Edward L. Filippine
How Judge Filippine decides
Patterns drawn from this judge's own signed orders. Every observation links to the order it came from.
What persuades
In suits to enjoin federal tax collection he will reach the merits despite the 26 U.S.C. 7421(a) anti-injunction bar where the challenge is to the adequacy of the statutory deficiency notice, and he enforces the IRS's obligation to mail the notice to the taxpayer's last known address -- a notice sent elsewhere (e.g. to estranged relatives) is invalid even if certified.
“the Court is of the opinion that the notice is invalid and that the activities of the United States to collect the money allegedly due must therefore be enjoined.”
Procedural preferences
He applies Sampson v. Murray strictly to government-employment disputes: a discharged federal employee must make an extraordinary showing of irreparable injury (ordinary loss of income/savings is not enough) before a court will enjoin an ongoing administrative removal proceeding; otherwise the employee must exhaust the MSPB/agency process first.
“the Court is constrained to find that, under Sampson, this is an insufficient showing of injury to support the plaintiff's claim for injunctive relief.”
Cautions
Subject-matter jurisdiction is paramount: he will dismiss a Title VII suit for failure to exhaust administrative remedies and treat the jurisdictional defect as never waived under Rule 12(h)(3), declining to reach the merits no matter how the motion is captioned.
“the Court's order of August 3, 1982, granting defendants' motion for summary judgment shall remain in full force and effect.”
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.
| Preliminary injunction N = 2 |
Granted: 1Denied: 1 | counts only |
| Summary judgment N = 2 |
Granted: 2 | counts only |
| Motion for reconsideration N = 1 |
Denied: 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.
“the Court is constrained to find that, under Sampson, this is an insufficient showing of injury to support the plaintiff's claim for injunctive relief.”
“because the plaintiff has failed to state a claim upon which relief may be granted, the Court will grant the defendants' motion for summary judgment.”
“the Court is of the opinion that the notice is invalid and that the activities of the United States to collect the money allegedly due must therefore be enjoined.”
“the Court's order of August 3, 1982, granting defendants' motion for summary judgment shall remain in full force and effect.”
“IT IS HEREBY ORDERED that the motion for reconsideration be and is DENIED.”
Caseload & timing
From public federal docket records for this judge.
Not enumerated -- his active-era dockets predate docket/PACER. No case durations or nature-of-suit mix available.