John M. Gerrard
How Judge Gerrard decides
Patterns drawn from this judge's own signed orders. Every observation links to the order it came from.
What persuades
He polices subject-matter jurisdiction relentlessly and will treat a party's own filings as binding judicial admissions. When a pro se plaintiff's brief affirmatively asserted she lacked standing and the court lacked jurisdiction, he dismissed the entire case sua sponte rather than ignore the concession. Never argue (even rhetorically) that the court lacks jurisdiction unless you mean it.
“The Court cannot ignore a lack of subject-matter jurisdiction... she has affirmatively asserted and judicially admitted its absence. And when a federal court lacks subject-matter jurisdiction, it must dismiss the case in its entirety.”
In suits arising out of ongoing or concluded state proceedings he applies Younger abstention and Rooker-Feldman to decline jurisdiction, especially in family/child-custody matters he treats as core state interests. A federal civil-rights wrapper around a custody grievance will not get him to review a state-court order.
“a federal district court does not possess authority in a civil rights case to review or alter a final judgment of a state court judicial proceeding.”
Procedural preferences
On a premature summary-judgment motion he favors Rule 56(d) deferral over a bare deadline extension, and is willing to deny an MSJ without prejudice so the nonmovant can take essential discovery (e.g. depose an affiant) before responding. If your opponent moves for summary judgment before you have had a real chance at discovery, a well-supported Rule 56(d) affidavit has strong odds with him.
“the basic opportunity to depose the defendant is essential in responding to the summary judgment motion... the Court will grant the plaintiff's Rule 56(d) motion and deny the defendant's motion for summary judgment without prejudice.”
He requires plaintiffs to plead capacity precisely: absent an express, unambiguous individual-capacity allegation he presumes official-capacity suit only, which then triggers Eleventh Amendment / entity-liability bars. Against government defendants, state 'individual capacity' expressly in the complaint.
“in order to sue a public official in his or her individual capacity, a plaintiff must expressly and unambiguously state so in the pleadings, otherwise, it will be assumed that the defendant is sued only in his or her official capacity.”
Cautions
Deferring a ruling is not granting relief: when he defers a default-judgment decision to let a defaulting party appear, the default remains in force and he will not bootstrap additional obligations (like a pleading deadline) onto that deferral. Read his procedural orders for exactly what they do, not what you wish they did.
“the motion for default judgment remains pending, and Kids Against Hunger is still in default.”
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.
| Motions to dismiss N = 2 |
Granted: 1Moot / procedural: 1 | counts only |
| Summary judgment N = 1 |
Denied: 1 | counts only |
| Motion for rule 56d discovery N = 1 |
Granted: 1 | counts only |
| Motion to amend order N = 1 |
Denied: 1 | counts only |
| Motion for leave to amend N = 1 |
Granted in part: 1 | counts only |
| Default judgment N = 1 |
Moot / procedural: 1 | counts only |
| Objection to magistrate order 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 plaintiff's Rule 56(d) motion (filing 54) is granted.”
“The defendant's motion for summary judgment (filing 50) is denied without prejudice to reassertion after a reasonable time for the parties to conduct discovery.”
“The plaintiff's motion (filing 41) to amend is denied.”
“Defendant Jessica Brown's Motion to Dismiss (filing no. 29) is granted.”
“Defendants' Motions to Dismiss filed before Plaintiff filed his Amended Complaint (filing nos. 6, 9, 11, 13, 16 and 17) are denied as moot.”
“Plaintiff's Motion for Admittance of Supplemental Pleading (filing no. 23) is granted in part and denied in part in accordance with this Memorandum and Order.”
“Plaintiff's Motion for Default Judgment (filing no. 20) and Motion to Set Discovery Calendar (filing no. 31) are denied as moot.”
“The plaintiff's objection (filing 82) is overruled.”