Hall v. Protoons Inc.

Background

Plaintiffs Orville Hall and Phillip Price, professionally known as “The Showboys,” sued Protoons Inc. The opinion states that Plaintiffs obtained summary judgment on August 22, 2024, and that fact discovery had closed on March 11, 2022. Protoons later filed objections to the proposed judgment and moved for reconsideration. Protoons also sought permission to submit additional material concerning a February 24, 2025 email.

Parties’ Positions

Plaintiffs asked the Court to reconsider an earlier order that allowed Protoons to file a supplemental submission. They argued that adding new material was not authorized by Rule 15(d) of the Federal Rules of Civil Procedure, which concerns adding later events to a pleading. Plaintiffs also argued that Protoons’s proposed submission was futile and would prejudice them because the case had already undergone discovery and summary judgment proceedings.

Plaintiffs further argued that the proposed material did not cure the deficiency the Court had previously identified: Protoons had not provided non-speculative evidence that “Drag Rap” violated or infringed a third party’s rights in a way that breached the parties’ agreement. The opinion presents these arguments as Plaintiffs’ positions; it does not state that the Court accepted them.

Ruling

The Court denied Plaintiffs’ motion for reconsideration. It stated that allowing Protoons to supplement the record would not prejudice Plaintiffs because they would have an opportunity to respond. The Court therefore directed Protoons to file, by March 21, 2025, a supplemental submission of no more than five pages explaining the relevance of the email attached to its motion. Plaintiffs may file a response of no more than five pages by March 28, 2025. The Court prohibited further briefing without permission.

This order addressed whether Protoons could make a limited supplemental submission and did not decide the underlying contractual dispute anew. The order was signed by Judge Analisa Torres.