Mecea v. IBT Media Inc.
- Jesse Furman
- 1:23-cv-08880
- U.S. District Court · Southern District of New York
- 6
In Mecea v. IBT Media Inc., Judge Furman denied as moot Mecea’s default-judgment motion and set case-management deadlines.
Robert Mecea and IBT Media Inc.; the default-judgment motion was denied as moot, and the court established deadlines governing the case.
What happened
In Mecea v. IBT Media Inc., the parties submitted a case-management plan that set deadlines for amendments, initial disclosures, discovery, settlement discussions, and later pretrial steps.
The order set March 14, 2024, for initial disclosures, April 1, 2024, for certain amendment and discovery requests, June 28, 2024, to complete fact discovery, and July 11, 2024, for the next pretrial conference.
Judge Jesse Furman denied the plaintiff’s motion for default judgment as moot because IBT Media Inc. appeared before its opposition deadline, canceled the February 29, 2024, pretrial conference, and directed the Clerk to terminate ECF No. 17.
The detailed version
- Mecea v. IBT Media Inc. · No. 1:23-cv-08880
- Jesse Furman
- Feb. 23, 2024
Nature of the Order
The court entered a Civil Case Management Plan and Scheduling Order submitted by Robert Mecea and IBT Media Inc. under Rule 26(f) of the Federal Rules of Civil Procedure. The order established procedures and deadlines for managing the case; it did not decide the underlying claims.
Scheduling Requirements
The order set April 1, 2024, as the deadline for motions to amend the pleadings or add parties without court permission. Initial disclosures were due March 14,
- Initial document requests and certain interrogatories were due April 1,
- Fact discovery had to be completed by June 28,
- The parties also had to follow specified procedures for depositions, requests to admit, contention interrogatories, discovery disputes, settlement discussions, summary-judgment motions, and preparation of a joint pretrial order.
The next pretrial conference was scheduled for July 11, 2024, at 9:00 a.m., by telephone unless the court ordered otherwise. The parties estimated that trial would last one to two days. The order stated that the deadlines could be modified only by further court order for good cause, except for certain interim discovery deadlines that could be extended by written consent if the fact-discovery deadline remained unchanged.
Default-Judgment Motion and Conference
The opinion states that IBT Media Inc.’s deadline to oppose Robert Mecea’s motion for default judgment was February 21, 2024, but IBT Media Inc. appeared on February 20, 2024. The court therefore denied as moot the motion for default judgment. The court also canceled the initial pretrial conference scheduled for February 29, 2024, and directed the Clerk of Court to terminate ECF No. 17.
Classification
This is a procedural order. The court addressed case management and the effect of the defendant’s appearance on a default-judgment motion, without deciding the merits of the parties’ underlying dispute.
Read the full 6-page opinion on CourtListener, the free public archive maintained by the Free Law Project.