United States Ninth Circuit

In the context of an appeal which the parties agreed was moot because the underlying dispute was resolved in other litigation, a judgment dismissing plaintiffs' lawsuit involving California's ethical standards for commercial arbitrators is vacated as "happenstance," and not the parties' own actions, rendered the appeal moot. The exception to appellants' equitable entitlement to vacatur identified in US Bancorp Mortgage Co. v. Bonner Mall P'ship, 513 U.S. 18, 26 (1994), for settlements should not apply to judgments mooted by court decisions in other cases.

Appellate Information

• Decided 05/30/2007
• Published 05/30/2007

Judges

• CLIFTON, Circuit Judge., Before:  JOHN T. NOONAN and RICHARD R. CLIFTON, Circuit Judges, and GEORGE P. SCHIAVELLI, District Judge.

Court

• United States Ninth Circuit

Counsel

• For Appellant:
  
• Douglas W. Henkin, Milbank, Tweed, Hadley & McCloy LLP, New York, NY;  Mark A. Perry (argued), William M. Jay, Gibson, Dunn & Crutcher LLP, Washington, D.C., for the appellants.


• For Appellees:
  
• Mitchell C. Tilner, David S. Ettinger (argued), Horvitz & Levy LLP, Encino, CA;  Mary Maloney Roberts, Judicial Council of California, Administrative Office of the Courts, San Francisco, CA, for the appellees.