John Corbett O'Meara
How Judge O'Meara decides
Patterns drawn from this judge's own signed orders. Every observation links to the order it came from.
What persuades
Grants summary judgment on statutory / good-faith immunity where the defendant's challenged acts fall within a licensing-investigation immunity statute -- 'on this basis alone' is enough.
“Thus, the state has extended immunity to any party taking actions with regard to a pharmacist's licensing. On this basis alone, Defendants are entitled to summary judgment.”
On Monell municipal liability he requires an identified policy backed by actual discovery; a plaintiff who deposes no supervisors and requests no policy/training records has no factual basis and loses on SJ.
“Plaintiff conducted no discovery in support of a theory of municipal liability. ... There simply is no factual basis upon which to support a claim for municipal liability.”
Procedural preferences
Will deny a Rule 12 motion WITHOUT prejudice -- even one with 'a strong argument' -- when discovery has barely begun and a plausible intentional theory exists to be tested; timing matters to him.
“Although Defendants have a strong argument on the negligence claim, discovery has barely begun in this case. ... That issue can be explored during discovery.”
Cautions
On causation he demands a logical, non-conjectural chain: speculative links (here, an arrest injury to a death from alcoholic hepatitis 18 months later, where heavy drinking predated the arrest) are dismissed on SJ.
“To establish proximate cause, a plaintiff must establish a causal connection that is logical and not conjectural. Without a causal connection, Defendants are entitled to summary judgment on Plaintiff's wrongful death claim.”
Motion outcomes
Counted from classified signed orders only. Percentages are shown only where the sample is large enough to be meaningful; smaller samples are reported as raw counts.
| Summary judgment N = 6 |
Granted: 5Denied: 1 | counts only |
| Motions to dismiss N = 2 |
Granted: 1Moot / procedural: 1 | counts only |
| Motion for judgment on pleadings N = 1 |
Moot / procedural: 1 | counts only |
| Motions to strike N = 1 |
Moot / procedural: 1 | counts only |
| Motion to add party N = 1 |
Granted: 1 | counts only |
A "1 of 1" is one ruling, not a tendency. Treat small samples as illustrative, not predictive.
Signed rulings
A grounded sample of orders signed by this judge, with the verbatim dispositive language.
“It is hereby ORDERED that Defendants' October 20, 2010 motion for summary judgment is GRANTED.”
“It is further ORDERED that Defendants' December 16, 2010 motion to strike is DENIED AS MOOT.”
“It is hereby ORDERED that defendants Phil Rzotkiewicz and St. Clair Shores' September 30, 2010 motion for summary judgment is GRANTED.”
“It is further ORDERED that defendants Phil Rzotkiewicz and St. Claire Shores' September 30, 2010 second motion for summary judgment is GRANTED.”
“It is further ORDERED that defendants Thomas Bender, Jack Simon, and City of Fraser's October 4, 2010 motion for summary judgment is GRANTED.”
“It is hereby ORDERED that Defendant's June 25, 2005 motion for partial summary judgment is GRANTED.”
“It is further ORDERED that Plaintiffs' August 5, 2005 cross motion for partial summary judgment is DENIED.”
“It is further ORDERED that Defendant's August 18, 2005 motion to add a non-party as a counter defendant is GRANTED.”
“It is hereby ORDERED that defendants Prometric and Educational Testing Service's motion to dismiss is DENIED WITHOUT PREJUDICE.”
“It is further ORDERED that defendants NABP and Catizone's motion for partial judgment on the pleadings is DENIED WITHOUT PREJUDICE.”
“It is further ORDERED that defendant Thomson Reuters Corporation's motion to dismiss is GRANTED.”
Caseload & timing
From public federal docket records for this judge.
Enumerated via assigned_judge='John Corbett O'Meara'. After senior status (2007) he took no new case assignments; the docket enumeration surfaces older civil dockets (employment, civil rights, contract/commercial) plus many miscellaneous (-mc-) collections/subpoena matters referred to magistrates. Not tallied to a fixed N; durations groundable but caution: signer != assigned_judge on reassigned dockets, and his record is closed (deceased 2024).