Odermatt v. The Mount Sinai Hospital

Background

The court was considering the defendants’ motion for summary judgment, which asks the court to decide a case or claim without a trial when the required facts are not genuinely disputed. The plaintiff submitted three letters. Two requested permission to file a sur-reply to the defendants’ reply memorandum supporting their motion. A sur-reply is an additional written response after a reply brief. The third letter sought to clarify an argument from the plaintiff’s opposition brief in light of arguments made by the defendants in their reply.

Court’s reasoning

The court stated that sur-replies are not expressly permitted by Local Rule 6.1(b) or by the court’s Individual Rules. It also noted that courts in the Southern District of New York often accept sur-replies from plaintiffs without lawyers to provide the special consideration given to such litigants. Based on that practice, the court accepted the plaintiff’s third letter as a sur-reply and said it would consider that letter with her summary-judgment papers.

Ruling

Judge Jennifer L. Rochon granted the plaintiff’s two requests for permission to file a sur-reply. The plaintiff was permitted to submit one further sur-reply, limited to eight pages, by Monday, October 6, 2025. The order addressed only the plaintiff’s additional briefing and did not decide the defendants’ summary-judgment motion.