Court Opinion

ID: 9458544
Source: CourtListenerOpinion
Date Created: 2023-08-04 20:55:04.867841+00
Date Added: 2024-06-11T17:35:48.279767
License: Public Domain

ON PETITION FOR REHEARING
The petitioner seeks rehearing on three grounds. First, he claims that after he filed his November 9 motion for reconsideration in the district court, a telephone call from a court clerk stating that new rules forbad the noticing of hearing dates by counsel and that the court desired a memorandum as soon as possible constituted such misleading action by the court as to bring this case within the rationale of the Thompson-Wolfsohn rule discussed in the opinion. We construe this rationale, despite some aberranees, see 9 Moore’s Federal Practice f[ 204.-12 [2], at 958 n. 10 (2d ed. 1970), to be limited to cases where the district court took actions or made statements directly related to the timeliness of a party’s motion. To construe the mere receipt and taking under advisement of motions as implied extensions of time would be to place a burden on the court which the rules place upon a litigant.
A second alleged ground for rehearing is a plea to add the three-day grace period described in Rule 6(e), Fed. R.Civ.P., to the time allowed for filing a Rule 52 or 59 motion. The problem with this argument is that Rules 52 and 59 both provide that the 10 days within which a motion for reconsideration must be filed begins to run from “entry of judgment” rather than from receipt of notice and Rule 6(b), Fed.R.Civ.P., prohibits enlargement of such time. Petitioner’s ingenious and undocumented effort to justify an additional three-day mailing period does not persuade us.
Finally, petitioner asks that we treat his motion for reconsideration as a motion to vacate judgment under Rule 60(b). We have elsewhere resisted a like request, Silk v. Sandoval, 435 F.2d 1266 (1st Cir.), cert. denied, Silk v. Kleppe, 402 U.S. 1012, 91 S.Ct. 2189, 29 L.Ed.2d 435 (1971), and we do so here.
While perhaps legally irrelevant, but see 28 U.S.C. § 2244(a); Smith v. Yeager, 393 U.S. 122, 124-125, 89 S.Ct. 277, 21 L.Ed.2d 246 (1968), we would add that our view of the merits, which we tentatively formed prior to finally resolving the question of jurisdiction, does not indicate this to be a case where technical rules have immunized a miscarriage of substantive law.
The petition is denied.