Raymond Yowell v. James Connelley

MEMORANDUM

Federal Defendants-Appellants Robert Abbey, Helen Hankins, and the Department of the Treasury-Financial Management Services (“Treasury-FMS”) appeal from the district court’s order enjoining the Bureau of Land Management (“BLM”) from enforcing Plaintiff-Appellee Raymond Yowell’s grazing debt, and from the district court’s orders denying their motions to dismiss and for reconsideration. State Defendants-Appellants James Connelley and Dennis Journigan appeal the district court’s denial of their motion for summary judgment. We have jurisdiction pursuant to 28 U.S.C. § 1292 (a)(1) and § 1291 (under the collateral order doctrine). See Mitchell v. Forsyth, 472 U.S, 511, 530, 105 S.Ct. 2806 , 86 L.Ed.2d 411 (1985). We reverse.

1. The district court abused its discretion in requiring BLM to withdraw its certification of Yowell’s debt to Treasury-FMS. A court abuses its discretion where it fails to identify or apply the correct legal rule, where its failure to make findings of fact and conclusions of law preclude a full understanding of the court’s decision, or where its application of the correct legal standard is illogical, implausible, or without support. Pimentel v.…