After 14 years on the bench at the District Court of the Virgin Islands, the Honorable Ruth Miller is ready to step down. With a few months left to go before hanging up her gavel, the federal magistrate judge serving on St. Thomas spoke about the career path that led her to the small courtroom in the Ron de Lugo Federal Building in Charlotte Amalie.
Source: How many years have you served as a magistrate judge in District Court?
RM: I was appointed in April 2010, so next month will be 14 years. I was sworn in on my birthday, so it’s easy for me to remember the date.
Source: April what, 2010?
RM: 26th.
Source: Have you actually retired now and you’re just finishing up?
RM: No. My official retirement date will be July 25th.
Source: And so, in your entire legal career, that puts you at how long?
RM: I think 41 years; I graduated law school in 1983, so I guess that’s 41 years. That just seems sort of long for me (laughs).
Source: Were you a magistrate judge before you came to the Virgin Islands?
RM: No. I was in practice in Chicago at a large firm; I was a partner at a firm called Mayer, Brown & Platt. Now, it’s called Mayer Brown. I decided that I’d had enough of that — I did that for about 10, 11 years, and I moved down here in ‘93, so I’ve been down here awhile.
I was here for a few months and then took the bar exam the following February — maybe ‘94 — so I became barred down here then. And then I was in private practice in a small firm with another person, by myself, and then I went to what was then Dudley Topper and then the bench. So, I’ve done a lot of different types of practice.
Source: Is Dudley Topper the biggest law firm in the Virgin Islands?
RM: I expect it is now. It’s now Dudley Newman, but they merged with a firm on St. Croix. But I think it is the biggest.
Source: So, over these years — 14 years — how have you seen the duties of the magistrate judge change?
RM: I would say that the level of responsibility has become greater as the litigating community trusts what the judge does. For example, when litigants have confidence in a magistrate judge’s ability, they can consent to have the magistrate judge try the case. So, I have done trials just as a district judge would but a magistrate judge can do that when there is consent of the parties in civil matters.
And similarly, they decide dispositive motions on consent of the parties. But on the civil side is where the majority of my experience is. I think a lot of litigants have come to trust me in those cases, particularly with things having to do with admiralty because I have a very strong boating background, and so they tend to consent in admiralty cases. But I’ve got a variety of things where I’ve been the presiding judge over the years.
Source: So, you do a lot of bench trials — civil bench?
R.M.: Civil bench — I’ll be doing a civil jury trial in a month or two; I’ve got a jury trial — a personal injury case.
Source: What about traffic court?
R.M.: Well (laughs), our version of traffic court is the National Parklands. So, yes, we do have traffic court in federal court which is pretty funny. We have parking matters, and glass on the beach, and dogs on the beach and stuff like that, that comes over from the national park. I have that call once a month.
And usually people don’t contest those; many people just pay, but I get some trials — some interesting little trials in those cases.
Source: They’re kind of out of the ordinary …
R.M. Yeah. I didn’t even know when I came on the bench that we cover those kinds of things. Some judges — some magistrate judges — that’s their primary docket. For example, I’ve got a colleague in Yosemite. Her stuff is all national park stuff, so that’s kind of interesting.
Source: When you said that, I thought of Yellowstone; it must have been one of the big, big parks.
R.M.: She actually sits in Yosemite.
Source: Oh! The court is in Yosemite?
R.M.: Yeah.
Source: How do you like that? Wow.
R.M.: Not right now (laughs)… it’s snowing.
Source: So, what you’re saying is there used to be a courthouse in the boundaries of Yosemite National Park where they took care of things that have to be considered by the court on national parkland, but they don’t have it anymore?
R.M.: No, she’s still there. It’s just that right now it’s snowing like, a foot in that area. So, I would not want to be here sitting there right now.
Source: Now, admiralty cases — when you said that, I thought about some of the cases involving failure to heave. Those come up regularly.
R.M.: That is actually a criminal charge.
Source: Yes, it is.
R.M.: But when I’m talking about admiralty, I’m talking about civil admiralty cases. So, it could be, for example, a personal injury that takes place on navigable waters, or a property damage case. We’ve had some damage cases involving damage to marinas by vessels during the hurricanes — that kind of thing. That’s admiralty jurisdiction, so that’s more civil.
Source: So if you pull your boat out of the boat slip and you bang into something that’s admiralty — the equivalent of traffic court?
R.M.: Eh… it might be. The definitions surrounding admiralty cases focus on being in the water affecting commerce in navigable water.
Source: I learned something new; thank you very much for that. Tell me about your most memorable cases — things that have come through your courtroom that you could never forget.
R.M.: (Pauses) I’m not sure that I’d feel comfortable doing that.
Source: Not a problem …
R.M.: I would just say that I’ve had some startling days when I first began. One of my early days on the court I had eight or nine defendants come into my court in a day, and they were all major drug cases or political cases or something … they were all heavy duty there I was — a rookie trying to juggle all of that. Those things sort of stick in my mind over the years.
Editor’s Note: In part two of the interview with U.S. Magistrate Judge Ruth Miller, we hear her thoughts on the future at the end of a career on the federal bench in the Virgin Islands.
