Charles Esque Fleming

United States District Court for the Northern District of Ohio district Appointed by Joseph R. Biden (Democratic) 12 signed orders read

How Judge Fleming decides

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

Procedural preferences

When a plaintiff amends with leave of court, denies a pending motion to dismiss or for judgment on the pleadings as moot rather than ruling on the superseded pleading.

“As a result, Defendants' Motion to Dismiss is DENIED AS MOOT.”

On a combined motion to dismiss and compel arbitration, grants it in part, dismissing an improperly joined defendant without prejudice with limited leave to amend and staying the case pending arbitration.

“Defendants' motion to dismiss the complaint and compel arbitration (ECF No. 7) is GRANTED IN PART AND DENIED IN PART; ... Defendant Mindcare is DISMISSED as a defendant WITHOUT PREJUDICE; ... Plaintiffs are GRANTED leave to amend the complaint for the limited purpose of establishing Defendant Mindcare as a 'joint employer'; ... This case is otherwise STAYED pending completion of the arbitration”

Signed rulings

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

Geico Advantage Insurance Company v. United States
Motions to dismiss (defendant) Granted

“Accordingly, the Court GRANTS Defendant's motion to dismiss (ECF No. 5) and DISMISSES the VA as a party to this case.”

Cleveland Communications, Inc. v. Lorain County Board of Commissioners
Motion to amend (plaintiff) Granted

“For the foregoing reasons, Plaintiff's motion for leave to file a second amended complaint (ECF No. 13) is GRANTED.”

Motions to dismiss (defendant) Moot / procedural

“As a result, Defendants' Motion to Dismiss is DENIED AS MOOT.”

Harris v. Fender
Summary judgment (defendant) Granted

“For the foregoing reasons, the Court GRANTS Defendants' motion for summary judgment (ECF No. 57) and GRANTS summary judgment in their favor on all remaining claims.”

Darwish v. Cuyahoga County
Motion to amend (plaintiff) Granted

“the amended complaint (ECF No. 7) [is filed] with leave of the Court under Fed. R. Civ. P. 15(a)(2).”

Judgment on the pleadings (defendant) Moot / procedural

“Because Plaintiff has filed an amended complaint with leave of the Court, the Court DENIES AS MOOT Cuyahoga County's motion for judgment on the pleadings (ECF No. 4).”

Holmer v. Alcove Ventures, LLC
Motions to dismiss (defendant) Granted in part

“Defendants' motion to dismiss the complaint and compel arbitration (ECF No. 7) is GRANTED IN PART AND DENIED IN PART; ... Defendant Mindcare is DISMISSED as a defendant WITHOUT PREJUDICE; ... Plaintiffs are GRANTED leave to amend the complaint for the limited purpose of establishing Defendant Mindcare as a 'joint employer'; ... This case is otherwise STAYED pending completion of the arbitration”

Makesh v. Oxford Finance LLC
· 2026-03-20
Motions to dismiss (defendant) Granted

“this case is DISMISSED WITH PREJUDICE”

Robert v. Brown
· 2026-03-25
Motions to dismiss (defendant) Denied

“the Court DENIES the Motion to Dismiss (ECF No. 20)”

Jones v. Dick's Sporting Goods, Inc.
· 2026-01-26
Summary judgment (plaintiff) Denied

“Plaintiff's Partial MSJ is DENIED”

Summary judgment (defendant) Granted

“Summary judgment is entered in Defendant Schindler Elevator Corporation's favor”

United States v. Baker
· 2026-04-16
Motions to dismiss (defendant) Denied

“Defendant's Motion to Dismiss is DENIED”

Deutsche Bank AG, New York Branch v. HH Cleveland Huntington, L.P.
· 2026-06-30
Motion to approve sale (other) Granted in part

“the Sale Motion is GRANTED IN PART”

McPherson v. Generations Behavioral Health Geneva LLC
· 2026-03-23

Disability-discrimination action in which the plaintiff's counsel withdrew and the plaintiff then failed to appear at multiple conferences or otherwise participate. The magistrate judge recommended dismissal for failure to prosecute, and no objection was filed. The court adopted the unopposed recommendation and dismissed the amended complaint without prejudice. Excluded from motion statistics as an unopposed failure-to-prosecute dismissal with no adversarial motion decided. Quote: "recommending that the Court dismiss this action, without prejudice".

Thompson v. Swenski
· 2026-03-24

Pro se civil-rights action challenging state-court divorce and child-custody rulings. Acting on its own motion, the court held it lacked subject-matter jurisdiction under the domestic-relations exception and the Rooker-Feldman and Younger abstention doctrines, and dismissed the action. No motion was pending. Quote: "The Court lacks subject-matter jurisdiction in this case for myriad reasons."

Caseload & timing

From public federal docket records for this judge.

Median case duration in the sampled dockets: 533 days (N = 2).

The sample covers cases filed from 2022 through 2024. Fleming sits in the Cleveland-based Eastern Division, with cases across the district's divisions. His recent assigned docket is weighted toward federal criminal cases and also includes Social Security appeals referred to magistrate judges, United States civil enforcement, FLSA and wage disputes, prisoner civil rights, DMCA subpoenas, and insurance or subrogation matters. The criminal-heavy sample underrepresents the full civil nature-of-suit mix.

Put Judge Fleming's record to work

Ezel drafts and answers grounded in this exact profile: how Judge Fleming actually rules, not a generic AI guess.

Opens in Ezel Pro. Every answer is grounded in Judge Fleming's own signed orders and cites them.