United States v. Yalincak
Defendant appealed two rulings by the district court vacating its order dated December 26, 2007, which had granted him more than $1.1 million in credits towards his restitution obligations pursuant to the Mandatory Victims Restitution Act (MVRA), 18 U.S.C. 3664(j)(2). The district court, recognizing nearly eight years after the fact that its December 2007 order had been prematurely entered, vacated the order sua sponte, drawing on its "inherent power to correct mistakes made in its handling of a case" and "power to grant relief from erroneous interlocutory orders." The court concluded that appeal of an 18 U.S.C. 3664(j)(2) order need not wait until a defendant's restitution obligations are fully satisfied and may be brought where the order conclusively determines a defendant's entitlement to credit under section 3664(j)(2) for particular funds. In this case, because the December 2007 order conclusively determined defendant's entitlement to particular funds recovered in two bankruptcy proceedings and was thus a final order, the district court lacked the authority to later vacate that order. Accordingly, the court vacated in part and remanded for further proceedings. View "United States v. Yalincak" on Justia Law