Straub
After voluntary class decertification in Perez’s action against AC Roosevelt Food Corp. for overtime wages, settlement was reached on June 1, 2012. Approving settlement on Aug. 13, district court ordered the clerk of court to “close the case.” On Nov. 8—after defendants failed to pay—Perez sought to reopen the case and to have judgment entered. His motion was granted Nov. 19, and judgment entered Jan. 7, 2013. Defendants’ challenge to the court’s Aug. 13, 2012, grant of attorney fees to Perez was dismissed as untimely under Federal Rule of Appellate Procedure 4. Because no “separate document” is required for “an order disposing of a motion…for attorney’s fees under Rule 54″ the attorney fee order was entered, for Rule 4 purposes, when “entered in the civil docket” on Aug. 13, 2012. The 30 days provided for by Rule 4(a)(1)(A) within which to seek appeal had expired long before Defendants’ Feb. 6, 2013, notice of appeal. Discussing FTC v. Minneapolis-Honeywell Regulator and Cody Inc. v. Town of Woodbury, the panel rejected defendants’ argument that the 30-day period should be measured from Jan. 7, 2013. The Jan. 7 and Aug. 13 orders were not identical. Thus entry of the Jan. 7, 2013, judgment did not reset defendants’ time to appeal.
