Robert F. Kelly
How Judge Kelly rules, drawn from 42 signed orders. Every observation links to the order it came from.
Judge Kelly no longer sits on this court. This profile is preserved as a historical record of how they ruled here.
About Judge Kelly
Robert F. Kelly is an inactive senior judge of the United States District Court for the Eastern District of Pennsylvania. Appointed by President Ronald Reagan, he received his commission on June 26, 1987. He assumed senior status on July 17, 2001.
How Judge Kelly decides
Patterns drawn from this judge's own signed orders. Every observation links to the order it came from.
What persuades
In a dispute over archived website images, Kelly held that a law firm’s ordinary requests did not exceed authorized access when the archive’s malfunctioning servers returned the images.
“The Harding firm got lucky, because the servers were malfunctioning, but getting lucky is not equivalent to exceeding authorized access.”
Kelly allowed a municipal-liability claim to proceed where the complaint tied identified training deficiencies and prior incidents to policymaker notice rather than relying on labels alone.
“Plaintiff has pleaded sufficient facts to make a plausible claim that Defendant was deliberately indifferent as it pertains to its training program and policies.”
Kelly found a school-notification rule overbroad because a general notice could serve the government's purpose without singling out families based on a student's refusal to participate.
“Section 7-771(c)(1) burdens substantially more speech than necessary to further that interest.”
Kelly enforced an employment arbitration clause where both sides agreed to be bound and rejected a proposed amendment attacking consideration as futile.
“Thus, the Arbitration Agreement is a valid contract which is supported by adequate consideration.”
Procedural preferences
Kelly suppressed substantive deposition corrections when the witness and sponsoring party missed Rule 30(e)'s procedural requirements.
“Frape is, therefore, barred from changing his August 25, 2005 deposition because he and Agrizap failed to comply with the procedural requirements of Rule 30(e).”
Cautions
In reviewing a disability claim, Kelly rejected a remand theory where counsel repeatedly had the chance to supply the claimed medical evidence but never did so.
“Thus, Purnell had five opportunities to produce such evidence from Dr. Shark or from any other physician who opined that he needed neck and back surgery, but failed to do so.”
Signed rulings
A grounded sample of orders signed by this judge, with the verbatim dispositive language.
“upon consideration of Defendant’s Motion for Summary Judgment, and all responses thereto, it is hereby ORDERED that said Motion is GRANTED.”
“For these reasons, defendant’s Motion for Summary Judgment based on Federal Preemption shall be DENIED.”
“to Preclude or Strike the Testimony of Joan Ann Brown, and all responses thereto, it is hereby ORDERED that said Motion is DENIED.”
“Defendant’s Motion to Dismiss Counts III, IV and V of Plaintiffs’ Complaint is GRANTED;”
“Plaintiffs Motion to Vacate the Order Entered by this Court on March 31, 2000 Dismissing the Action with Prejudice is hereby DENIED.”
“The Request of Eileen Epley Wiggins to Withdraw as Counsel for the Plaintiff is hereby DENIED.”
“upon consideration of Defendant’s Motion for Summary Judgment (Doc. No. 27), and the Response and Reply thereto, it is hereby ORDERED that Defendant’s Motion is GRANTED.”
“it is hereby ORDERED that Aet-na’s Motion is GRANTED.”
“Defendant’s Motion for Summary Judgment is GRANTED;”
“Defendants’ motion for summary judgment is granted in part and denied in part.”
“Defendants’ Motion for Summary Judgment is GRANTED, and judgment is entered in favor of defendants, The Boeing Company and Aetna Life Insurance Company, and against plaintiff, Thomas Steele.”
“the Plaintiffs’ Motion is GRANTED in part and DENIED in part.”
“the Defendants’ Motion is GRANTED in part and DENIED in part.”
“the Plaintiffs’ request for a permanent injunction is GRANTED and the Defendants are prohibited from enforcing the Act.”
“Pursuant to 42 U.S.C. § 1988, the Plaintiffs are entitled to payment of their attorneys’ fees by the Defendants.”
“the Motions to Transfer are GRANTED;”
Caseload & timing
From public federal docket records for this judge.
Five terminated 2008-filed matters were sampled across product liability, declaratory-contract, employment, consumer-credit, and criminal cases. Their durations ranged from 357 to 749 days, with a median of 537 days; this small fixed cohort is descriptive rather than representative of the full docket.
Pending matters in the official report
Judge Kelly was last listed in the Civil Justice Reform Act report as of September 30, 2025.
| 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 |
| Report | Motions over six months | Cases over three years |
|---|---|---|
| Sep 2025 | 0 | 0 |
| Mar 2024 | 0 | 0 |
| Sep 2023 | 0 | 0 |
| Sep 2022 | 0 | 0 |
| Mar 2022 | 0 | 2 |
| Sep 2021 | 0 | 0 |
| Mar 2021 | 0 | 0 |
| Sep 2020 | 0 | 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.
A historical record
Judge Kelly no longer sits on this court. This profile stays available as a record of how they ruled here. If you're preparing for a matter, start from the court's current bench.