Marques v. Federal Reserve Bank Of Chicago

286 F.3d 1014 (7th Cir. 2002)

Facts

Ps brought suit against the Federal (Ds) plus the shareholders of the federal reserve bank. Ps claim to be the agents for the owners of $25 billion in bearer bonds that the bank had issued back in 1934 in exchange for 1665 metric tons of gold. Ps seek an order against Ds to redeem the bonds for face value plus simple interest at 4 percent since 1934 (although the bonds matured in 1965); the total amount of money they are seeking is thus close to $ 100 billion. The response to the suit was swift. There is no record of any such bond issue. The Department of Justice has declined to prosecute the persons involved in the fraud because no one could possibly be deceived by such obvious nonsense. Ps then moved for voluntary dismissal under 41(a)(1). On the same day, Ds filed a 12(b)(6) motion. It has not been established whose motion was filed first. Ds motion was converted to a summary judgment motion. It was granted. The court said it did not matter which was motion was filed first as they were filed on the same day. The court denied Ps motion to vacate. P moved under 60(b), and it was denied. P appealed.