Thomas Mummert III

Thomas Mummert

Nonpartisan

Prior offices:

United States District Court for the Eastern District of Missouri

Years in office: 1995 - 2016

Education

Bachelor's

University of Dayton

Law

St. Mary's University

Thomas Mummert III was a federal magistrate judge for the United States District Court for the Eastern District of Missouri. He was appointed to the court on February 1, 1995. He retired as a federal magistrate judge in January 2016.

Education

Mummert received his undergraduate degree from the University of Dayton and a J.D. from St. Mary's University School of Law.

Career

Mummert began his legal career in private practice, then became a municipal court judge in St. Louis. In 1984, he was appointed to the Circuit Court, where he served until becoming a magistrate judge.

Noteworthy cases

Red light Cameras in Arnold (2009)

See also: United States District Court for the Eastern District of Missouri (timothy J. Kilper, et al., v. City of Arnold, Missouri, et al., 4:08-cv-00267-TCM)

Judge Mummert on July 23, 2009, dismissed a lawsuit challenging red-light cameras in Arnold, Missouri, a St. Louis suburb. The lawsuit, filed in 2008, accused the city of using an illegal and unconstitutional process for issuing tickets. The judge found no evidence that the city did anything illegal as the tickets issued by the city are a civil matter not a criminal matter.

Canadian attempts 'suicide by fighter jet' (2009)

See also: United States District Court for the Eastern District of Missouri (United States, v. Adam Dylan Leon a/k/a Yavuz Berke, 4:09MJ-6114-TCM)

Mummert presided in the detention hearing of Adam Dylan Leon on April 9, 2009. Leon, a student studying aviation in Canada, stole a plane from his flight school and entered into the U.S. Leon flew erratically across three states before landing the plane on a rural highway near Ellsinore, Missouri. When Leon flew through Madison, Wisconsin it resulted in the Wisconsin State Capitol being evacuated even though the plane was followed by National Guard fighter jets.

The state trooper who arrested him has said Leon hoped to be shot down because he wanted to commit suicide and didn't have the courage to do it himself.

Budweiser disapproves of "Buttwiper" toy (2008)

See also: United States District Court for the Eastern District of Missouri (Anheuser-Busch, Inc., v. VIP Products, LLC, 4:08-cv-0358-TCM)

Mummert was the judge in a 2008 case in which Anheuser-Busch won an injunction against a novelty company that sells a dog squeeze toy called the Buttwiper.

The brewer convinced Judge Mummert that there was credible evidence of customer confusion between its Budweiser beer label and trade dress and the toy manufactured and sold by VIP Products Inc.

Stephen Sacra, VIP's owner, came up with the idea for the product. According to his testimony at a hearing on Anheuser-Busch's motion for injunctive relief, the idea for the Buttwiper toy came from a television commercial in which a dog rubs its bottom across a carpet. Sacra directed a graphic designer to come up with a knock-off of a Budweiser beer label for the toy, Judge Mummert explains in his opinion granting the motion.

In support of its motion Anheuser-Busch presented results of a survey demonstrating that a substantial number of consumers mistakenly believed Anheuser-Busch made or approved of the dog toy.

See also

• Federal magistrate judge

External links

• Judge Mummert's Webpage at the Eastern District of Missouri Site
• The Bar Association of Metropolitan St. Louis, Federal Judges' Roundtable, May 13, 2010

See also

• United States District Court for the Eastern District of Missouri
• United States Court of Appeals for the 8th Circuit