Hugh B. Scott
How Judge Scott rules, drawn from 13 signed orders. Every observation links to the order it came from.
About Judge Scott
Hugh B. Scott served as a United States Magistrate Judge for the Western District of New York from 1995 until his death in 2021. Before his federal appointment, he was a Buffalo City Court judge from 1984 to 1995.
Standing orders for every case in this court
Orders the court applies to all of its cases, whichever judge has them, as published on the court's website (checked October 9, 2026).
- Procedures for the Filing, Service, and Management of Highly Sensitive Documents (Amended General Order 167) ↗
- General Order 157: Disclosure of Members, Shareholders, Partners, and Leaders of Business Organization Parties ↗
- General Order 166: Identification Procedures in Courthouses ↗
- General Order 168: Dispositive Referrals of Social Security Appeals to United States Magistrate Judge ↗
How Judge Scott decides
Patterns drawn from this judge's own signed orders. Every observation links to the order it came from.
What persuades
In a dark-web child-pornography investigation, the judge assumed for the sake of argument every deficiency the defendant raised about a remote-search warrant, including that it may have been void from the start, and still denied suppression because officers relied on it in good faith, rather than resolving the underlying constitutional questions.
“Magistrate Judge Scott granted, for the sake of argument, every substantive point that Defendant had raised in his motions to suppress: ‘that the NIT warrant violated Rule 41; that the violation rose to a level of constitutional magnitude; and even that the NIT warrant was void ab initio.’”
Facing a suppression motion over evidence and separately over a defendant's post-arrest statements, the judge treated the two requests independently rather than as a package, allowing the physical evidence in while excluding the statements obtained after counsel had directed police not to question the defendant.
“Magistrate Judge Scott issued a Report and Recommendation (‘R & R’) recommending a denial of the motion to suppress as to the evidence seized during the warrantless search and a granting of the motion as to Gardin's statements to Officer Kwiatkowski.”
Reviewing a product-liability complaint against a medical-device maker, the judge let claims proceed where the plaintiff could point to a manufacturing-defect theory grounded in the product's design, while dismissing the failure-to-warn and misrepresentation theories that rested on inferences from records never actually examined.
“allowing the first cause of action based on strict liability for a manufacturing defect to proceed; (2) allowing the second cause of action for negligent manufacturing to proceed; (3) dismissing the third and fourth causes of action for failure-to-warn claims based on negligence and strict liability in their entirety”
Procedural preferences
In Iacobucci v. Berryhill, Scott set dates for the plaintiff's motion, the Commissioner's cross-motion and responses, and replies. The scheduling order said the motions would be submitted without oral argument on January 2, 2018.
“Plaintiff's Motions due by 10/13/2017, defendant Commissioner's Cross Motions due by 12/12/2017, as well as her Responses due by 12/12/2017. Replies due by 1/2/2018. Motions will be deemed submitted (without oral argument) on 1/2/2018.”
Cautions
In a wrongful-payment case under the False Claims Act, the judge held that a family member's checks written against a deceased benefits recipient's account, using funds the government had continued to deposit after the recipient's death, qualified as actionable "claims" under the Act even without a direct request to the government: rejecting a narrow reading of what counts as presenting a false claim.
“the plaintiff asks the Court to determine whether or not the defendant's conduct satisfied the ‘claim’ element required under the FCA as a matter of law.”
Signed rulings
A grounded sample of orders signed by this judge, with the verbatim dispositive language.
“the application of defendant to dismiss Count I is denied, but the application to dismiss Count II is granted.”
“plaintiff's motion for partial summary judgment is granted and defendant's cross-motion to dismiss and for partial summary judgment is denied.”
“plaintiff's motion for judgment on the pleadings is denied, defendant's motion for judgment on the pleadings is granted and the case is dismissed in its entirety.”
“plaintiff's motion for partial summary judgment is denied, defendant's motion for summary judgment is granted, and the complaint dismissed in its entirety.”
“the Court adopts the proposed findings of the Report and Recommendation. Accordingly, for the reasons set forth in Magistrate Judge Scott's Report and Recommendation, plaintiffs' motion for class certification is denied.”
“United States Magistrate Judge Hugh B. Scott issued a Report and Recommendation granting defendants’ summary judgment motion on the constructive discharge, compelled self-defamation, and ERISA claims, and denying the motion on the age discrimination claims under ADEA and HRL.”
“Magistrate Judge Scott issued a Report and Recommendation (‘R & R’) recommending a denial of the motion to suppress as to the evidence seized during the warrantless search and a granting of the motion as to Gardin's statements to Officer Kwiatkowski.”
“the defendants' motion for summary judgment be granted.”
“defendant's motion to dismiss is granted. Defendant's motion to amend the answer (Dkt. No. 21) is denied.”
“defendants’ omnibus motions (Docket Nos. 74, Palmer, Sr.; 75, 76, Krajas; 84, Smerka; 72, Stone; and 85, 86, Palmer, Jr.) and are granted in part, denied in part or deferred for consideration by the District Judge as discussed in detail above.”
“on findings different from those in the R & R, the Court adopts the recommendation of the R & R and grants summary judgment to Jamestown.”
“allowing the first cause of action based on strict liability for a manufacturing defect to proceed; (2) allowing the second cause of action for negligent manufacturing to proceed; (3) dismissing the third and fourth causes of action for failure-to-warn claims ... in their entirety; (4) dismissing the fifth cause of action for negligent representation ...”
Caseload & timing
From public federal docket records for this judge.
- The sampled docket is dominated by consent-jurisdiction Social Security disability appeals under 28 U.S.C.
- Section 636(c), the bulk of his caseload in his final years on the bench, plus a personal-injury case referred to him for pretrial supervision that settled before trial. A much larger volume of report-and-recommendation work for the district's Article III judges across his full 1995-2015 tenure as an active magistrate is reflected in the published-opinion set above but was not separately enumerable as docket entries in the record reviewed.
Pending matters in the official report
Judge Scott was last listed in the Civil Justice Reform Act report as of September 30, 2020.
| Motions pending more than six months | 0 |
| Bench trials submitted more than six months | 0 |
| Bankruptcy appeals pending more than six months | 0 |
| Social Security appeals pending more than six months | 0 |
| Civil cases pending more than three years | 0 |
A snapshot on that date: matters listed may since have been decided or reassigned. A motion referred to a magistrate judge is counted for both judges. Motions in multidistrict litigation, section 2255 cases and Social Security appeals are not counted, and a very large three-year count is generally a multidistrict docket. Source: Appendix A of the report (PDF); about the report.
How long civil cases take in this court
For the whole of U.S. District Court for the Western District of New York, not for Judge Scott: median time from filing to disposition of the civil cases the court closed in the 12 months ending September 30, 2025, as reported by the Administrative Office of the U.S. Courts.
| Cases | Median time | |
|---|---|---|
| All civil cases closed | 1,499 | 9.1 months |
| Closed with no court action | 91 | 8.7 months |
| Closed before pretrial | 1,344 | 8.6 months |
| Closed during or after pretrial | 56 | 28.5 months |
| Closed during trial | 8 | not reported |
| 12 months ending | Cases closed | Median time |
|---|---|---|
| Sep 2025 | 1,499 | 9.1 months |
| Sep 2024 | 1,783 | 7.9 months |
| Sep 2023 | 1,768 | 15.5 months |
| Sep 2022 | 1,892 | 15.7 months |
| Sep 2021 | 2,130 | 14.1 months |
| Sep 2020 | 2,177 | 14.7 months |
| Sep 2019 | 1,971 | 14.8 months |
The table leaves out prisoner petitions, land condemnations, deportation reviews, recovery of overpayments and enforcement of judgments, and reports no median for fewer than 10 cases. A district that closed a large multidistrict litigation in the period shows very large counts and long medians for that year. Source: Table C-5, U.S. District Courts (spreadsheet).
Draft for Judge Scott with the record in hand
Ezel grounds your drafting and research in this profile: what has persuaded Judge Scott, and what has not, cited to the signed orders.
Opens in Ezel Pro.
- Grounded in Judge Scott's own signed orders
- Cites every source it relies on, so you can verify it
- Chat, drafting and research in one workspace