Nestorovic v. Metro. Water Reclamation Dist. of Greater Chi.
Nestorovic v. Metro. Water Reclamation Dist. of Greater Chi.
Opinion
This case turns on the requirement in
I
In 2015, the Metropolitan Water Reclamation District of Greater Chicago hired Slobodanka Nestorovic as an assistant civil engineer. Nestorovic initially did well in the position, but later lost her job for allegedly poor performance. Nestorovic responded by filing a discrimination charge with the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission. She then received permission to sue and brought sex and disability discrimination claims under Title VII of the Civil Rights Act and the Americans with Disabilities Act against the Water Reclamation District.
The district court dismissed her case on May 16, 2018 for failure to comply with Title VII's filing requirements. Nestorovic then had 30 days to file a notice to appeal-until June 15. See
Instead, on July 13, Nestorovic asked the district court to extend her time to appeal. Section 2107(c) allows such an extension in certain circumstances: "The district court may, upon motion filed not later than 30 days after the expiration of the time otherwise set for bringing appeal, extend the time for appeal upon a showing of excusable neglect or good cause." Rule 4(a)(5)(A) of the Federal Rules of Appellate Procedure implements § 2107(c) and likewise allows the district court to extend the time to file an appeal if a party shows excusable neglect or good cause and moves for the extension no later than 30 days after the appeal deadline has expired.
Nestorovic filed her motion to extend the time to appeal within the 30 days permitted by § 2107(c). Although timely, her motion offered little to explain what excusable neglect or good cause warranted the requested extension. Nestorovic explained only that she was "actively searching for attorneys willing to take the case on contingency" and had been "advised very recently that [prospective] counsel could not file an appeal before reviewing filings to date, which would take several weeks." The district court granted the requested extension of time, saying only that the extension was warranted "in these circumstances." The district court also construed Nestorovic's motion as a notice of appeal.
Nestorovic contends in her jurisdictional statement that her appeal is timely because she received an extension of time from the district court. For its part, the Water Reclamation District filed a brief opposing Nestorovic's appeal on the merits while agreeing that the appeal was timely. After we questioned the completeness of its jurisdictional statement, however, the Water Reclamation District argued for the first time in an amended jurisdictional statement that the appeal must be dismissed because Nestorovic had not shown excusable neglect or good cause to justify the extension of time to appeal.
The question before us, then, is whether the showing of excusable neglect or good cause required under § 2107(c) is jurisdictional, and whether Nestorovic made that showing in the district court.
*430 II
A
In recent years the Supreme Court has undertaken to clarify the meaning of the word "jurisdiction," a term that has been subject to frequent and sometimes imprecise use. See
Steel Co. v. Citizens for a Better Env't
,
In
Bowles v. Russell
,
In holding in
Bowles
that statutory time limits for taking an appeal are jurisdictional, the Court distinguished statutorily-prescribed time limits from other limitations found in court rules: while only Congress may determine a lower federal court's subject-matter jurisdiction, court-adopted procedural rules may be relaxed in the exercise of discretion. See
In
Hamer
, the Court reinforced not only that a provision governing the time to appeal set by Congress qualifies as jurisdictional, but also that failure to comply with such a time prescription "deprives a court of adjudicatory authority over the case, necessitating dismissal-a 'drastic' result."
The Court went further in
Hamer
and explained that claim-processing rules-those not prescribed by Congress-were different.
After Bowles and Hamer , the controlling legal standard is clear: "If a time prescription governing the transfer of adjudicatory authority from one Article III court to another appears in a statute, the limitation is jurisdictional; otherwise, the time specification fits within the claim-processing category." Id. at 20.
*431 B
The application of this framework and
Hamer
in particular to this case is straightforward. The limitation at issue here is set forth in a statute and speaks to the court's adjudicatory authority. Under § 2107(a), a party must file a notice of appeal within 30 days of the entry of the judgment being appealed, "[e]xcept as otherwise provided in this section." Section 2107(c), in turn, allows an extension of time to file a notice of appeal upon "motion filed not later than 30 days after the expiration of the time otherwise set for bringing appeal" and "a showing of excusable neglect or good cause." This limitation comes from the U.S. Code and is jurisdictional. See
Hamer
,
The soundness of our conclusion that a showing of excusable neglect or good cause is jurisdictional finds further support in the Supreme Court's decision just this term in
Fort Bend County v. Davis
, --- U.S. ----,
The requirements of § 2107 not only are statutory but also plainly delineate the circumstances under which a party may seek judicial review in a court of appeals. The section first creates a 30-day period within which a party must appeal and provides that no appeal can be heard if a party misses that deadline, unless the party satisfies an exception expressly provided in the statute.
That the requirements of § 2107(c) are jurisdictional has clear consequences in this case. Most especially, it does not matter that the Water Reclamation District initially did not argue that Nestorovic had failed to show excusable neglect or good cause: § 2107(c) 's requirement of a showing of excusable neglect or good cause is jurisdictional and cannot be waived. See
Bowles
,
C
All that is left for us to determine is whether the district court abused its discretion by concluding that an extension was warranted in these circumstances. Because the record contained no finding or evidence of excusable neglect or good cause for the missed deadline, we conclude that it did.
A court abuses its discretion when the record contains no evidence on which it could have rationally based its decision or
*432
when the decision rests on an erroneous view of the law. See
James v. Eli
,
We will sometimes remand a case for the district court to explain its rationale, but when "the absence of excuse is so total ... that it would be an abuse of discretion for the judge to extend the time for appeal," the proper course is to dismiss the appeal as untimely.
Sherman v. Quinn
,
A party's choice to wait, without more, is not a proper reason for extending the time to appeal. See
Sherman
,
For these reasons, Nestorovic's appeal is DISMISSED.
Reference
- Full Case Name
- Slobodanka NESTOROVIC, Plaintiff-Appellant, v. METROPOLITAN WATER RECLAMATION DISTRICT OF GREATER CHICAGO, Defendant-Appellee.
- Cited By
- 20 cases
- Status
- Published