In re Novak
United States Court of Appeals for the Eleventh Circuit
932 F.2d 1397 (1991)
- Written by Haley Gintis, JD
Facts
In 1989 Vickie Roberts sued the law firm of David Hammock for malpractice in the United States District Court for the Southern District of Georgia. Pursuant to Federal Rule of Civil Procedure 16, the judge conducted pretrial conferences. Roberts’s counsel attended the conferences on her behalf. Clay Ratterree, who was an employee at Continental Casualty Company (the insurance company), with whom Hammock had a malpractice-insurance policy, attended the conferences on his behalf. At the pretrial conference, Ratterree proposed a settlement offer of $150,000 based on the insurance company’s instructions. Roberts’s counsel rejected the offer. Ratterree informed the judge that he lacked the authority to propose a different settlement agreement. Upon the judge’s request, Ratterree informed the judge that Roger Novak (contemnor) was the employee with full settlement authority for the case. The district judge scheduled another pretrial conference and issued a court order mandating that Novak appear. Novak did not comply and was charged with criminal contempt. Novak appealed the charge.
Rule of Law
Issue
Holding and Reasoning (Tjoflat, C.J.)
What to do next…
Here's why 832,000 law students have relied on our case briefs:
- Written by law professors and practitioners, not other law students. 46,500 briefs, keyed to 994 casebooks. Top-notch customer support.
- The right amount of information, includes the facts, issues, rule of law, holding and reasoning, and any concurrences and dissents.
- Access in your classes, works on your mobile and tablet. Massive library of related video lessons and high quality multiple-choice questions.
- Easy to use, uniform format for every case brief. Written in plain English, not in legalese. Our briefs summarize and simplify; they don’t just repeat the court’s language.
