Sinclair Oil Corp. v. Abraham

PAULINE NEWMAN,

Circuit Judge, dissenting.

I respectfully dissent. The panel’s opinion ignores the opinion that is here appealed, Sinclair Oil Corp. v. O’Leary, No. 96-CV-1032-J (D.Wyo. Sept. 5, 2000); instead, the court starts afresh, deciding the case and reversing the judgment while considering only one of the major issues that contributed to the district court’s conclusion. Thus my colleagues on this panel treat the matter as a simple case of private settlement — yet refuse to give effect to the explicit terms of the private settlement agreement.

As the district court discussed in meticulous…