuit Judge
(concurring) :
The court’s opinion points out clearly that the result reached is predicated upon analysis of the merits of the parties’ controversies. Therefore, I wholeheartedly concur therein. Nevertheless, as mention is made that my brothers might have resolved the case by holding that the Chief Judge of the Southern District abused his discretion in denying the defendant’s motion to dismiss the case for plaintiff’s failure aggressively to prosecute its claim, and courteous mention is also made that I would disagree with such a holding, I respectfully add my bit of dictum to theirs. It is significant that the four cases they cite are affirmances of dismissals by the district judges— none is a reversal of a failure to dismiss. These cases support my approach, which is simply that our appellate tribunal should not interfere with the control by the district courts of their civil dockets unless the circumstances are astonishingly egregious. With that standard in mind I would say that here the action taken by the Chief Judge of the busy Southern District was well within his discretion.