Veronica L. Duffy
How Judge Duffy decides
Patterns drawn from this judge's own signed orders. Every observation links to the order it came from.
Procedural preferences
Even when a summary-judgment motion is unopposed, Duffy will not grant it by default; she conducts the full Rule 56 inquiry on the record before recommending judgment.
“even where a summary judgment motion is unopposed, the court must still determine if summary judgment is appropriate. ... summary judgment cannot be granted by default even if there is a complete failure to respond to the motion.”
In pro se prisoner habeas, Duffy enforces AEDPA exhaustion strictly -- a petitioner must complete one full round of state appellate review (circuit court AND South Dakota Supreme Court) before federal habeas; skipping the state petition is fatal (without prejudice).
“she recommended dismissing the petition for failure to exhaust state remedies as is required under the Antiterrorism and Effective Death Penalty Act (AEDPA).”
Cautions
On bad-faith insurance partial-summary-judgment motions Duffy reads the record for genuine disputes carefully and will recommend denial where the legal landscape was unsettled or the conduct is factually muddied -- a movant needs clean, undisputed facts on every prong.
“the court finds the confluence of Sopko I, Sopko II, and 62-4-1.1, 62-7-12, and 62-7-33 was sufficiently unclear prior to Hayes to create a genuine issue of material fact ... For all these reasons, the court recommends denying Mr. Wetch's motion for partial summary judgment.”
Motion outcomes
Counted from classified signed orders only. Percentages are shown only where the sample is large enough to be meaningful; smaller samples are reported as raw counts.
| Summary judgment N = 2 |
Granted: 1Denied: 1 | counts only |
| Habeas petition N = 1 |
Moot / procedural: 1 | counts only |
| Motions to dismiss N = 1 |
Granted: 1 | counts only |
A "1 of 1" is one ruling, not a tendency. Treat small samples as illustrative, not predictive.
Signed rulings
A grounded sample of orders signed by this judge, with the verbatim dispositive language.
“this court respectfully recommends that the motion for summary judgment [Docket No. 43] filed by defendants be granted and that Lance Owen's amended complaint be dismissed with prejudice.”
“it is respectfully recommended that Mr. Wetch's motion for partial summary judgment on both prongs of the bad faith test [Docket No. 59] should be denied.”
“Magistrate Judge Duffy's report and recommendation (Docket 7) is adopted in full.”
“Respondents' motion to dismiss (Docket 9) is granted.”