Joseph R. Goodwin
How Judge Goodwin rules, drawn from 13 signed orders. Every observation links to the order it came from.
How Judge Goodwin decides
Patterns drawn from this judge's own signed orders. Every observation links to the order it came from.
What persuades
On a USERRA discrimination claim, the judge required concrete evidence of hostility or inconsistency connected to the adverse action, and treated bare temporal proximity between a plaintiff's return from military duty and an adverse decision as insufficient by itself to survive summary judgment.
“If I were to find that this was enough evidence to survive summary judgment, any coincidental employment change may be subject to litigation. I am not interested in expanding USERRA litigation so far, and Plaintiff's offered temporal relationship is not enough to survive summary judgment.”
On a Monell municipal-liability claim, the judge let the claim proceed past the pleading stage based on the plaintiff's allegation of several prior, similar excessive-force lawsuits against the same city, even though those earlier cases had settled without a liability finding.
“Plaintiff has sufficiently alleged that the existence of these multiple lawsuits in recent years has put the city on notice of an alleged pattern of its officers using excessive force, which caused Plaintiff's injuries here.”
When applying an insurance exclusion to conduct by a third party, the judge gave the policy term “any” its ordinary breadth and rejected the insured's ambiguity argument.
“plain meaning of ‘any’ encompasses a third-party actor with no connection to American Legion.”
Procedural preferences
On a Heck v. Humphrey bar defense to an excessive-force claim tied to a prior guilty plea, the judge required a close factual examination of when the alleged force occurred relative to the plaintiff's resistance, declining to dismiss where the complaint left that timing unclear.
“In this case, the court is unaware of the precise factual basis for Plaintiff's plea. It is not clear from the face of the complaint and attached exhibits whether the alleged excessive force occurred before, during, or after the assault.”
Signed rulings
A grounded sample of orders signed by this judge, with the verbatim dispositive language.
“as the timing is not clear, I cannot determine whether Plaintiff's excessive force claim ‘would necessarily imply invalidity’ of his state court conviction... Defendant's motion is therefore DENIED as to Counts I and II.”
“Plaintiff has plausibly alleged at this stage that Defendant City of Dunbar has either an express policy or a persistent practice of allowing Defendant officers to use excessive force, which caused his injuries. Defendants' motion is DENIED as to Count III.”
“Plaintiff's claims for negligent training and negligent supervision must fail because he does not plead ‘underlying conduct of the supervised employee that is also negligent.’ ... Defendants' motion is GRANTED as to Counts IV and V.”
“Plaintiff has plausibly pleaded that defendant's conduct may reasonably be regarded as so extreme and outrageous as to cause emotional distress. As such, Defendants' motion as to Count VI is DENIED.”
“Plaintiff fails to include factual allegations as to how the officers engaged in a conspiracy and instead relies on bare legal conclusions... As such, Defendants' motion as to VII is GRANTED.”
“Because no reasonable jury would be able to find a discriminatory motive, Defendant's Motion for Summary Judgment is GRANTED in part as it concerns Plaintiff's claim under 38 U.S.C. Section 4311.”
“the parties' dispute is genuine and material... Therefore, Defendant's Motion for Summary Judgment is DENIED in part as it concerns Plaintiff's claim under 38 U.S.C. Section 4312.”
“Accordingly, Plaintiff’s motion for summary judgment is GRANTED.”
“The court therefore SETS ASIDE the Default [ECF No. 40] entered against B.E. Koncepts and Powell and DENIES the plaintiffs’ Motion for Entry of Judgment [ECF No. 42].”
“As set forth above, the defendant’s Motion to Bifurcate [Docket 23] is DENIED.”
“Because this court does not have original jurisdiction under 28 U.S.C. § 1331, removal was improper. The plaintiffs Motion to Remand [Docket 6] is GRANTED, and the defendant’s Motion to Dismiss [Docket 8] is DENIED as moot.”
“As a result, the court DENIES the Combined Motion to Dismiss & Memorandum of Law in Support [ECF No. 3]. The defendant may refile the Motion when the stay is lifted.”
“For the reasons set forth above, Westfield Insurance Company’s Motion for Summary Judgment on Coverage Issues [Docket 102] is GRANTED with regard to Policy No. BOP 3139955 and Policy No. BSP 3995319.”
“For the reasons stated above, the defendant’s motion is GRANTED. The court ORDERS that judgment be entered in favor of the defendant and that this case be dismissed and stricken from the docket.”
“The plaintiffs Motion to Remand and Request for Reasonable Attorney’s Fees [EOF No. 6] is GRANTED in part and DENIED in part. Specifically, the court GRANTS the plaintiffs request to remand this case and DENIES the plaintiffs request for attorney’s fees.”
“For the reasons stated above, the defendant’s Rule 12(b)(6) Motion to Dismiss is GRANTED and the defendant’s Rule 12(b)(2) Motion to Dismiss for Lack of Personal Jurisdiction is DENIED as moot.”
“For the reasons explained above, BSC’s Motion for Partial Summary Judgment on Plaintiffs’ Punitive Damages Claims [Docket 263] is DENIED and Ms. Wilson’s Motion for Leave to Amend the Complaint [Docket 167] is DENIED.”
Caseload & timing
From public federal docket records for this judge.
- The sampled caseload includes police excessive-force and municipal-liability suits, USERRA military-reemployment claims, and a range of prisoner civil-rights, Social Security, insurance, and consumer-credit matters typical of this judge's civil docket.
- A third sampled case (Reese v. Hannah) also had two summary-judgment motions still pending when the parties settled and the case was dismissed with prejudice, so those motions were never ruled on and are not recorded as dispositions here.
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