Eighth Circuit overturns ruling against party whose counsel did not receive electronic notification of court orders.
In the recent case of American Boat Co. v. Unknown Sunken Barge, which was a tort action against the United States, the U.S. District Court for the Eastern District of Missouri granted summary judgment against plaintiff American Boat on September 2, 2003. American Boat moved for reconsideration, but the motion was denied on November 5, 2003.
Although they were signed up for the court’s electronic filing system, local counsel for American Boat did not receive notification of the order denying the motion for reconsideration. Lead counsel, who was not signed up for electronic filing and therefore expected to get a paper copy of the order, never received such paper copy. He first learned of the order when he checked the PACER system on March 4, 2004.
Because the time for appeal had passed, American Boat filed a motion to reopen the time for filing an appeal. The district court denied the motion to reopen, finding that notice of the November 5 order was received, notwithstanding counsel’s statements to the contrary.
American Boat moved for reconsideration of the denial of the motion to reopen. It submitted an affidavit of a computer expert who stated “with near to absolute certainty” that the notification e-mail to local counsel never arrived. During the pendency of this motion to reconsider, lead counsel signed up for the court’s electronic filing system. He never received electronic notification, however, when the court denied the motion on August 12, 2004.
In light of the continuing problems with electronic notification, American Boat filed a second motion to reconsider the denial of the motion to reopen. This time it submitted the affidavit of another computer expert which stated that lead counsel did not receive email notification of the denial of the motion to reconsider. The district court denied this motion as well, and American Boat sought review with the Eight Circuit Court of Appeals, which reversed and remanded.
The appellate court noted that the district court correctly presumed the delivery of email messages since they showed up as entries on the clerk’s docket sheet. However, the appellate court concluded that the district court abused its discretion in denying American Boat an evidentiary hearing on whether the presumption of delivery had been rebutted, and remanded to the district court for such a determination.
The court observed that the newness of the electronic filing system made it likely there were glitches yet to be worked out. Furthermore, the fact that attorneys who had not signed up for electronic notification did not receive paper copies demonstrated possible flaws in the system. Finally, one of the government’s attorneys in the matter also reported not receiving electronic notification. In light of these factors, American Boat had “made a sufficient showing to at least be entitled to an evidentiary hearing on the issue of whether they have adequately rebutted the presumption [of delivery].”
American Boat Co. v. Unknown Sunken Barge, — F.3d —, 2005 WL 1949693 (August 16, 2005).