Bamforth v. Facebook, Inc.

Background

This trademark and copyright infringement case was brought by Andrew Bamforth against Facebook, Inc., Mark Zuckerberg, and other defendants. On September 10, 2021, the court granted Facebook and Zuckerberg’s motion to dismiss Bamforth’s First Amended Complaint with prejudice and entered judgment for Facebook that day. Bamforth then filed a notice of appeal and a motion seeking relief from the judgment under Federal Rule of Civil Procedure 60(b).

Jurisdiction to Decide the Motion

The court explained that filing a notice of appeal ordinarily transfers authority over the appealed issues to the court of appeals. But that transfer does not take effect when a Rule 60 motion is pending and was filed within 28 days after judgment. Because Bamforth filed his motion exactly 28 days after judgment, the district court retained authority to decide it.

Rule 60(b) Standard

Rule 60(b) permits relief from a final judgment only under narrow circumstances, including mistake or excusable neglect, newly discovered evidence, fraud or misconduct, a void judgment, satisfaction or reversal of the judgment, or another reason justifying relief. The court stated that motions under Rule 60(b) are decided within the district court’s discretion.

Ruling

The court denied Bamforth’s motion without prejudice. Although he cited Rule 60(b), the court found that his brief did not address any of the rule’s six specific grounds. His arguments that the court had misunderstood his allegations and misapplied the more forgiving pleading standards for people without lawyers were instead a direct challenge to the earlier dismissal order. The court said that challenge was not appropriate under Rule 60 and was more appropriately addressed on appeal.

The court stated that Bamforth could file a new Rule 60(b) motion within 30 days of the order, provided that the new motion addressed Rule 60(b)’s narrow grounds for relief.