Murray v. The Dutchess County Department of Public Works
- Philip Halpern
- 7:17-cv-09121
- U.S. District Court · Southern District of New York
- 3
In Murray v. Dutchess County Executive Branch, Judge Halpern denied Murray’s late amendment motion but extended discovery deadlines.
Nelson A. Murray and the defendants named in the case were affected: the court denied Murray’s request to file a Second Amended Complaint and extended the parties’ discovery deadlines.
What happened
In Nelson A. Murray v. Dutchess County Executive Branch, et al., Murray asked to file a second amended complaint after missing the court’s deadline for seeking amendments. The court treated his request to hold a pre-motion conference as the motion itself.
The court said Murray had to show a good reason for missing the deadline under the rule governing case schedules. It found that he had not shown good cause for another extension. The court also considered the parties’ reports that they were seriously pursuing mediation and settlement.
Judge Philip M. Halpern denied the motion to amend. The court granted the parties one final extension to complete discovery, setting August 31, 2021, for fact discovery and November 1, 2021, for expert discovery, and scheduled a telephonic final case-management conference for November 3, 2021.
The detailed version
- Murray v. The Dutchess County Department of Public Works · No. 7:17-cv-09121
- Philip Halpern
- June 2, 2021
Background
The court held a pre-motion conference about Murray’s anticipated motion to file a Second Amended Complaint and the parties’ request to extend discovery deadlines. The court construed Murray’s pre-motion request as the motion to amend.
Murray filed the original complaint on November 21,
- After earlier filings were rejected as deficient, he properly filed a First Amended Complaint on October 26,
- On September 25, 2019, Judge Karas issued an Opinion and Order dismissing the First Amended Complaint in part and granting Murray leave to file a Second Amended Complaint within 30 days. Judge Karas later granted an extension permitting that filing by January 23,
- Murray did not file the Second Amended Complaint by that date. The case was transferred to Judge Halpern on April 16, 2020, and Murray’s motion for reconsideration was denied on June 18, 2020.
Motion to Amend
The court focused first on the deadline in the Amended Civil Case Discovery Plan and Scheduling Order, which required any motion to amend or join additional parties to be filed by March 16, 2021. Because Murray sought to amend after that deadline, Federal Rule of Civil Procedure 16(b)(4) required him to show good cause and obtain the judge’s consent before the schedule could be changed.
The court concluded that Murray had not offered good cause for extending the amendment deadline again. It therefore denied the motion to amend. The court did not reach the parties’ arguments under Federal Rule of Civil Procedure 15 because the missed scheduling deadline was the first obstacle to the request.
Discovery and Scheduling
Based on the parties’ representations about their serious efforts at mediation and settlement, the court granted the parties one final extension to complete discovery. Fact discovery had to be completed by August 31, 2021, and expert discovery had to be completed by November 1, 2021. The court directed the parties to confer informally and in good faith if additional information was needed after fact depositions.
The court scheduled a telephonic Final Case Management Conference for November 3, 2021, and canceled the previously scheduled conference for July 21, 2021.
Read the full 3-page opinion on CourtListener, the free public archive maintained by the Free Law Project.