Jeffery Barnhill v. Thomas Pregent , 460 F. App'x 167 ( 2012 )


Menu:
  •                                                            NOT PRECEDENTIAL
    UNITED STATES COURT OF APPEALS
    FOR THE THIRD CIRCUIT
    ___________
    No. 10-1751
    ___________
    JEFFERY A. BARNHILL;
    H.C.M.B.C., INC.
    v.
    THOMAS F. PREGENT; THE KEPLER HOME, INC.; ANTHONY MISITANO;
    PINEHURST MEDICAL CORPORATION, LLC, a Delaware limited liability company;
    DAVID ARNOLD; BRIAN DAVIDSON; BRUCE BOYER;
    ATHENS HEALTHCARE, LLC; ATHENS HEALTHCARE, INC.;
    ATTORNEY GENERAL OF THE STATE OF NEW YORK,
    Medicaid Fraud Control Unit;
    OFFICE OF THE ATTORNEY GENERAL;
    PENNSYLVANIA DEPARTMENT OF HEALTH;
    PENNSYLVANIA OFFICE OF THE ATTORNEY GENERAL;
    U.S. DEPARTMENT OF HEALTH AND HUMAN SERVICES,
    Office of Inspector General;
    JEFFREY A. TAYLOR, United States Attorney, District of Columbia;
    MARTIN C. CARLSON
    ANTHONY MISITANO;
    PINEHURST MEDIACL CORPORATION, LLC,
    Appellants
    _______________________
    On Appeal from the United States District Court
    for the Middle District of Pennsylvania
    D.C. Civil Action No. 09-cv-00273
    (Honorable A. Richard Caputo)
    ______________
    Submitted Pursuant to Third Circuit LAR 34.1(a)
    January 10, 2012
    Before: SCIRICA, RENDELL and SMITH, Circuit Judges.
    (Filed: February 2, 2012)
    _________________
    OPINION OF THE COURT
    _________________
    SCIRICA, Circuit Judge.
    This appeal challenges the District Court’s postjudgment order remanding pendent
    state law claims to the Court of Common Pleas of Bradford County, Pennsylvania.
    I.
    Jeffery Barnhill and H.C.M.B.C., Inc., (collectively “Barnhill”) brought suit
    against Anthony Misitano, Pinehurst Medical Corporation, LLC, Thomas Pregent, and
    several other defendants in Pennsylvania state court in 2005. The case involved a dispute
    over the sale of a nursing home in Bradford County. In January 2009, Misitano and
    Pinehurst Medical Corporation (collectively “Misitano”) filed an answer and
    counterclaim joining new parties, including the Office of the Inspector General of the
    United States Department of Health and Human Services (the “OIG”) and two U.S.
    Attorneys. These federal counterclaim defendants removed the action to federal court
    under 28 U.S.C. §§ 1442 and 1446. Misitano voluntarily dismissed his action against the
    U.S. Attorneys. Then, on September 16, 2009, the federal court dismissed the last of the
    claims on which removal was based. In four numbered parts, the court’s September 16
    order ( the “original order”) (1) granted the OIG’s motion to dismiss, (2) declined to
    exercise supplemental jurisdiction over the remaining state law claims, (3) dismissed the
    case, and (4) instructed the clerk to mark the case as closed.
    2
    On January 6, 2010, Barnhill sought clarification of the court’s disposition of the
    remaining state law claims in a motion under Federal Rule of Civil Procedure 60(a).
    Barnhill hoped that the state law claims he filed in 2005 would be remanded back to state
    court. On January 8, 2010, the court acknowledged that it had “neglected to specify the
    disposition of [the] remaining state law claims in [the September 16] order” and granted
    Barnhill’s motion by amending the original order to specify that “[t]he remaining state
    law claims are DISMISSED WITHOUT PREJUDICE.” In the court’s words, this
    amendment reflected its “original intention.”
    Unhappy with this result, on January 13, 2010, Barnhill filed a motion under
    Federal Rule of Civil Procedure 59(e), seeking reconsideration of the dismissal. On
    March 1, 2010, the District Court determined that failing to remand the state law claims
    would create a manifest injustice and granted the Rule 59(e) motion. In its March 1 order,
    the court vacated the January 8 clerical correction and amended the original order to
    remand the pendent state law claims. On appeal, Misitano challenges this second
    postjudgment order.1
    II.
    1
    We have jurisdiction to review a district court’s decision under 28 U.S.C. § 1367(c) to
    decline supplemental jurisdiction and remand. Hudson United Bank v. LiTenda Mortgage
    Corp., 
    142 F.3d 151
    , 155 (3d Cir. 1998). We generally review the District Court’s
    disposition of a motion for reconsideration for abuse of discretion. See Max’s Seafood
    Café v. Quinteros, 
    176 F.3d 669
    , 673 (3d Cir. 1999). But the issue of whether the District
    Court exceeded its authority in granting this postjudgment motion presents a legal
    question subject to de novo review. See Pfizer Inc. v. Uprichard, 
    422 F.3d 124
    , 129 (3d
    Cir. 2005).
    3
    Rule 59(e) permits a party to file a motion to alter or amend a judgment no later
    than 28 days after entry.2 Misitano’s principal argument is that the court lacked authority
    to use Rule 59(e) to make a substantive amendment to its Rule 60(a) clerical correction
    because such amendment would be incompatible with the purposes of Rule 60(a).3 Rule
    60(a) allows a court to “correct a clerical mistake or a mistake arising from oversight or
    omission whenever one is found in a judgment, order, or other part of the record.” See
    also Pfizer 
    Inc., 422 F.3d at 130
    (Rule 60(a) reaches only “mindless and mechanistic
    mistakes,” not errors of substantive judgment). In other words, Misitano argues the court
    could not alter or amend its clerical correction to remand the pendent state law claims
    because the resultant order would conflict with the court’s professed “original intention.”
    But Misitano’s argument rests on the assumption that the court’s order under Rule
    59(e) was an amendment to the clerical correction. This assumption does not withstand
    scrutiny. We look to the function of the motion, not its caption, to determine the type of
    relief a litigant seeks. See United States v. Fiorelli, 
    337 F.3d 282
    , 288 (3d Cir. 2003).
    Although Barnhill characterized his Rule 59(e) motion as a motion for reconsideration of
    the January 8 clerical correction, he actually sought an amendment to the original
    2
    Effective December 1, 2009, the limitations period for a motion under Rule 59(e) was
    extended from 10 days to 28 days.
    3
    Citing the Supreme Court’s decision in Kokkonen v. Guardian Life Insurance Co. of
    America, 
    511 U.S. 375
    (1994), Misitano also avers that the District Court did not have
    jurisdiction to alter or amend the September 16 judgment because the time for appeal had
    run. But Kokkonen merely stands for the proposition that federal courts do not have
    automatic ancillary jurisdiction to enforce a settlement agreement arising from federal
    litigation. The Supreme Court interpreted the settlement agreement dispute as a claim for
    breach of contract, a matter beyond federal jurisdiction. 
    Id. at 381-82.
    Here, the District
    Court did not assert jurisdiction over a settlement agreement between litigants, but rather
    over its own order.
    4
    September 16 order. And this was the relief the District Court granted on March 1, 2010,
    when it vacated the clerical correction and amended its original order. Accordingly,
    Barnhill’s motion was in substance a motion to alter or amend the September 16 order.
    As we recently held, “Rule 59(e) is a claim-processing rule, not a jurisdictional rule, so
    objections based on the timeliness requirement of that rule may be forfeited.” Lizardo v.
    United States, 
    619 F.3d 273
    , 276 (3d Cir. 2010). Misitano raised no objections on
    timeliness before the court, instead arguing the motion’s merits. We will not entertain
    those objections on appeal. For the foregoing reasons, the court’s order under Rule 59(e)
    did not exceed its authority.4
    Nor was the order an abuse of discretion. The District Court concluded that failing
    to remand the state law claims to state court, where proceedings commenced in 2005,
    would result in manifest injustice. This is a sound basis for relief under Rule 59(e). We
    will affirm.
    4
    We note that the limitations period in Rule 59(e) is intended to promote the finality of
    judgments. See Albright v. Virtue, 
    273 F.3d 564
    , 572 (3d Cir. 2001). But finality is not a
    significant concern here because the court had not specified the disposition of the state
    law claims until the postjudgment clerical correction. Promptly thereafter, Barnhill filed
    the Rule 59(e) motion.
    5