Hayden v. International Business Machines Corporation

Background

The defendants moved for reconsideration of the court’s August 18, 2022, order. That earlier order denied their request for a pre-motion conference in anticipation of a motion for summary judgment. A pre-motion conference is a conference that must occur before a party files certain motions, when required by the court’s procedures.

Court’s analysis

The court said its earlier order required the parties to complete all discovery before either party could request a pre-motion conference for summary judgment. The court clarified that “all discovery” means both fact discovery and expert discovery. It cited Federal Rule of Civil Procedure 56(b), which generally permits a summary-judgment motion until 30 days after discovery closes unless a different schedule applies, and recognized the court’s broad authority to manage its docket.

The defendants did not show that the earlier order contained clear error or caused manifest injustice. The court rejected the defendants’ assertion that it had arbitrarily refused a timely summary-judgment motion. It said it had reviewed the defendants’ pre-motion letter, Gerald Hayden’s response, and the parties’ other discovery-related submissions before deciding that efficiency favored waiting until discovery was complete. The court also rejected the argument that it had cut off communication with the parties, noting that the defendants had already asked to file a summary-judgment motion before fact discovery ended and had been unsuccessful.

Disposition

The court denied the defendants’ motion for reconsideration. It did not change the earlier scheduling requirement: neither party could request a pre-motion conference for summary judgment until all fact and expert discovery had closed. The Clerk was directed to terminate the motion identified as Document 58.

Judge

Judge Vincent L. Briccetti issued and signed the order on September 13, 2022.