Sundby v. Marquee Funding Group, Inc.
- Proceeding
- district
- Area
- civil
- On appeal
- Sundby v. Sundby (2025-06-30) — affirmed — the Ninth Circuit's later ruling on this docket
- Panel
- Gonzalo P. Curiel (author)
Analysis
The court received a mandate from the Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals vacating a prior judgment and remanding the case because the plaintiff, acting as trustee, could not represent the trust pro se. The court ordered the trust to obtain legal representation by January 13, 2023, and scheduled a hearing for January 20, 2023, to spread the mandate and schedule further proceedings.
| What the court decided | The model |
|---|---|
Mandating legal representation for the trust“That legal representation be obtained on behalf of the Dale H. Sundby and Edith Littlefield Sundby, Trust No. 1989-1 dated January 26, 1989. A notice of appearance shall be made on or before Friday, January 13, 2023.” | agree with court The district court is implementing the specific directive of the Ninth Circuit, which vacated the judgment and remanded the case 'to afford the trust an opportunity to obtain legal representation.' The order correctly enforces the appellate mandate. |
Scheduling a hearing to spread the mandate and schedule further proceedings“A hearing is scheduled for Friday, January 20, 2023 at 1:30 PM in Courtroom 2D to spread the mandate and to schedule a hearing on the issues raised by the Ninth Circuit.” | agree with court Scheduling a hearing to spread the mandate and determine next steps is a standard procedural mechanism for district courts to manage cases remanded from an appellate court. |
The order itself: sound — The order is a procedural implementation of a binding appellate mandate. It correctly identifies the holding of the Ninth Circuit and issues orders consistent with the remand instructions. There are no gaps or questionable reasoning because the court is not making independent legal determinations but rather enforcing the appellate court's directive.
Opinion
1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 UNITED STATES DISTRICT COURT 9 SOUTHERN DISTRICT OF CALIFORNIA 10 11 DALE SUNDBY, Trustee, Case No.: 19-cv-00390-GPC-AHG 12 Plaintiff, ORDER: 13 v. (1) MANDATING LEGAL REPRESENTATION FOR TRUST; 14 MARQUEE FUNDING GROUP, INC., et AND al., 15 (2) SETTING HEARING DATE Defendants. 16 [ECF 305] 17 18 In April 2021 the Court issued a judgment and order granting Mr. Sundby’s motions 19 for statutory damages and denying Mr. Sundby’s motion for relief from summary 20 judgment. (ECF 264.) Mr. Sundby appealed, (see ECF 267), and the Defendants cross- 21 appealed, (see ECF 274), to the United States Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit. See 22 Sundby v. Marquee Funding Grp., Inc., Nos. 21-55504 & 55582, 2022 WL 4826445 (9th 23 Cir. Oct. 3, 2022). 24 Addressing an argument not raised before the Court, the Ninth Circuit held that Mr. 25 “Sundby, in his capacity as trustee,” could not represent the trust pro se. Id. at *1; see C.E. 26 Pope Equity Trust v. United States, 818 F.2d 696, 697-98 (9th Cir. 1987) (explaining why 27 1 ||a person may represent self in litigation, but status as trustee does not include “right to 2 || present arguments pro se in federal court”). The Ninth Circuit vacated the judgment and 3 ||remanded the case back to the Court “to afford the trust an opportunity to obtain legal 4 || representation and to develop facts to determine in the first instance whether Sundby is the 5 || beneficial owner of the trust or whether the trust transferred any interests to Sundby.” /d. 6 *1. 7 The Court HEREBY ORDERS the following: 8 1. That legal representation be obtained on behalf of the Dale H. Sundby and Edith 9 Littlefield Sundby, Trust No. 1989-1 dated January 26, 1989. A notice of appearance 10 shall be made on or before Friday, January 13, 2023. 1] 2. A hearing is scheduled for Friday, January 20, 2023 at 1:30 PM in Courtroom 12 2D to spread the mandate and to schedule a hearing on the issues raised by the Ninth 13 Circuit. 14 15 | IS SO ORDERED. 16 || Dated: December 15, 2022 <= 18 United States District Judge 19 20 21 22 23 24 25 26 27 28 19-cv-00390-GPC-AHG