Patrick F. Kelly
Judge Kelly no longer hears cases. This profile is preserved as a historical record of how they ruled.
How Judge Kelly decides
Patterns drawn from this judge's own signed orders. Every observation links to the order it came from.
What persuades
Kelly treated contemporaneous incident reports as discoverable facts rather than privileged peer-review conclusions.
“The incident reports themselves are merely statements of fact. As such, they serve an important role in the discovery process.”
He focused choice-of-law analysis on where the harmful exposure occurred rather than where a latent disease was later discovered.
“The salient consideration here is that exposure to all of the defendants’ products occurred in Texas.”
Procedural preferences
He construed statutory exclusions from employee protection narrowly.
“Congress intended the exclusions from employee status to be narrowly construed.”
He ended further discovery when it would not affect the legal conclusion already supported by the record.
“The court finds that additional discovery is neither required nor beneficial.”
Cautions
He was willing to relax a service deadline where a pro se litigant may have relied on court personnel and the defendant showed no prejudice.
“the equitable considerations in a case such as this outweigh a strict application of the Federal Rules.”
He rejected efforts to convert a state-law malpractice dispute into a federal emergency-treatment claim.
“Claims regarding diagnosis and treatment lie in the area of medical malpractice, an area traditionally regulated by state law.”
Signed rulings
A grounded sample of orders signed by this judge, with the verbatim dispositive language.
“plaintiff’s motion to alter or amend judgment is granted in part and denied in part.”
“defendant Home Insurance Company’s motion for partial summary judgment (Dkt. No. 47) is hereby granted.”
“Plaintiff Glickman’s motion to compel (Dkt. No. 45) is hereby denied.”
“defendant’s motion for a protective order is denied.”
“the government’s motion to quash subpoena and to vacate order to show cause (Dkt. No. 13) is hereby granted.”
“defendants’ motion for summary judgment as to the individual liability of defendants Cameron, Gragg, Scott, Hentzen and Witsman is granted; and defendants’ motion for summary judgment on plaintiff’s Title VII claim is denied.”
“defendant James Charles’ motion to quash the indictment against him be denied.”
“the defendant’s motion to dismiss is hereby denied.”
“the motion for summary judgment of Eidson, Lewis (Dkt. No. 88) is hereby denied”
“the motion for partial summary judgment of Sandra Sutton (Dkt. No. 93) is hereby granted.”
“defendant’s motion to dismiss is granted”
“plaintiff's motion for approval of ratification is denied.”
“the plaintiffs motion for determination of law (Dkt. No. 92) is hereby granted.”
“counsel for Wyeth moved the court for a stay pending its appeal from my order overruling their trial motions. This motion is also overruled.”
Caseload & timing
From public federal docket records for this judge.
Median case duration in the sampled dockets: 1741.5 days (N = 20).
The 20 located assigned cases filed from 1982 through 1988 were all terminated and are not a career-wide caseload measure.
A historical record
Judge Kelly no longer hears cases. This profile stays available as a record of how they ruled. If you're preparing for a matter, start from the court's current bench.