Archibald Battle Lovett
Judge Lovett no longer hears cases. This profile is preserved as a historical record of how they ruled.
How Judge Lovett decides
Patterns drawn from this judge's own signed orders. Every observation links to the order it came from.
What persuades
Issued prospective labor-law relief after the government proved both coverage and continuing wage and recordkeeping violations.
“an injunction should issue and the prayers of the petition will be and are hereby granted.”
Evaluated salvage compensation from the facts of the individual rescue rather than applying a fixed formula.
“each case must stand on its own facts and there is no controlling rule of thumb for measuring the award — no formula can be devised which will meet the justice of every case.”
Procedural preferences
Allowed a pleading amendment that corrected the instrument's description without changing the underlying wrong alleged.
“The amendment pleads the same wrong originally declared upon — it merely corrects an erroneous description of the instrument causing the wrong.”
Resisted voluntary dismissal after the parties and court had invested substantial effort defining the issues for efficient resolution.
“A cause of action should not be so lightly dealt with by the court.”
Cautions
Required subordinate railroad bondholders to wait until senior principal and interest received protection during reorganization.
“Pending reorganization no subordinate lienholder is entitled as of right to share in that income until compensation is provided for both the interest and the principal of the prior bond issues.”
Applied the burden governing close-family transfers when tax creditors showed the elements of fraudulent conveyance.
“There is no reason why the same rule should not apply to transactions between parent and child under the facts-here shown to exist.”
Signed rulings
A grounded sample of orders signed by this judge, with the verbatim dispositive language.
“an injunction should issue and the prayers of the petition will be and are hereby granted.”
“it is my opinion that libellant should recover the sum of $3,000 for the services rendered.”
“Taking all the pertinent circumstances into consideration, I am of the opinion an award of $12,000 should be made to the Towing Company for its services in assisting the vessel without regard to saving of the cargo.”
“For their services I consider an award of $4,000 fair to all, for the services to the ship exclusive of the cargo.”
“The general grounds of the motion for new trial, viz., that the verdict for the additional indemnity was without evidence authorizing it, was contrary to the evidence and to the law, and against the weight of the evidence, are without merit and are overruled; so much of the verdict, however, as allowed attorney’s fees as damages or a penalty for bad faith is set aside.”
“It follows the judgment should be for the defendants.”
“The motion is sustained and the case as to all plaintiffs is dismissed.”
“The prerequisites of the law having been complied with, the prayers of the petitioners are granted.”
“each of the transactions is declared null and void as against creditors and the prayers of the-petition are granted.”
“the motion to quash the service should be sustained”
Caseload & timing
From public federal docket records for this judge.
The reviewed decisions predate electronic case-level dockets. The profile therefore makes no claim about complete caseload mix, case duration, administrative dispositions, or motion timing.
A historical record
Judge Lovett no longer hears cases. This profile stays available as a record of how they ruled. If you're preparing for a matter, start from the court's current bench.