MITCHELL v. TILLETT (2018)

MEMORANDUM ***

Matthew Mitchell appeals the district court’s dismissal of his petition to vacate an arbitral decision penalizing him for a rules violation during the 34th America’s Cup. We have jurisdiction under 28 U.S.C. § 1291.

Because it is not possible for us “to grant ‘any effectual relief whatever’ ” to Mitchell, this case is moot. Knox v. Serv. Emps. Int’l Union, Local 1000, 567 U.S. 298, 307, 132 S.Ct. 2277, 183 L.Ed.2d 281 (2012) (quoting Erie v. Pap’s A.M., 529 U.S. 277, 287, 120 S.Ct. 1382, 146 L.Ed.2d 265 (2000)). We are not able to grant Mitchell relief from the arbitral decision precluding him from participating in four races, because all such races were completed by the end of September 2013. Mitchell does not seek damages and any harm to Mitchell’s reputation is “not a sufficient interest to avoid mootness.” Jackson v. Cal. Dep’t of Mental Health, 399 F.3d 1069, 1075 (9th Cir. 2005). Nor would any claim for attorneys’ fees “resuscitate an otherwise moot controversy.” Cammermeyer v. Perry, 97 F.3d 1235, 1238 (9th Cir. 1996).¹

AFFIRMED.

FOOTNOTES

1.   We deny Mitchell’s pending motion for judicial notice of a law review article because “a court may not take judicial notice of a fact that is ‘subject to reasonable dispute’ ” and the law review article is a source whose accuracy may be debated and questioned. Lee v. City of Los Angeles, 250 F.3d 668, 689 (9th Cir. 2001) (quoting Fed. R. Evid. 201(b)).