Anthony Joseph Scirica

How Judge Scirica rules, drawn from 7 signed orders. Every observation links to the order it came from.

Judge Scirica no longer hears cases. This profile is preserved as a historical record of how they ruled.

Court
United States District Court for the Eastern District of Pennsylvania
Position
district
Status
Elevated to a higher court
Served
1984–1987
Appointed by
Ronald Reagan (Republican)
Commissioned
1984-09-18
Education
Wesleyan University, B.A., 1962; University of Michigan Law School, J.D., 1965
Signed orders read
7

How Judge Scirica decides

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

What persuades

He enforced a statutory claim deadline despite sympathetic equities when controlling precedent left the bankruptcy court no discretion to extend it.

“Although in a case such as this where strict adherence to the six month time limit might appear severe, the time limitation must stand.”

He treated administrative exhaustion as the required first forum when the civil-service process could address the constitutional claim and develop the record.

“Finding that plaintiff failed to exhaust his administrative remedies, I grant the defendants’ motion.”

Procedural preferences

He would not test the sufficiency of grand-jury evidence through a dismissal motion after an indictment had issued.

“Once a grand jury indicts, no inquiry may be made concerning the sufficiency of the evidence it considered.”

Cautions

A federal civil-rights claim against private litigants requires more than their successful use of a state judicial process.

“merely resorting to the courts and being on the winning side of a lawsuit does not make a party a co-conspirator or a joint actor with a judge.”

Signed rulings

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

In re Fleming Construction Corp.
· 1986-07-18
Bankruptcy appeal (creditor-appellant) Denied

“For the foregoing reasons, the appeal is denied and the Order of the bankruptcy judge is affirmed.”

Heller v. United States
· 1985-03-21
Motions to dismiss (defendant United States) Granted

“Since I have found that the FTCA does not apply to this action and that § 1089(f) does not provide immunity to military medical personnel which requires the substitution of the United States as a party, I will dismiss this matter.”

Lawrence v. United States Interstate Commerce Commission
· 1986-03-07
Summary judgment (federal defendants) Granted

“Finding that plaintiff failed to exhaust his administrative remedies, I grant the defendants’ motion.”

A.J. Canfield Co. v. Concord Beverage Co.
· 1985-12-23
Preliminary injunction (plaintiff A.J. Canfield Co.) Denied

“On the basis of the following findings of fact and conclusions of law, I conclude that plaintiff’s motion should be denied.”

Aiello v. Apex Marine Corp.
· 1985-05-22
Summary judgment (defendant Apex Marine Corp.) Granted

“because he has failed to attempt to exhaust his contractual remedies and because of the bar of the statute of limitations, I must grant both defendant’s motions for summary judgment.”

Summary judgment (defendant Marine Engineers Beneficial Association) Granted
Smith v. Wood
· 1986-09-17
Motions to dismiss (defendant family members) Granted

“For the reasons stated above, I grant defendant family members’ motion for failure to state a claim.”

Motions to dismiss (defendant Judge Lawrence Wood) Granted

“I further dismiss Judge Wood from this lawsuit as an improper party because plaintiff has failed to allege an Article III case or controversy against the judge.”

United States v. Shearson Lehman Brothers, Inc.
· 1986-12-04
Motions to dismiss (defendants) Denied

“For the reasons stated, defendants’ motions to dismiss the indictment are denied.”

Caseload & timing

From public federal docket records for this judge.

No assigned-judge docket cohort could be enumerated for the closed district tenure, so no caseload mix or duration statistic is reported.

A historical record

Judge Scirica no longer hears cases. This profile stays available as a record of how they ruled. If you're preparing for a matter, start from the court's current bench.