Palisades Estates EOM, LLC v. County of Rockland, New York

Background

Defendants asked the court to amend the briefing schedule for their planned motion to sever and transfer claims. They also asked the court to stay the briefing schedules for the plaintiffs’ motion for a preliminary injunction and the defendants’ motions to dismiss. The defendants proposed addressing severance and transfer first, with the other motions stayed until those issues were decided.

The defendants argued that this sequence would promote judicial economy because severance or transfer could affect whether the court would need to address the preliminary-injunction and dismissal motions for particular defendants. Plaintiffs opposed the request. They argued that changing the schedule would delay their request for immediate relief and would continue the harm they said they were experiencing.

Court’s action

After reviewing the parties’ letters and relevant case law, the court decided to rearrange the briefing schedules so that the three groups of motions—the motion to sever and transfer, the motion for a preliminary injunction, and the motions to dismiss—would all be fully submitted on the same date. The court did not adopt the defendants’ proposed schedule requiring the severance and transfer motions to be decided before briefing on the other motions.

The court directed the parties to meet and confer and jointly propose a schedule producing that result by September 28, 2023. Until the court issued a revised schedule, it temporarily stayed the previously issued deadlines. The court granted in part and denied in part the defendants’ request and directed the Clerk to terminate the motion at ECF No. 298.

What the order did not decide

This was a scheduling order. It did not decide whether the claims should be severed or transferred, whether the plaintiffs were entitled to a preliminary injunction, or whether any claims should be dismissed. Judge Nelson S. Roman’s order addressed only the timing and coordination of briefing on those motions.