Mason Tenders District Council Welfare Fund, et al. v. Malcolm Patrick Corp.

Background

On September 23, 2025, the plaintiffs moved to compel Malcolm Patrick Corp. ("MPC") to respond to outstanding requests for the production of documents and interrogatories, which are written questions requiring responses. The plaintiffs also asked to extend the fact-discovery deadline from September 30, 2025, to November 28, 2025. The motion was filed one week before fact discovery was scheduled to close. The plaintiffs stated that MPC had not produced any documents in response to their discovery requests. MPC did not dispute that it had failed to respond on time.

Court’s Rulings

The court granted the plaintiffs’ motion to compel responses to the outstanding document requests and interrogatories. MPC was ordered to provide its responses, including all responsive documents, by October 14, 2025.

The court granted in part and denied in part the parties’ request to extend the discovery period. Discovery would remain open for the limited purpose of requiring MPC to provide the responses and documents ordered by the court. The request for a broader extension of the discovery deadline was otherwise denied.

Reasoning

The court noted that the case-management plan stated that the parties should not anticipate extensions of the fact-discovery deadline. At an earlier pretrial conference, the court had also said that the case deadlines were firm and that discovery disputes had to be raised promptly. The plaintiffs waited two months to bring MPC’s failure to respond to the court. Although the parties had tried to resolve the dispute through alternative dispute resolution, the court had explained that settlement discussions would proceed separately from the discovery schedule. The court concluded that the plaintiffs had not shown good cause for the requested broader extension. The clerk was directed to terminate ECF No. 16.