Sylvia H. Rambo
How Judge Rambo rules, drawn from 20 signed orders. Every observation links to the order it came from.
Judge Rambo no longer hears cases. This profile is preserved as a historical record of how they ruled here.
About Judge Rambo
Sylvia H. Rambo was a judge of the United States District Court for the Middle District of Pennsylvania. Appointed by President Jimmy Carter, Judge Rambo received a commission on July 24, 1979. Judge Rambo assumed senior status on April 18, 2001 and retired on August 30, 2024.
How Judge Rambo decides
Patterns drawn from this judge's own signed orders. Every observation links to the order it came from.
What persuades
At the pleading stage, Rambo drew reasonable inferences from the complaint as a whole rather than demanding ideal wording for the plaintiff's intended patient-safety reporting.
“Plaintiffs complaint, taken as a whole, raises a plausible inference that Plaintiff intended to have Defendant forward her reports to a patient safety organization.”
Procedural preferences
She required special-education plaintiffs to use the administrative process when it could develop the factual record and apply educational expertise before judicial review.
“By requiring exhaustion under these circumstances, the court' is enabling ‘the agency to develop a factual record, to apply its expertise to the problem, to exercise its discretion, and to correct its own mistakes.... ’”
Cautions
She enforced clear contractual reservations of rights and declined to infer vested lifetime benefits from bargaining history or general language.
“the reservation of rights language applicable to Subclasses B and F is clear and unambiguous, and forecloses any notion of vesting.”
Signed rulings
A grounded sample of orders signed by this judge, with the verbatim dispositive language.
“the court will grant Defendant’s motion for summary judgment.”
“Plaintiffs motion for a judgment as a matter of law and motion for a new trial will be denied.”
“Defendants’ motion to dismiss will be grantéd.”
“Defendants’ motion to dismiss will be denied.”
“Defendant’s motion will be granted in part and denied in part.”
“Plaintiff will be awarded judgment on the pleadings as to its breach of contract claim as well as Defendant’s counterclaim.”
“Defendant’s request for leave to amend its pleading will be denied.”
“the court will deny Plaintiffs’ motion to strike and partial motion for summary judgment and will grant Defendants’ motion for summary judgment in its entirety.”
“Defendant’s motion will be granted in part and denied in part.”
“For the reasons stated herein, the motion will be granted.”
“the court will reject the plea agreement and allow Defendant to withdraw his guilty plea to Count 7 of the Indictment”
“Defendant's motion for summary judgment will be granted.”
“the motions for summary judgment will be granted as to Defendants Thomas, Crawley, McClintock, and Fosnot. Further, the motion for summary judgment will be denied with respect to Defendants Potter, Eichner, and Knapp”
Caseload & timing
From public federal docket records for this judge.
Median case duration in the sampled dockets: 151.5 days (N = 10).
- The twenty enumerated early-2000 cases included four employee-benefit matters, two habeas petitions, two employment civil-rights cases, two other civil-rights cases, two other statutory actions, and one each involving voting rights, foreclosure, student-loan recovery, insurance, medical malpractice, forfeiture, disability benefits, and contract.
- All twenty were terminated. This narrow cohort does not establish Rambo's tenure-wide caseload mix.
Pending matters in the official report
Judge Rambo was last listed in the Civil Justice Reform Act report as of March 31, 2024.
| Motions pending more than six months | 11 |
| 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 | 9 |
| Report | Motions over six months | Cases over three years |
|---|---|---|
| Mar 2024 | 11 | 9 |
| Sep 2023 | 4 | 5 |
| Mar 2023 | 14 | 11 |
| Sep 2022 | 7 | 7 |
| Mar 2022 | 2 | 7 |
| Sep 2021 | 2 | 14 |
| Mar 2021 | 2 | 14 |
| Sep 2020 | 0 | 9 |
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 Rambo no longer hears cases. 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.