Hiram Church Ford
How Judge Ford rules, drawn from 26 signed orders. Every observation links to the order it came from.
Judge Ford no longer hears cases. This profile is preserved as a historical record of how they ruled.
How Judge Ford decides
Patterns drawn from this judge's own signed orders. Every observation links to the order it came from.
What persuades
In Brooks, Ford treated a contract’s monthly notice requirement as a condition precedent that barred stale claims when the buyer did not comply.
“The notice thus required by the contract is a condition precedent to the maintenance of this action upon the claims asserted under Counts 1 and 3 and failure to give the notice constitutes a valid defense to each of them.”
Procedural preferences
In Lane, Ford emphasized that summary judgment should not displace trial where the record left even slight factual doubt.
“A litigant has a right to a trial where there is the slightest doubt as to the facts”
Signed rulings
A grounded sample of orders signed by this judge, with the verbatim dispositive language.
“It thus appears that this court has no jurisdiction to entertain the motion to reconsider the remanding order and the motion should be stricken from the files.”
“The circumstances of this case appear to clearly justify forfeiture of the car under section 3450, Rev. St., and the innocence of the intervening petitioner does not save it.”
“This proposal entirely fails to fulfill the necessary conditions precedent to the right of the debtor to avail herself of the provisions of subsection (s), and hence the petition for rehearing is denied and the motion to set aside the order of dismissal entered on June 20th is overruled.”
“My conclusion is that the intervening petitioner has failed to establish its right to remission of forfeiture under the applicable provisions of the statute, and the relief sought by it should be denied.”
“Giving to the finding of the referee the weight to which it is entitled, the relief sought by the petition for review must be denied and the ruling of the referee approved‘.”
“The order of the referee requiring W. C. Bartlett Lumber Company to pay to the trustee the value of the lumber delivered within four months prior to bankruptcy should also be set aside.”
“For the reasons indicated, the relief sought by the Trustee’s petition for review should be granted.”
“The defendant’s motion for summary judgment should be and is sustained.”
“The petition for review should be granted. The referee’s orders of May 5th and June 10th should be set aside and the case remanded to the referee for proceedings consistent herewith.”
“For the reasons indicated, the motion to remand must be denied.”
“So much of the Referee’s order of December 6, 1945, as dismissed the original petition of tire bankrupt and terminated further proceedings should be set aside and this case should be remanded to the Referee for further proceedings consistent herewith.”
Caseload & timing
From public federal docket records for this judge.
No assigned Eastern District docket records were returned under the four searched Ford name variants.
A historical record
Judge Ford 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.