James Martin Munley
Judge Munley no longer hears cases. This profile is preserved as a historical record of how they ruled.
How Judge Munley decides
Patterns drawn from this judge's own signed orders. Every observation links to the order it came from.
What persuades
Munley treated specific allegations that calls were made at a principal's direction and under its control as sufficient to plead vicarious liability.
“This pleading, by itself, is enough to state a claim, plausible on its face, that Fannie Mae is vicariously liable for the phone calls made by Resolve.”
Procedural preferences
He treated reconsideration as limited corrective relief, not another opportunity to reargue the original decision.
“A motion for reconsideration is not a proper vehicle to attempt to convince the court to rethink a decision it has already made.”
Cautions
He required a proposed expert to demonstrate specialized knowledge in the field and otherwise limited the witness to lay testimony.
“Accordingly, we find that Williams does not have the specialized knowledge required of an expert witness.”
Signed rulings
A grounded sample of orders signed by this judge, with the verbatim dispositive language.
“We will dismiss Counts 1 through 6 with prejudice as an amendment to the complaint would be futile as the plaintiff has pled causes of action for which no legal remedy exists under Third Circuit precedent.”
“Accordingly, we will deny the defendants' motion to dismiss.”
“The motion to preclude testimony of defendant’s family and friends and the motion to preclude testimony of undisclosed witnesses will be granted without prejudice to plaintiff providing a proffer at the pretrial conference regarding relevant testimony that these witnesses would provide.”
“Finally, the motions relating to admission of the district attorney’s opinion, the document from the International Criminal Tribunal of Rwanda, the document from Dartmouth College and the sexual coercion awareness and prevention manual will be granted as unopposed.”
“The motion to preclude introduction of, or reference to, any discipline received by defendant will be granted.”
“The motion in limine to preclude evidence of telephone calls will be denied.”
“Defendant’s motion in limine to preclude Captain William Williams as an expert will be granted. However, he may provide lay opinion testimony as to the GPS evidence.”
“the defendants’ motion to dismiss Count Two of the Amended Complaint will be denied as to dismissing the Establishment Clause claim. It will be granted as to the individual defendants because the doctrine of qualified immunity shields them from suit.”
“For all the reasons set forth above, judgement will be granted to the defendants and against the plaintiffs.”
“defendant’s motion for summary judgment (Doc. 16) is GRANTED.”
“defendant’s motion for summary judgment (Doc. 37) is GRANTED.”
“Defendant Union Security Insurance’s motion for summary judgment (Doc. 18) is DENIED;”
“Plaintiffs Ryta Chanthavong and Brian Chanthavong’s motion for summary judgment (Doc. 16) is GRANTED.”
“For the reasons set forth above, we find that genuine issues of material fact exist making it inappropriate to grant summary judgment to the defendant. Judgment will be granted, however, with regard to the issues that plaintiff does not dispute, that is, Count V — Fraud, Concealment and Misrepresentation; and the ‘failure to warn’ portion of Count III — Strict Liability- The remaining issues in this case will thus be: Count I, Negligence and Gross Negligence; Count III, Strict Liability (Design Defect and Manufacturing Defect); and Count VII, Loss of Consortium on behalf of Jason Gonzalez.”
“The defendants’ motion for summary judgment will be denied with respect to Counts I and II, and with respect to dismissal of the non-Discover Defendants.”
“The plaintiffs’ motion for summary judgment will be granted with respect to Count I of the complaint, seeking a declaratory judgment that the waiver is null and void. The motion will be denied with respect to Count II for bad faith.”
“The plaintiffs motion for summary judgment (Doc. 27) is hereby DENIED.”
“the defendants’ motion for summary judgment (Doc. 25) is hereby GRANTED.”
“defendants’ motions (Docs. 14, 15) are hereby GRANTED IN PART and DENIED IN PART as follows:”
Caseload & timing
From public federal docket records for this judge.
Median case duration in the sampled dockets: 272 days (N = 10).
The ten enumerated cases filed from October through December 1998 included two miscellaneous matters and one each involving prisoner civil rights, foreclosure, Social Security, personal injury, contract, insurance, civil RICO, and other civil rights. All ten were terminated. This narrow early-tenure cohort does not establish Munley's tenure-wide caseload mix.
A historical record
Judge Munley 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.