Veronica L. Duffy
How Judge Duffy rules, drawn from 7 signed orders. Every observation links to the order it came from.
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).”
Duffy requires concrete evidence of willful noncompliance before recommending the extreme sanction of dismissal; ambiguous discovery wording and a counsel ownership mistake fall short of bad-faith defiance.
“this is a far cry from the kind of bad faith, willful, and obdurate flouting of the discovery rules that would justify the sanction of dismissal.”
On Rule 37 fee applications, Duffy uses the lodestar, excludes meet-and-confer and unrelated time, and reduces modest duplication while compensating work required by objections and related discovery sanctions litigation.
“Because there is some small amount of duplication, the court reduces the above total by 10 percent to $30,156.30.”
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.”
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.”
“Ultimately, the magistrate judge determined that ‘Wilson’s motion seeking to dismiss Satschel’s complaint for asserted discovery abuses is without merit.’”
“ORDERED that plaintiff Satschel’s motion to compel [Docket No. 63] is granted in its entirety.”
“ORDERED that plaintiff Satschel, Inc.'s motion for attorney's fees (Docket No. 110) is granted in part and denied in part as detailed above in this opinion.”
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