E. Clifton Knowles
How Judge Knowles rules, drawn from 4 signed orders. Every observation links to the order it came from.
Judge Knowles no longer sits on this court. This profile is preserved as a historical record of how they ruled here.
About Judge Knowles
Emmitt Clifton Knowles served as a United States Magistrate Judge for the Middle District of Tennessee from 2000 until his retirement in 2016. He earned his law degree from the University of Tennessee College of Law, clerked on the Sixth Circuit, and practiced at Bass, Berry & Sims in Nashville before joining the bench. He died in 2022.
How Judge Knowles decides
Patterns drawn from this judge's own signed orders. Every observation links to the order it came from.
Procedural preferences
In Stewart v. Melton, he reviewed an unopposed summary judgment motion on its merits rather than treat the missing response as a default, then recommended judgment for the defendants after finding they had met their burden.
“a district court cannot grant summary judgment in favor of the movant simply because the adverse party has not responded. The Court is required, at a minimum, to examine the movant's Motion for Summary Judgment to ensure that he has discharged [his initial] burden”
In Raybon-Tate v. Schofield, Knowles reconsidered an exhaustion recommendation after the district judge returned the case for review of a grievance memorandum, then recommended denying summary judgment because the record left a material factual dispute.
“the Court must view the evidence in the light most favorable to the non-moving party ... Defendants have not shown that there is no genuine issue as to any material fact and that they are entitled to a judgment as a matter of law.”
Signed rulings
A grounded sample of orders signed by this judge, with the verbatim dispositive language.
“the undersigned concludes that Plaintiff has failed to state a claim upon which relief can be granted. Thus, the undersigned recommends that Defendants' Motion to Dismiss be GRANTED.”
“the undersigned recommends that Defendants' Motion for Summary Judgment (Docket No. 25) be GRANTED, and that this action be DISMISSED.”
“Defendants have not shown that there is no genuine issue as to any material fact and that they are entitled to a judgment as a matter of law. ... the undersigned recommends that Defendants' Motion for Summary Judgment (Docket No. 71) be DENIED.”
“the undersigned recommends that Plaintiff's Motion for Judgment on the Administrative Record be DENIED, and that the decision of the Commissioner be AFFIRMED.”
Caseload & timing
From public federal docket records for this judge.
- His assigned docket reflects a consent and duty magistrate's mix: diversity personal-injury cases (several retail slip-and-fall suits), diversity contract and product-liability actions, federal-question civil-rights and employment cases he carried to judgment by the parties' consent, and criminal-duty matters.
- Across the closed consent civil cases the time from filing to termination ran from roughly four months to about two and a half years (median around 600 days), with the longer-running matters being the contract, employment, and civil-rights disputes.
- On the cases the parties consented to have him decide, the sampled rulings lean toward grants of defense dispositive motions; the substantive reports and recommendations he wrote on referral sit on the district judges' dockets.
Pending matters in the official report
Judge Knowles was last listed in the Civil Justice Reform Act report as of September 30, 2021.
| Motions pending more than six months | 1 |
| 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 | 0 |
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 Knowles 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.