Robert Tolbert v. Warden FCI Estill ( 2020 )


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  •                                     UNPUBLISHED
    UNITED STATES COURT OF APPEALS
    FOR THE FOURTH CIRCUIT
    No. 19-7641
    ROBERT TOLBERT,
    Petitioner - Appellant,
    v.
    WARDEN FCI ESTILL,
    Respondent - Appellee.
    Appeal from the United States District Court for the District of South Carolina, at Aiken.
    Bruce H. Hendricks, District Judge. (1:19-cv-02135-BHH)
    Submitted: May 29, 2020                                     Decided: September 15, 2020
    Before GREGORY, Chief Judge, KEENAN, and RICHARDSON, Circuit Judges.
    Vacated and remanded by unpublished per curiam opinion.
    Robert Tolbert, Appellant Pro Se.
    Unpublished opinions are not binding precedent in this circuit.
    PER CURIAM:
    Robert Tolbert appeals the district court’s order adopting the magistrate judge’s
    recommendation and dismissing without prejudice Tolbert’s 
    28 U.S.C. § 2241
     (2018)
    petition. In so ruling, the court determined that Tolbert filed general and conclusory
    objections to the magistrate judge’s report and recommendation. As Tolbert’s objections
    were sufficiently specific to alert the court to the basis for his challenge, and the record
    does not establish that the court conducted de novo review of the magistrate judge’s report,
    we vacate and remand for further proceedings.
    The timely filing of specific objections to a magistrate judge’s recommendation is
    necessary to preserve appellate review of the substance of the recommendation when the
    parties have been warned that failure to object will waive appellate review. Wright v.
    Collins, 
    766 F.2d 841
    , 845-46 (4th Cir. 1985). To qualify as specific, a party’s objections
    must “reasonably . . . alert the district court of the true ground[s] for the objection[s].”
    Martin v. Duffy, 
    858 F.3d 239
    , 245 (4th Cir. 2017) (internal quotation marks omitted). This
    requirement “train[s] the attention of both the district court and the court of appeals upon
    only those issues that remain in dispute after the magistrate judge has made findings and
    recommendations.” United States v. Midgette, 
    478 F.3d 616
    , 621 (4th Cir. 2007). The
    district court must review de novo those portions of the report to which specific objections
    are made. United States v. De Leon-Ramirez, 
    925 F.3d 177
    , 181 (4th Cir. 2019). A court’s
    failure to apply the proper de novo standard of review warrants vacatur and remand. See
    
    Id.
    2
    Our review reveals that the district court was obligated to review the magistrate
    judge’s report de novo. The district court claimed that the pro se Plaintiff’s filing “appears
    to be a boilerplate form . . . that Plaintiff submitted without [filling] anything into the space
    provided for specific objections.” E.R. 127−28 (Opinion and Order) (citing Dkt. No. 14 at
    1). But the Plaintiff’s filing reveals specific objections that challenged the magistrate
    judge’s application of the test we established in United States v. Wheeler, 
    886 F.3d 415
    (4th Cir. 2018), contending instead that his petition should be considered applying the
    holdings in United States v. Hinkle, 
    832 F.3d 569
     (5th Cir. 2016), and Holt v. United States,
    
    843 F.3d 720
     (7th Cir. 2016), and that the holding in United States v. Peppers, 
    899 F.3d 211
     (3d Cir. 2018), did not apply because he was not seeking authorization to file a
    successive motion under 
    28 U.S.C. § 2255
     (2018). Thus, the district court erred. So we
    grant leave to proceed in forma pauperis, vacate the judgment, and remand with
    instructions for the court to review the report and recommendation de novo. In doing so,
    we express no opinion on the merits of the objections, only that they were specific and thus
    required the district court to engage in de novo review.
    We dispense with oral argument because the facts and legal contentions are
    adequately presented in the materials before this court and argument would not aid the
    decisional process.
    VACATED AND REMANDED
    3
    

Document Info

Docket Number: 19-7641

Filed Date: 9/15/2020

Precedential Status: Non-Precedential

Modified Date: 9/22/2020