Solomon Blatt Jr.
How Judge Blatt rules, drawn from 20 signed orders. Every observation links to the order it came from.
Judge Blatt no longer hears cases. This profile is preserved as a historical record of how they ruled.
How Judge Blatt decides
Patterns drawn from this judge's own signed orders. Every observation links to the order it came from.
What persuades
In Griffin, Blatt focused disability review on real functional capacity rather than whether a claimant might locate a particular job.
“the test under the Social Security Act is not whether a plaintiff could or could not get a job, but rather whether he could perform ‘substantial gainful activity.’”
Procedural preferences
In Skidaway Associates, Blatt treated service on a statutory agent differently from actual receipt when calculating the removal deadline.
“service on a statutory agent, such as a State Highway Commissioner, or here, the State Insurance Commissioner, does not start the running of the removal statute time limitation period as would service on the defendant or an agent designated by the defendant.”
Cautions
In Blomquist, Blatt declined to extend a contested arbitration rule without clearer guidance from binding appellate authority.
“this court prefers to await a more definitive statement from a larger following of United States Supreme Court justices or a ruling from the Fourth Circuit before taking a position that would effectively bar plaintiffs from a Congressionally granted right to judicial resolution of alleged federal securities law violations.”
Signed rulings
A grounded sample of orders signed by this judge, with the verbatim dispositive language.
“For these reasons, the plaintiffs’ motion to remand is hereby denied.”
“the defendants’ motion to dismiss for failure to state a claim is denied as to the plaintiff’s second cause of action alleging a violation of § 15(c)(1) of the 1934 Act, denied as to plaintiff’s third cause of action for violation of § 17(a) of the Securities Act of 1933, 2 and granted as to plaintiff’s fifth cause of action alleging a violation of the South Carolina Unfair Trade Practices Act;”
“The motion is granted as to the plaintiff’s remaining state law claims which include the sixth cause of action for common law fraud; seventh cause of action for negligent misrepresentation; eighth cause of action for negligence and recklessness; ninth cause of action for breach of contract and tenth cause of action for breach of implied contract;”
“the defendants’ motion to stay these judicial proceedings pending resolution of the issues sent to arbitration is denied.”
“This matter is remanded to the Secretary for findings consistent herewith.”
“For the reasons heretofore expressed, the instant action is remanded to the' Secretary.”
“the decision of the United States Bankruptcy Court is affirmed and defendant-appellant’s appeal is denied.”
“ORDERED, that defendant’s motion for summary judgment is hereby granted as to punitive damages and attorney’s fees. IT IS FURTHER ORDERED, that defendant’s motion for summary judgment is hereby denied as to all damages which do not exceed the claim for lost wages due to disability, namely, Four Hundred Sixty and 36/100 Dollars ($460.36).”
“ORDERED, that the defendant’s motion for summary judgment be, and the same hereby is, granted.”
“the plaintiff’s motion for a preliminary injunction is hereby denied.”
“For the foregoing reasons, defendant’s motion for summary judgment under Fed. R.Civ.Pro. 56(b) is hereby granted.”
“the action must be, and hereby is, dismissed.”
“the plaintiff’s motion is hereby granted, and this case must be remanded to the Court of Common Pleas for Jasper County.”
“the motion of the United States to dismiss the complaint, or in the alternative for summary judgment, is denied.”
Caseload & timing
From public federal docket records for this judge.
Median case duration in the sampled dockets: 219 days (N = 10).
Median motion-to-ruling time: 6 days (N = 1).
A fixed-seed sample of ten terminated matters filed in 2005 and 2015 included personal-injury, prisoner, Social Security, product-liability, employment, fraud, and civil-rights cases.
A historical record
Judge Blatt 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.