Opinion
21-7308
02-01-2022
CLEON ELROY DILLARD, a/k/a Cleon Elroy Dillard, Sr., Plaintiff-Appellant, v. LT. SMITH, Martinsville City Jail Correctional Officer, Defendant-Appellee.
Cleon Dillard, Appellant Pro Se. Joseph Anthony Piasta, JOHNSON AYERS & MATTHEWS, PLC, Roanoke, Virginia, for Appellee.
UNPUBLISHED
Submitted: January 27, 2022
Appeal from the United States District Court for the Western District of Virginia, at Roanoke. Thomas T. Cullen, District Judge. (7:20-cv-00151-TTC-RSB)
Cleon Dillard, Appellant Pro Se.
Joseph Anthony Piasta, JOHNSON AYERS & MATTHEWS, PLC, Roanoke, Virginia, for Appellee.
Before MOTZ and WYNN, Circuit Judges, and SHEDD, Senior Circuit Judge.
Affirmed by unpublished per curiam opinion.
Unpublished opinions are not binding precedent in this circuit.
PER CURIAM
Cleon Elroy Dillard appeals from the district court's order entered upon the jury's verdict finding in favor of the defendant on Dillard's 42 U.S.C. § 1983 action alleging excessive force following his arrest for public intoxication. Dillard claims on appeal that the evidence did not support the jury's verdict. However, Dillard failed to file a Fed.R.Civ.P. 50 motion for judgment as a matter of law after entry of the jury's verdict. "Absent such a motion, . . . an appellate court is powerless to review the sufficiency of the evidence after trial." Ortiz v. Jordan, 562 U.S. 180, 189 (2011) (internal quotation marks omitted). See Belk, Inc. v. Meyer Corp., 679 F.3d 146, 154-60 (4th Cir. 2012) (explaining that postverdict motion challenging sufficiency of evidence supporting jury's verdict is necessary to preserve issue for appeal).
Accordingly, we affirm the judgment of the district court. We deny Dillard's motions to seal, to quash oral argument, for summary disposition, and to quash false allegation in response brief. We dispense with oral argument because the facts and legal contentions are adequately presented in the materials before this court and argument would not aid the decisional process.
AFFIRMED