Amos N. Jones v. Campbell University, et al.

Did the United States Court of Appeals for the Fourth Circuit err in upholding the United States District Court for the Eastern District of North Carolina’s awarding more than $7,000 in fees-and-costs sanctions against Petitioner for his alleged failure to attend a Nov. 9, 2020, deposition when (1) he had timely moved to dismiss his own case very early in the case due to his deteriorating health, (2) did so three weeks prior to opposing counsel’s issuance of notice of the deposition (the first in the case), (3) had notified opposing counsel in writing of his disagreement with staging in-person depositions out of state six months into the global pandemic, (4) had agreed in writing with opposing counsel to suspend discovery pending judicial orders on nearly twenty (20) outstanding motions the judge had failed to decide, and (5) had already been ordered by a federal administrative judge, weeks before moving for voluntary dismissal under Rule 41(a) of the Federal Rules of Civil Procedure, to appear on the same date at the same time at a mediation settlement conference in his representation of a client of the petitioner’s in that client’s case against the U.S. Department of Defense or risk sanction per the terms of that administrative judge’s order (which conference Petitioner attended via Microsoft Teams from his home in D.C. and at which he settled his client’s case over the period in which the later-removed-from-the-case Petitioners’ counsel’s deposition of petitioner was staged)? Did the United States Court of Appeals for the Fourth Circuit err in upholding the United States District !