Gerard Louis Goettel
Appointed by President Gerald Ford in 1976 and confirmed by voice vote, Gerard Louis Goettel was a Judge on the U.S. District Court for the Southern District of New York. He earned a law degree from Columbia Law School in 1955. Rulings & record ↓ Sources ↓
- Lived
- 1928–2011
- Appointed by
- Gerald Ford, 1976
- Confirmed
- by voice vote
- Education
- Duke 1950 · Columbia Law School 1955
- Succeeded
- Arnold Bauman
- Succeeded by
- Lewis A. Kaplan
Federal judicial service
| Year | Court | Appointed by | Vote |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1976 | Southern District of New York succeeded Arnold Bauman | Ford (R) | Voice vote |
Party letters show the appointing president’s party, not the judge’s own. A voice vote means the chamber approved aloud. No senator-by-senator tally is recorded.
Confirmation vote
Voice vote
The Senate approved this confirmation aloud, with no senator-by-senator tally recorded. Recorded roll-call votes begin in 1989.
Education
| Duke University | B.A. | 1950 |
| Columbia Law School | J.D. | 1955 |
Judicial Record
Caseload & case types
In our data, Goettel was assigned 891 district-court cases (1981–2001). Median time from filing to termination: 288 days across 891 closed cases.
Case assignment is from CourtListener’s PACER-derived docket records: a partial sample, not a complete caseload, reflecting the judge last assigned each case. How we count.
In our data, Goettel authored 384 published opinions for the court (1976–1998). Most cited: Blesedell v. Mobil Oil Co. (86 citations).
A selective record from published opinions in the CourtListener corpus, not every ruling; most unpublished district orders are not included. Counts and rankings are objective and recomputable: how we count. We describe the record, not the judge.
Recent & notable rulings
| Year | Case | Citation | Cited |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1989 | Blesedell v. Mobil Oil Co. | 708 F. Supp. 1408 | 86 |
| 1988 | Trans World Airlines, Inc. v. Texaco, Inc. (In Re Texaco, Inc.) | 92 B.R. 38 | 86 |
| 1979 | Pollock v. Castrovinci | 476 F. Supp. 606 | 85 |
| 1985 | Nordic Bank PLC v. Trend Group, Ltd. | 619 F. Supp. 542 | 79 |
| 1978 | National American Corp. v. Federal Republic of Nigeria | 448 F. Supp. 622 | 78 |
| 1984 | Reingold v. Deloitte Haskins & Sells | 599 F. Supp. 1241 | 65 |
| 1985 | Lumbard v. Maglia, Inc. | 621 F. Supp. 1529 | 64 |
| 1985 | Lombard-Wall Inc. v. New York City Housing Development Corp. (In Re Lombard-Wall Inc.) | 48 B.R. 986 | 64 |
| 1986 | Long Island Lighting Co. v. Transamerica Delaval, Inc. | 646 F. Supp. 1442 | 63 |
| 1980 | Grand Hudson Corp. v. GSVC Restaurant Corp. (In Re GSVC Restaurant Corp.) | 10 B.R. 300 | 62 |
| 1991 | Peters v. Hennenhoeffer (In Re Peters) | 133 B.R. 291 | 54 |
| 1986 | Atlanta Shipping Corp., Inc. v. Chemical Bank | 631 F. Supp. 335 | 52 |
| 1993 | Gache v. Town of Harrison, NY | 813 F. Supp. 1037 | 49 |
| 1984 | Klein v. Computer Devices, Inc. | 591 F. Supp. 270 | 49 |
| 1986 | Bresson v. Thomson McKinnon Securities, Inc. | 641 F. Supp. 338 | 48 |
Showing the 15 most-cited of 384 authored opinions in our data. “Cited” is inbound citations across the CourtListener corpus. Case links open the ruling’s full text (CourtListener) or its page here; read the methodology and verify against the primary source.
Questions & answers
- Who appointed Gerard Louis Goettel?
- President Gerald Ford appointed Gerard Louis Goettel to the U.S. District Court for the Southern District of New York in 1976.
- Was Gerard Louis Goettel appointed by a Democrat or a Republican?
- Gerard Louis Goettel was appointed by President Gerald Ford, a Republican. JudicialFinder records the appointing president's party, not a judge's own politics.
- What was Gerard Louis Goettel's confirmation vote?
- Gerard Louis Goettel was confirmed by voice vote on March 26, 1976. No senator-by-senator tally was recorded.
- Which court was Gerard Louis Goettel on?
- Gerard Louis Goettel was a Judge on the U.S. District Court for the Southern District of New York.
Sources
Each fact on this page traces to a primary public record.
- FJC Biographical Directory
- Wikidata
- CourtListener bulk data (Free Law Project): authored opinions & citation counts
How we source & reconcile data → Data & Sources
See something wrong? Report an error. Fixes are logged in the corrections log.
35 years on the U.S. District Court for the Southern District of New York. Data as of 2026-08-10. Informational only; verify against the primary source before relying. Not a consumer report (FCRA).