Robert A. Molloy
How Judge Molloy rules, drawn from 31 signed orders. Every observation links to the order it came from.
About Judge Molloy
Robert A. Molloy is Chief Judge of the District Court of the Virgin Islands, where he has served since April 2020. President Donald Trump nominated him, and the Senate confirmed him in February 2020. He previously served on the Superior Court of the Virgin Islands and earned degrees from Hampton University and American University.
Judge Molloy's practices and standing orders
The court's website lists no individual practices or standing orders of Judge Molloy's own (checked October 9, 2026), so the court's local rules and general orders are the place to look (court page ↗).
Standing orders for every case in this court
Orders the court applies to all of its cases, whichever judge has them, as published on the court's website (checked October 9, 2026).
How Judge Molloy decides
Patterns drawn from this judge's own signed orders. Every observation links to the order it came from.
What persuades
In Moses's boundary dispute, Molloy denied a motion to dismiss for lack of diversity jurisdiction because the nonfrivolous punitive-damages claim on the conversion count could meet the amount-in-controversy threshold.
“Since Plaintiffs seek punitive damages, it cannot be stated to a legal certainty that the value of Plaintiffs' conversion cause of action is below the jurisdictional requirement.”
In Tramway Properties, Molloy held that the plaintiff need not plead facts to defeat the economic-loss doctrine because it was an affirmative defense.
“The economic loss doctrine is an affirmative defense. Plaintiff is not required to plead facts that would dispel an affirmative defense.”
Procedural preferences
Facing a territorial tax scheme framed as a container tax rather than a direct import tax, the judge looked past the statute's label to its practical effect on interstate/out-of-territory commerce rather than accepting the government's formal characterization.
“the government is taxing the containers they arrive in, in an attempt to sidestep the Commerce Clause. ... the Court agrees with PSMT that, as alleged, the container tax discriminates against out-of-territory commerce”
In Trafigura's judgment-enforcement dispute, Molloy noted WAPA's missed response deadline, then granted leave to issue execution and denied WAPA's dismissal motion after rejecting its claimed blanket immunity from execution.
“WAPA was required to file an answer to the motion within 21 days of the filing of the motion. ... WAPA failed to do so. This failure would require the Court to summarily grant the motion.”
In Lorenzo-Hernandez's prosecution, Molloy adopted a recommendation to dismiss the complaint with prejudice after finding the prosecution team's own actions had made the defendant unavailable for trial.
“Defendant’s unavailability to proceed to trial is similarly not due to his actions, but due solely to the actions of Plaintiff. Defendant was taken into custody by an arm of the prosecutorial team.”
Cautions
In Nicholsen's FTCA suit, Molloy dismissed the complaint without prejudice for lack of jurisdiction under the intentional-tort exception and gave Nicholsen 21 days to seek leave to amend.
“Plaintiff SHALL file a motion to amend the complaint, asserting a plausible claim under the FTCA, within twenty-one (21) days of the date of entry of this Order.”
Signed rulings
A grounded sample of orders signed by this judge, with the verbatim dispositive language.
“ORDERED that Defendant's Motion to Dismiss, ECF No. 12, is DENIED.”
“ORDERED that Defendant's Motion to Dismiss the Amended Complaint, ECF No. 22, is DENIED.”
“ORDERED that Defendants' Motion to Dismiss, ECF No. 50, is DENIED.”
“the Court will grant Plaintiff's motion seeking leave to issue execution and will deny WAPA's dismissal motion.”
“ORDERED that the United States' Motion to Dismiss the Complaint for Lack of Subject Matter Jurisdiction, ECF No. 16, is GRANTED; it is further ORDERED that Plaintiff Nicholsen's complaint is DISMISSED without prejudice”
“The Court further finds that, to the extent comity does not compel dismissal here, plaintiff's Fourteenth Amendment claims necessarily fail as a matter of law and must be dismissed with prejudice. Finally, without any affirmative justification for deciding the remaining state law claims, those claims must also be dismissed. For all of these reasons, the Court will dismiss this matter in its entirety.”
“For the reasons stated above, the Court will deny Defendants motion to dismiss and to transfer venue. An appropriate Order follows.”
“For the reasons that follow, the Court finds that there is no federal question jurisdiction, and will grant Plaintiffs' Motion for Remand and remand this case to the Superior Court of the Virgin Islands.”
“Thus, for the reasons stated, the Defendants' motion to exclude Camilla Jensen's testimony is denied without prejudice. An accompanying order of even date will follow.”
“ORDERED that Plaintiff's motion to remand is DENIED without prejudice; it is further”
“ORDERED that Plaintiff's motion to conduct jurisdictional discovery is GRANTED. The parties SHALL be allowed to conduct jurisdictional discovery to be completed no later than December 31, 2023;”
“Because the Court finds that the citizenship of each of the defendants is diverse from the citizenship of Plaintiff, the Court determines that it has subject matter jurisdiction and will deny Plaintiff's motions to remand. An appropriate order follows.”
“Accordingly, the Court will deny STTH's motion for preliminary injunctive relief. An appropriate Order follows.”
Caseload & timing
From public federal docket records for this judge.
Sampled dockets included an employment wrongful-discharge suit and a motor-vehicle personal-injury diversity case; the wrongful-discharge case reached a fully documented summary-judgment ruling, while the personal-injury case's docket entries were largely scheduling and hearing orders without an available dispositive-motion text for this review.
Pending matters in the official report
Reported by the Administrative Office of the U.S. Courts under the Civil Justice Reform Act, as of March 31, 2026.
| Motions pending more than six months | 79 |
| Bench trials submitted more than six months | 3 |
| Bankruptcy appeals pending more than six months | 0 |
| Social Security appeals pending more than six months | 0 |
| Civil cases pending more than three years | 35 |
| Report | Motions over six months | Cases over three years |
|---|---|---|
| Mar 2026 | 79 | 35 |
| Sep 2025 | 60 | 12 |
| Mar 2025 | 61 | 13 |
| Sep 2024 | 33 | 14 |
| Mar 2024 | 18 | 16 |
| Sep 2023 | 46 | 24 |
| Mar 2023 | 64 | 30 |
| Sep 2022 | 73 | 21 |
| Mar 2022 | 46 | 11 |
| Sep 2021 | 45 | 16 |
| Mar 2021 | 72 | 12 |
| Sep 2020 | 53 | 8 |
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.
How long civil cases take in this court
For the whole of U.S. District Court for the District of the Virgin Islands, not for Judge Molloy: median time from filing to disposition of the civil cases the court closed in the 12 months ending September 30, 2025, as reported by the Administrative Office of the U.S. Courts.
| Cases | Median time | |
|---|---|---|
| All civil cases closed | 105 | 10.3 months |
| Closed with no court action | 62 | 5.5 months |
| Closed before pretrial | 15 | 10.8 months |
| Closed during or after pretrial | 27 | 25.7 months |
| Closed during trial | 1 | not reported |
| 12 months ending | Cases closed | Median time |
|---|---|---|
| Sep 2025 | 105 | 10.3 months |
| Sep 2024 | 138 | 16 months |
| Sep 2023 | 145 | 20.4 months |
| Sep 2022 | 308 | 6.4 months |
| Sep 2021 | 280 | 6.2 months |
| Sep 2020 | 210 | 14.2 months |
| Sep 2019 | 131 | 14.8 months |
The table leaves out prisoner petitions, land condemnations, deportation reviews, recovery of overpayments and enforcement of judgments, and reports no median for fewer than 10 cases. A district that closed a large multidistrict litigation in the period shows very large counts and long medians for that year. Source: Table C-5, U.S. District Courts (spreadsheet).
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