George Thomas Van Bebber
Judge Bebber no longer hears cases. This profile is preserved as a historical record of how they ruled.
How Judge Bebber decides
Patterns drawn from this judge's own signed orders. Every observation links to the order it came from.
What persuades
Van Bebber found personal jurisdiction when a defendant purposefully solicited a Kansas company and knew that contract performance would occur there.
“defendant purposely solicited plaintiff in Kansas and voluntarily entered into a contract with plaintiff that was to be performed, at least in part, in Kansas.”
He deferred to an arbitrator’s construction of the parties’ agreement even if the court might have read it differently.
“interpretation of the Software License Agreement is the exclusive domain of the arbitrator”
Procedural preferences
He stayed litigation for agency referral when the disputed tariff questions required specialized regulatory expertise.
“the court is of the opinion that the issues require the expertise of the FCC”
He enforced filing deadlines when counsel could have sought an extension before the deadline expired.
“Both the court and Plaintiff were entitled to rely on the time limitations of Rule 54.1.”
Cautions
He denied summary judgment when genuine factual disputes remained over protected speech and clearly established rights.
“Defendants have failed to show the absence of a genuine issue of fact”
He used preliminary relief to preserve the status quo while completing review of the administrative record.
“By this preliminary injunction, the court preserves the status quo pending review of the entire record.”
Signed rulings
A grounded sample of orders signed by this judge, with the verbatim dispositive language.
“defendants Orris, Inc., Brett Hoskins, Paul Lovoi, Advantage Medical Products, Nancy English, and Crystal Medical Technologies, Inc. d/b/a Orris, Inc.’s motion (Doc. 449) to award statutory attorney fees or, in the alternative, to stay proceedings pending completion of plaintiffs appeal on the merits is denied.”
“defendant’s motion to dismiss for lack of personal jurisdiction (Doc. 4) is denied.”
“motion for summary judgment (Doc. 25) is denied.”
“defendant’s motion to dismiss (Doc. 6) is granted.”
“defendant’s motion to dismiss for improper venue (Doc. 10) is granted, and the ease is dismissed.”
“defendant’s Motion for Summary Judgment (Doc. 60) is granted.”
“plaintiffs’ motion for partial summary judgment (Doc. 68) is granted.”
“Defendants’ motion for summary judgment (Doc. 19) is denied.”
“defendant Trade Professionals, Ine.’s motion for summary judgment (Doc. 36) is granted.”
“defendants’ motion to confirm the arbitration award (Doc. 31) is granted.”
“plaintiffs motion to vacate or modify the arbitration award (Doc. 40) is denied.”
“plaintiffs motion for preliminary injunction (Doc. 2) is granted in part.”
“defendant’s motion (Doc. 37) for summary judgment is granted.”
Caseload & timing
From public federal docket records for this judge.
Median case duration in the sampled dockets: 462 days (N = 20).
The 20 located assigned cases filed from December 1989 through January 1990 were all terminated and are not a career-wide caseload measure.
A historical record
Judge Bebber 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.