Harry Evans Watkins
How Judge Watkins rules, drawn from 25 signed orders. Every observation links to the order it came from.
Judge Watkins no longer hears cases. This profile is preserved as a historical record of how they ruled.
How Judge Watkins decides
Patterns drawn from this judge's own signed orders. Every observation links to the order it came from.
What persuades
In reviewing disability determinations, Watkins gave weight to detailed clinical findings over unsupported medical conclusions.
“Inasmuch as Dr. Allen was the only physician who submitted detailed findings and made clinical tests, it is not at all surprising that the examiner chose to rely heavily on his findings rather than the unsupported findings of the other two doctors.”
Watkins enforced broad labor-arbitration language and treated contract interpretation as the function the parties assigned to the arbitrator.
“It is not the function of this Court to review the findings of fact of the Umpire, or even to review the interpretation of the contract by the Umpire.”
He enforced the express scope of a personal-injury release where the parties agreed to cover unknown as well as known injuries.
“The release covered all injuries, ‘known or unknown’.”
Procedural preferences
Watkins required state prisoners to exhaust available state remedies before seeking federal habeas relief.
“The law is clear that a petitioner must first exhaust his state remedies before applying to a federal court for relief such as sought in the instant case.”
He confined third-party practice to claims that the third party was liable to the original defendant, rather than merely liable to the plaintiff.
“Inasmuch as the third-party complaint does not state a cause of action against the third-party defendant upon which relief can be granted in this action, the third-party complaint must be dismissed and the third-party defendant discharged from this action.”
Watkins read the criminal rules together to permit a transfer that avoided unnecessary expense and delay while preserving a prompt guilty plea and sentencing.
“Reading Rules 20 and 54 together, it would seem clear that this Court has jurisdiction to impose sentence upon this defendant.”
Cautions
A creditor could not shift a shareholder's personal borrowing to court-appointed receivers when the loan documents and surrounding notice showed that the lender looked to the individuals for payment.
“Standard’s claim is based upon its note which shows the loan was made to William G. Lias and his family, and that Standard looked to them for payment.”
Signed rulings
A grounded sample of orders signed by this judge, with the verbatim dispositive language.
“Plaintiffs’ motion for summary judgment is granted.”
“Upon this record, the petition is dismissed without further hearing.”
“Here there was a meeting of the minds of the parties to the release with regard to the personal injuries to plaintiff.”
“This petition for naturalization is denied.”
“Such findings and conclusions are supported by the law and evidence and are affirmed.”
“It is the ruling of this Court that Rule 20 applies in this case, and that this Court has jurisdiction to impose sentence upon defendant for the violation of the District of Columbia Code.”
“The relief asked in the petition is denied and the case is dismissed.”
“Counsel may submit an order reversing defendant’s ruling.”
“plaintiff is entitled to recover that amount from both defendants herein.”
“The conclusion of this Court is that plaintiff Allstate is the primary insurer of Jerry R. Eaton, and that Hardware Mutual has no obligation to defend or pay any judgment arising from any suits which have or will result from the accident described above.”
“welfare royalties in the amount of $19,456.84 are due plaintiffs by defendant.”
Caseload & timing
From public federal docket records for this judge.
The reviewed reported opinions span labor arbitration, Social Security review, insurance, tort, bankruptcy, criminal procedure, naturalization, and habeas matters. This selected corpus is not a complete caseload measure.
A historical record
Judge Watkins no longer hears cases. This profile stays available as a record of how they ruled. If you're preparing for a matter, start from the court's current bench.