Ndege v. Skanska USA Building Inc.
- John Koeltl
- 1:22-cv-04420
- U.S. District Court · Southern District of New York
- 6
In Ndege v. Skanska USA Building Inc., Judge Koeltl’s court extended fact discovery and set a deadline for summary-judgment requests.
Samaka Ndege and Skanska USA Building Inc.; the order governs the parties’ fact discovery and procedures for seeking permission to file a summary-judgment motion.
What happened
In Samaka Ndege v. Skanska USA Building Inc., the plaintiff asked the court to require Skanska to provide more documents and information, including records about her termination, visa sponsorship, and possible comparison employees. She also requested more time to complete fact discovery because of unresolved document problems and disputes about the scope of discovery.
Ndege said Skanska had not produced documents about the decision to terminate her or stop renewing her visa. She also said Skanska produced incomplete documents because of a server problem and had not searched certain company phones. Skanska disputed the requested discovery and did not agree to the full extension, according to the letter.
The court extended the fact-discovery period so that it must be completed by February 9, 2024, and required any letter seeking permission to file a summary-judgment motion to be submitted by February 23, 2024. Judge Koeltl is identified in the case information; the order itself was issued through Magistrate Judge Gabriel W. Gorenstein.
The detailed version
- Ndege v. Skanska USA Building Inc. · No. 1:22-cv-04420
- John Koeltl
- Dec. 4, 2023
Background
Samaka Ndege brought an employment-discrimination case against Skanska USA Building Inc. In a November 17, 2023 letter, Ndege asked for a conference about compelling additional discovery and asked to extend the fact-discovery deadline from November 28, 2023, to February 9, 2024.
Ndege sought documents and answers concerning Skanska’s decision to stop sponsoring her work visa, the decision to terminate her, and the termination or furlough of other employees during 2020. She also sought broader information about potential comparison employees. Ndege said a Skanska witness testified that a policy required the nonrenewal of her visa and her termination, but could not recall the policy’s details. She further said Skanska had not produced documents reflecting the policy or the decision-making behind her termination.
Ndege also reported that Skanska had acknowledged that a server problem caused some documents to be produced in altered or incomplete form. She said this problem prevented her from completing depositions. The letter states that Skanska did not consent to the requested extension and would consent only through December 31, 2023.
Court’s action
The court did not state in the provided text that it granted or denied Ndege’s requests to compel the additional discovery. Instead, the order states that an extension of the fact-discovery period was warranted because of the outstanding document-discovery issues discussed at the conference.
The court ordered that all fact discovery be initiated in time to be completed no later than February 9, 2024. It also ordered that any letter to Judge Koeltl seeking permission to make a summary-judgment motion be filed by February 23, 2024. The order stated that the provisions of docket entries 17 and 24 otherwise remained in effect. The order is addressed to Judge Koeltl and was issued by Magistrate Judge Gabriel W. Gorenstein on December 4, 2023.
Read the full 6-page opinion on CourtListener, the free public archive maintained by the Free Law Project.