José Antonio Fusté
How Judge Fusté rules, drawn from 46 signed orders. Every observation links to the order it came from.
Judge Fusté no longer sits on this court. This profile is preserved as a historical record of how they ruled here.
About Judge Fusté
José Antonio Fusté was a judge of the United States District Court for the District of Puerto Rico. Appointed by President Ronald Reagan, Judge Fusté received a commission on October 28, 1985. Judge Fusté retired on June 1, 2016.
How Judge Fusté decides
Patterns drawn from this judge's own signed orders. Every observation links to the order it came from.
What persuades
In Rodriguez-Oquendo v. Toledo-Davila, Fusté held that conclusory allegations were insufficient to defeat summary judgment on qualified immunity.
“A ‘plaintiff must offer more than conclusory and nonspecific allegations in order to overcome a motion for summary judgment based on qualified immunity.’”
In Quality Construction Chemicals, Corp. v. Sika Corp., he granted the defendant's summary judgment motion after finding that the plaintiff offered no evidence or allegations to rebut a dispositive argument about the distribution agreement.
“Plaintiff puts forward no evidence or allegations to rebut Defendant’s persuasive argument”
Cautions
He warned that continued unexplained discovery delay could result in dismissal with prejudice.
“Further unexplained delays by Plaintiffs will result in dismissal of their claims with prejudice.”
He rejected efforts to convert an ordinary local tort dispute into a federal civil-rights action without a viable constitutional claim.
“Section 1983 simply does not cover a dispute of this kind.”
Signed rulings
A grounded sample of orders signed by this judge, with the verbatim dispositive language.
“we DENY Defendants’ motion for attorney’s fees pursuant to the Condominiums Act.”
“In accordance with the foregoing, this court GRANTS Defendants’ summary ... judgment motion.”
“we GRANT Third-Party Defendant Direct TV’s motion for judgment on the pleadings.”
“Sanctions under Fed. R. Civ. P. 11 are DENIED.”
“we DENY Plaintiffs motion for summary judgment”
“GRANT Defendant’s motion for summary judgment.”
“we GRANT Defendant IFP’s motion for summary judgment as to Plaintiffs claims for demurrage that accrued before May 9, 1997.”
“we GRANT in part and DENY in part Defendants’ motion for summary judgment.”
“we DENY Petitioner’s motion for reconsideration.”
“Defendants’ motion to dismiss the section 1983 claims of Pérez and the conjugal partnership is GRANTED.”
“Defendant Toledo enjoys qualified immunity and, accordingly, Defendant Toledo’s motion for summary judgment is GRANTED.”
“The motion for summary judgment of Defendants Padilla and Gomez is DENIED.”
“we GRANT defendants’ request as to all claims, except for the clock-hour interpretation claim, which we DISMISS WITHOUT PREJUDICE.”
Caseload & timing
From public federal docket records for this judge.
Among 60 enumerated assigned cases, 59 were terminated and one miscellaneous matter remained pending. Social Security review, foreclosure, civil-rights, and employment cases were the largest categories in this stratified historical slice; the median filing-to-termination duration among terminated cases was 827 days. This is not a career-wide caseload measure.
A historical record
Judge Fusté 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.