Jerome J. Niedermeier

How Judge Niedermeier rules, drawn from 18 signed orders. Every observation links to the order it came from.

Judge Niedermeier no longer hears cases. This profile is preserved as a historical record of how they ruled.

Court
United States District Court for the District of Massachusetts
Position
magistrate
Status
Retired 2009
Served
2010–2009
Appointed by
Judges of the United States District Court for the District of Massachusetts
Commissioned
2010-03-15
Education
Boston College, 1967; Georgetown University Law Center, 1972
Signed orders read
18

How Judge Niedermeier decides

Patterns drawn from this judge's own signed orders. Every observation links to the order it came from.

What persuades

When limitations are defined in calendar years, he applies anniversary-date counting rather than treating a leap year as an extra limitations day.

“the limitations period consisted of three calendar years rather than a fixed number of days.”

For legislative immunity, he distinguishes a policy decision eliminating a position from an individualized decision to terminate the person occupying it.

“Terminating an employee does not involve policy decisions and budget priorities in the same way terminating a position does.”

When venue is wrong but dismissal could create a limitations problem, he favors transfer when it preserves the claim and avoids duplicative effort and delay.

“To dismiss the case and require re-filing in Oklahoma would result in unnecessary duplication of effort on the part of the government, additional effort for the plaintiff, added expense for the defendants, and unnecessary delay for all parties.”

Signed rulings

A grounded sample of orders signed by this judge, with the verbatim dispositive language.

Joseph v. Gold
1:04-cv-00090-jgm · 2005-03-16
Motion for relief from judgment (petitioner) Denied

“For the reasons set forth above, I recommend that Joseph’s motion for relief from judgment (Paper 14) be DENIED.”

Judd v. United States
2:05-cv-00115-wks · 2005-05-03
Motion for relief from judgment (petitioner) Denied

“decision of the U.S. District Court for the Western District of Texas with respect to his § 2255 motion (Paper 1) should be DENIED.”

Ramsey v. United States
1:02-cr-00102-jgm · 2005-06-08
Motion for reduction of sentence (petitioner) Moot / procedural

“I recommend that this case be TRANSFERRED to the United States District Court for the Middle District of Pennsylvania pursuant to 28 U.S.C. § 1404.”

United States v. Walker
2:02-cr-00038-wks · 2005-12-13
Motion to vacate sentence (defendant) Granted

“I recommend that Walker’s motion to vacate, set aside, or correct his sentence pursuant to the provisions of 28 U.S.C. § 2255 (Paper 119) be GRANTED”

Sauve v. Hofmann
1:05-cv-00215-jgm-jjn · 2005-12-23
Motions to dismiss (respondent) Granted

“I recommend that the respondent’s motion to dismiss (Paper 5) be GRANTED”

Motion to appoint counsel (petitioner) Moot / procedural

“Sauve’s motion for appointment of counsel (Paper 2) is DENIED as moot.”

Rivera v. Douglas
1:06-cv-00165-jgm · 2006-08-25
Motion for leave to proceed in forma pauperis (plaintiff) Denied

“recommend that his motion to proceed in forma pauperis (Paper 1) be DENIED”

Denoncour v. 127 Round House Road, LLC
1:06-cv-00126-jgm-jjn · 2006-11-03
Motions to dismiss (defendant) Denied

“12) should be DENIED.”

United States v. Pope
5:03-cr-00092-gwc · 2006-11-15
Motion to vacate sentence (defendant) Denied

“I recommend that Pope’s motion for a writ of habeas corpus (Paper 45), filed pursuant to 28 U.S.C. § 2255, be DENIED.”

Bain v. Hsu
1:06-cv-00215-jgm-jjn · 2007-05-31
Default judgment (plaintiff) Denied

“recommend that the motion for a default judgment (Paper 5) be DENIED.”

Bain v. Hofmann
1:06-cv-00231-jgm-jjn · 2007-07-12
Motions to dismiss (defendant) Granted

“the defendant’s motion to dismiss (Paper 14) be GRANTED”

Preliminary injunction (plaintiff) Moot / procedural

“all other pending motions (Papers 5, 6, 8 and 12) be DENIED as moot”

Default judgment (plaintiff) Moot / procedural
Motions to compel (plaintiff) Moot / procedural
Default judgment (plaintiff) Moot / procedural
Default judgment (plaintiff) Moot / procedural
Rodriguez v. Polk
1:07-cv-00058-jgm · 2008-02-07
Motion to amend (plaintiff) Denied

“Rodriguez’s motion to amend his complaint (Paper 27) is DENIED with respect to Commissioner Rob Hofmann.”

Motions to transfer (defendant) Granted

“the defendants’ motions in the alternative for change of venue (Papers 22 and 25) be GRANTED”

Motions to transfer (defendant) Granted
Gibney v. Hofmann
2:07-cv-00104-wks-jmc · 2008-03-13

Niedermeier recommended staying a mixed habeas petition while the petitioner exhausted state remedies, subject to firm initiation and return deadlines. No party motion was resolved, so the recommendation is excluded from motion statistics.

Caseload & timing

From public federal docket records for this judge.

Median case duration in the sampled dockets: 136 days (N = 15).

The fifteen terminated Vermont assignments included Social Security, contract, labor, employee-benefits, and personal-injury matters. Current Massachusetts recall assignments are sparse and include petty-offense work.

A historical record

Judge Niedermeier 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.