I was reading some cases on Westlaw recently when I noticed a relatively new description in the West summary: “Affirmed but criticized.” I came across it when reading Whitlock v. Brown, 596 F.3d 406 (7th Cir. 2010), for which West summarized the holding as follows:
Holdings: The Court of Appeals Sykes, Circuit Judge, held that:
(1) conservation officer’s self-serving deposition testimony was admissible on motion for summary judgment, and
(2) conservation officer was entitled to qualified immunity.
Affirmed but criticized.
A quick Westlaw search suggests that this has been used in West summaries in nine cases — all since 2007 — in which the appellate court agreed with the result of the trial court decision but disagreed as to the rationale.
I gather this will be of zero interest to readers who are not Westlaw nerds. But then I know there are a good number of Westlaw nerds among the readership, so this post is for them.