Curtis Vincent Gómez
How Judge Gómez decides
Patterns drawn from this judge's own signed orders. Every observation links to the order it came from.
What persuades
This judge will revisit and correct his own earlier procedural rulings once shown they rested on a mistaken factual premise: an order dismissing a counterclaim as untimely was vacated after the losing party produced evidence its response actually had been filed on time.
Default-judgment motions against non-appearing defendants are not rubber-stamped: two separate default-judgment motions were denied without prejudice for missing procedural prerequisites (a Servicemembers Civil Relief Act affidavit in one; publication notice in a court-designated newspaper in a ship-mortgage foreclosure in the other), showing this judge insists the moving party actually satisfy Rule 55(b)(2)'s evidentiary requirements before granting relief.
Procedural preferences
Procedural compliance matters as much as the merits in front of this judge: a summary-judgment motion was denied without prejudice solely because it lacked the required separate statement of undisputed material facts, and an attorneys'-fee award was trimmed for vague, block-billed time entries that 'prevent meaningful judicial review.' Filings that skip the local-rule formalities invite a procedural denial or a reduced award even when the underlying request has merit.
Motions for reconsideration face a genuinely high bar here: of four such motions in the record, three were denied (two for failing to show an intervening change in law, new evidence, or a clear error/manifest injustice, one as simply untimely) and only one was granted, and that grant came only after the movant showed the court had overlooked that a nominal party's presence, not the movant's own citizenship, controlled the diversity analysis. Reconsideration is treated as an extraordinary remedy, not a second chance to reargue the same points.
Motions requesting relief from a criminal judgment that in substance duplicate an already-denied Section 2255 or 2254 petition are treated as unauthorized successive petitions and dismissed for lack of jurisdiction, regardless of what the movant styles them as ('motion to dismiss,' 'Rule 60(b) motion,' etc.) -- the label a pro se movant gives a filing does not control; the court looks to what the filing actually attacks.
Cautions
On Miranda invocation, ambiguous or hedged language is not enough: a defendant's statement that he 'might need a lawyer' during custodial interrogation was held not to unambiguously invoke the right to counsel, following the Davis v. United States line of cases requiring an unequivocal request.
Signed rulings
A grounded sample of orders signed by this judge, with the verbatim dispositive language.
“ORDERED that the Commissioner's motion to dismiss the complaint for lack of subject-matter jurisdiction is GRANTED”
“ORDERED that the government's motion to dismiss docketed at ECF Number 30 is DENIED.”
“ORDERED that the Defendants' motion for summary judgment is DENIED without prejudice.”
“the Court finds that DDI's tort claim is barred by the gist of the action doctrine.”
“The Court will also grant summary judgment in favor of the Association on Count IV of DDI's complaint.”
“For the reasons discussed above, the Court will grant in part and deny in part Hinirio's motions to suppress.”
“ORDERED that the motion for a temporary restraining order is DENIED.”
“ORDERED that BNS's motion for summary judgment is GRANTED”
“ORDERED that the motion of BNS for default judgment docketed at ECF Number 14 is GRANTED”
“the Court finds that $6,450 of the fees requested is unreasonable and must be deducted from the Defendants' requested reimbursement. Accordingly, it is hereby ORDERED that the Plaintiffs shall reimburse the Defendants for attorneys fees and costs in the amount of $51,425.”
“ORDERED that the Report and Recommendation docketed at ECF Number 72 is ADOPTED”
“ORDERED that Wilnick Dorval's petition entitled "Motion for Judgment on the Pleading Against All Defendants" at ECF Number 95 is DENIED.”
“For the reasons discussed above, the Court will grant the motion by Lloyds for summary judgment. An appropriate judgment follows.”
Caseload & timing
From public federal docket records for this judge.
The sampled dockets span mortgage foreclosures, insurance/hazard-claim disputes, personal-injury and Jones Act maritime claims, hotel/innkeeper liability, tort and contract actions, prisoner habeas and post-conviction petitions, election-eligibility disputes, and federal criminal matters, reflecting the general civil and criminal caseload of a Virgin Islands district judgeship. Several sampled civil cases were voluntarily dismissed or settled before reaching a dispositive motion, consistent with this small, diversity-heavy territorial docket.
Put Judge Gómez's record to work
Ezel drafts and answers grounded in this exact profile: how Judge Gómez actually rules, not a generic AI guess.
Opens in Ezel Pro. Every answer is grounded in Judge Gómez's own signed orders and cites them.