Background
Richard J. Forbes filed a complaint under Section nineteen hundred eighty-three of Title forty-two of the United States Code in the District Court for the District of Maryland. The district court dismissed the complaint and entered a final order on August twenty-ninth, two thousand and twenty-five. Forbes filed a memorandum opinion response on September seventeenth, two thousand and twenty-five, asking the court to reconsider the dismissal. The district court returned the motion unfiled because the underlying case was closed. Forbes then filed his notice of appeal.
The court’s reasoning
The court analyzed Federal Rule of Appellate Procedure four point A one point A and Rule four point A four point A. The rules state that when a party files a motion to alter or amend judgment under Rule fifty-nine within twenty-eight days of the final order, the time to file an appeal runs from the entry of the order disposing of that motion. The court found that Forbes filed his motion within the twenty-eight-day window. The court concluded that the district court erred by failing to docket the timely filed motion.
What it means going forward
The case is sent back to the district court to docket and consider the motion to alter or amend judgment. The court expressed no opinion on the ultimate disposition of the underlying civil rights claims.