Dimmitt v. Ockenfels

220 F.R.D. 116, 2004 U.S. Dist. LEXIS 3662, 2004 WL 438314
District Court, D. Maine·Decided March 9, 2004·No. No. 03-170-P-DMC·Published·Cited by 10 cases

Opinion

MEMORANDUM DECISION ON MOTIONS FOR SUMMARY JUDGMENT, TO DISMISS, FOR SANCTIONS AND TO STRIKE1

DAVID M. COHEN, United States Magistrate Judge.

Presently before the court are two motions for summary judgment, one filed by defendants Alfred Oekenfels, John Bagley, Matthew Lindahl and the City of Rockland (“Rockland defendants”) and one filed by defendants Daniel L. Davey, Richard Robbins and Knox County (“Knox defendants”);2 the plaintiffs motion to dismiss his claims against the Knox defendants; a motion for sanctions filed by the Knox defendants; and a motion to strike portions of the plaintiffs statement of material facts filed by the Rock-land defendants. I deny the motion to dismiss, grant the motions for summary judgment; grant the motion to strike in part; and deny the motion for sanctions.

I. Motion to Dismiss

The Knox defendants filed a motion for summary judgment on all claims asserted against them in this action on December 10, 2003. Docket. The plaintiff did not file any opposition to this motion, but did file a motion to dismiss his claims against the Knox defendants, Motion to Dismiss Complaint Against Knox County, Daniel Davey, and Richard Robbins (“Motion to Dismiss”) (Docket No. 18), on December 29, 2003, Docket. In that motion the plaintiff states that he “would not object to the Court’s granting of’ the Knox defendants’ motion for summary judgment. Motion to Dismiss at [2], In response, the Knox defendants ask the court to enter summary judgment in their favor rather than granting the motion to dismiss, so that they may seek attorney fees and costs pursuant to 42 U.S.C. § 1988 as prevailing parties. Defendant Knox County, Daniel Davey and Richard Robbins’ Response to Plaintiffs Motion to Dismiss Complaint (Docket No. 21) at 2. I agree that, under the circumstances, granting the motion for summary judgment, for the reasons set forth below, is the better course. The motion to dismiss is denied.

II. The Motion to Strike

In response to the motion for summary judgment filed by the Rockland defendants, the plaintiff filed a memorandum of law in opposition to the motion and a document entitled “Plaintiffs Statement of Material Facts Not in Dispute.” The latter document does not respond to the statement of material facts submitted by the Rockland defendants in support of their motion and can only be characterized as the separate statement of additional facts contemplated by this court’s Local Rule 56(c) which may accompany a response to each of the paragraphs of a moving party’s statement of material facts. The Rockland defendants ask this court to strike all of the paragraphs in this additional statement that have the effect of controverting paragraphs in their statement of material facts, which must by the terms of Local Rule 56(e) be deemed to have been admitted, insofar as they are properly supported by citations to the summary judgment record, due to the plaintiffs failure to respond to them directly, Defendants’ Motion to Strike Portions of Plaintiffs Statement of [119]*119Material Facts Not in Dispute, etc. (“Motion to Strike”) (Docket No. 22) at 2. The Rock-land defendants also object to the plaintiffs use of the transcript of a trial in state court as the source for some of the assertions in his statement of material facts rather than the affidavits of the individuals, not parties to the current action, who testified in that proceeding. Id. at 2-4. They also contend that certain paragraphs of the plaintiffs statement of material facts are based on his deposition testimony which they characterize as “entirely inconsistent with” his testimony at the same trial and other paragraphs which they characterize as an attempt by the plaintiff to offer expert testimony. Id. at 5-7.

The plaintiffs response to the first of these arguments, Plaintiffs Answer to Defendants’ Motion to Strike, etc. (“Strike Opposition”) (Docket No. 26), echoes his motion to allow him to file his response to the defendants’ statement of material facts late, which I have denied. Docket No. 35. It would make that denial an empty exercise if I were now to allow the plaintiff to rely on entries in his statement of additional facts that contradict those material facts which he must be deemed to have admitted. Accordingly, the following paragraphs of the plaintiffs statement of material facts (Docket No. 20) must be stricken:3 17, first sentence only (21, 23, 30-33); 18 (21, 23); 19 (33, 35, 43, 48, 52-53); 20, only the phrases “that Peter never entered onto the property of Oceanside/Lower Deck” and “[h]e also observed Peter to be limp and not moving” (21, 23, 33); 22(24); 23 (24, 26-34); 24(33); 30(33).

With the exception of paragraph 31 of his statement of material facts, the plaintiff has cured the problem with his citation to testimony at a separate trial by submitting the affidavits of Matthew Dimmitt (Docket No. 36) and Jill Schvartz (Docket No. 37) in accordance with the terms of my order dated February 5, 2004 (Docket No. 35). Both affiants attest that their testimony as reported in the trial transcript was in fact true. Affidavit of Matthew Dimmitt 112; Affidavit of Jill Schvartz 112. The Rockland defendants have objected to these affidavits “[t]o the extent these affidavits are cited as support for Paragraphs 20-25 of Plaintiffs Statement of Additional Facts” because, they assert, those paragraphs “clearly are filed ‘in reply to’ Defendants’ facts that are already deemed admitted as true.” Defendants’ Objection to Affidavits of Matthew Dimmitt and Jill Schvartz (Docket No. 38) at 2.1 have already determined that only portions of paragraph 20 and paragraphs 22-24 of the plaintiffs statement can reasonably be characterized as controverting paragraphs of the Rockland defendants’ statement of material facts that must be deemed admitted, and the addition of the affidavits to the record does not change that conclusion. Since I have concluded that the remainder of paragraph 20 of the plaintiffs statement, as well as paragraphs 21 and 25 of that document, do not contradict any of the paragraphs of the Rockland defendants’ statement of material facts, the objection on that basis is moot. Paragraph 31, on the other hand, presents what is clearly hearsay, trial testimony of Donald Saastamoinen, and will be stricken on that basis.

The Rockland defendants specify paragraphs 17 and 18 of the plaintiffs statement of additional facts as “entirely inconsistent with Plaintiffs prior testimony under oath at his criminal trial.” Motion to Strike at 5. The plaintiff responds that the paragraphs are in fact consistent with his prior testimony. Strike Opposition at 4-5. I have already stricken the first sentence and last phrase in paragraph 17 and all of paragraph 18 for the reasons given above. The second sentence of paragraph 17, up to the word “but” is not contradicted by the cited trial testimony and therefore will not be stricken.

Finally, the Rockland defendants attack paragraph 44 of the plaintiffs statement of additional facts as presenting “expert opinions regarding medical diagnoses and causation of medical conditions” which he is not competent to offer. Motion to Strike at 6. The plaintiff responds that he “is certainly allowed to comment upon his subjective corn-[120]*120plaints which he believes result from the incident which is the basis of this Complaint,” Strike Opposition at 5, without citation to authority.

Free access — add to your briefcase to read the full text and ask questions with AI

Dimmitt v. Ockenfels, 220 F.R.D. 116, 2004 U.S. Dist. LEXIS 3662, 2004 WL 438314 (D. Me. 2004).

220 F.R.D. 116 (Dimmitt v. Ockenfels) — published by Counsel Stack Legal Research, free access to 12M+ legal documents.

Related

Brown v. Dickey
117 F.4th 1 (First Circuit, 2024)
Ayotte v. Barnhart
973 F. Supp. 2d 70 (D. Maine, 2013)
Jackson v. Town of Waldoboro
751 F. Supp. 2d 263 (D. Maine, 2010)
Estate of Bennett v. Wainwright
548 F.3d 155 (First Circuit, 2008)
Berube v. Conley
506 F.3d 79 (First Circuit, 2007)
Smith v. Jackson
463 F. Supp. 2d 72 (D. Maine, 2006)