Garcia v. Monroig

204 F.R.D. 26, 2001 U.S. Dist. LEXIS 17960, 2001 WL 1355944
CourtDistrict Court, D. Puerto Rico
DecidedOctober 15, 2001
DocketNo. 97-2639(JP)
StatusPublished
Cited by6 cases

This text of 204 F.R.D. 26 (Garcia v. Monroig) is published on Counsel Stack Legal Research, covering District Court, D. Puerto Rico primary law. Counsel Stack provides free access to over 12 million legal documents including statutes, case law, regulations, and constitutions.

Bluebook
Garcia v. Monroig, 204 F.R.D. 26, 2001 U.S. Dist. LEXIS 17960, 2001 WL 1355944 (prd 2001).

Opinion

OPINION AND ORDER

PIERAS, Senior District Judge.

I. INTRODUCTION

The Court has before it Defendants’ “Motion to Restate Our Objection to Severance of Actions” (docket No. 185), which was filed on Friday, October 12, 2001 less than one-hour before the start of the day’s jury trial in this case. The Court took notice of the motion at the start of trial and read for the record the Court’s October 12, 2001 Order which reaffirmed its decision to sever the trial pursuant to its October 11, 2001 Order (docket No. 184) and stated that a more formal order would follow. Hereinafter is a more formal and in-depth Opinion and Order on this matter.

II. PROCEDURAL BACKGROUND

Plaintiffs, some 80 past and 2 current employees of the Municipality of Adjuntas, who are members of the New Progressive Party in Puerto Rico (“NPP”) filed this action on November 12, 1997 alleging that Defendants the Honorable Roberto Vera Monroig — May- or of Adjuntas (“Vera”), Irma M. González Delgado — Personnel Director of the Municipality of Adjuntas, and the Municipality of Adjuntas discriminated against them because of their political affiliation with the NPP after Mayor Vera, a member of the Popular Democratic Party (“PDP”), was elected in November of 1996 and assumed office on January 14, 1997. Plaintiffs fall into two general groups (1) Thirty-three Plaintiffs who allege that the Defendants harassed them and unjustly discharged them from their positions with the Municipality on account of their political affiliation, and (2) Forty-nine Plaintiffs who only allege that they were discharged from their employment with the Municipality of Adjuntas on account of their political affiliation. Plaintiffs allege that Mayor Vega employed members of the [28]*28PDP in substitution of the dismissed Plaintiffs. Plaintiffs’ claims are based on the First, Fifth, and Fourteenth Amendments of the United States Constitution, 42 U.S.C. Section 1983 and Puerto Rico law.

Defendants deny that they politically harassed Plaintiffs and that they dismissed Plaintiffs as a result of political discrimination. Defendants’ theory is that Plaintiffs were dismissed as a result of a legitimate “Layoff Plan” implemented to confront the Municipality’s financial crisis found by the new administration. The Municipality alleges that they followed all applicable laws and regulations in the implementation of the layoff plan and that it was based exclusively on seniority, in an objective and non-diserimina-tory manner. The lay-off plan affected 102 employees. Of those, 82 are Plaintiffs in this case, who are members of the NPP. Defendants also allege that no political harassment ever took place and that any alleged transfer, demotion, or other adverse working conditions were due to the overstaffing conditions in many departments and the illegal use of the municipal human resources. They contend that they have not infringed any legal provisions.

Pursuant to the undersigned judge’s case management system,1 an Initial Scheduling Conference (“ISC”) was held on March 13, 1998. At the ISC, the Court set 1) the deadlines for discovery, 2) the dates for the filing of dispositive motions, and 3) the dates for Pre-Trial and Trial. On November 23, 1998, the Court issued an extensive Opinion and Order on Defendants’ Motion for Summary Judgment claiming absolute and qualified immunity, a lack of sufficient evidence to hold the Municipal Defendant liable, and that Plaintiffs failed to provide sufficient evidence of discrimination based on political affiliation. This Court denied Defendant’s summary judgment motion, and Defendants appealed. Thereafter, on February 17, 2000, the First Circuit affirmed the Court’s denial of summary judgment and dismissed the appeal. See Acevedo-Garcia v. Vera-Monroig, 204 F.3d 1 (1st Cir.2000). On November 20, 2000, the undersigned held a further scheduling conference with the parties. At said conference, the Court set additional dates for depositions and reset the dates for Pre-Trial and Trial.

On June 25, 2001, the Court met with the parties for a Pre-Trial Conference. During the conference, the Court determined, and the parties agreed, that the jury trial originally scheduled for July 9, 2001 should be postponed. In order to better understand the issues in this case, and better evaluate the claims of the 82 Plaintiffs, the Court suggested, and the attorneys for the Plaintiffs and Defendants agreed that the Court sever the Pretrial Conference, and instead hold four separate further Pre-trial conferences wherein the causes of action of twenty (20) Plaintiffs per conference would be discussed. In order to flush-out the issues related to these Plaintiffs, and in order to avoid any confusion between the Court and the parties as to the claims of these Plaintiffs, the Court ordered that the parties file four (4) separate sets of informative motions i) detailing their theory of the case, ii) identifying the witnesses that they would use for each Plaintiff, and iii) identifying the documentary evidence that they would use for each Plaintiff.

On the October 10, 2001, the day before trial, the Court met with the parties to further discuss the logistics of presenting this case with its 82 Plaintiffs to a jury. The main concern for the Court was jury confusion in their understanding of the case and each claim, and case management in order to achieve a fair and impartial trial for all liti[29]*29gants. Given the fact that 82 Plaintiffs were scheduled to testify over at least a three-month period, the Court believed that no one jury would able to deal with evidence pertaining to 82 Plaintiffs in such a manner as to render a fair and impartial verdict at the end of trial. To be sure, this daunting number posed a problem for the Court and the parties during the pre-trial conference stage of case management. Four separate pre-trial conferences were needed in order for the Court and the parties to adequately review each Plaintiffs cause of action.

In order to alleviate the logistical problem of trying this case, the Court provided the parties with the following suggestion during the October 10th meeting:

One jury trial would be held. Plaintiffs’ attorney would select around 10 Plaintiffs and Defendants’ attorneys would select around 10 Plaintiffs for a total of around 20 Plaintiffs. The trial would proceed as usual, and the jury would return a verdict on liability and damages at the end of trial. If the jury returned a verdict for Defendants as to liability, it would apply to all 82 plaintiffs— and the entire case against Defendants would be dismissed. However, if the jury returned a verdict for Plaintiffs as to liability, the ease would then proceed on the issue of damages as to the remaining Plaintiffs. The parties were assured that each would have the opportunity to present all necessary evidence.

Attorneys for Plaintiffs agreed to this suggestion. However, Attorneys for Defendants disagreed, and cited strategic reasons for wanting to have one long trial in which the claims of all 82 Plaintiffs would be heard. Defendants argued their point despite the fact that a jury verdict finding no liability at the end of the 20 Plaintiffs trial would be considered by this Court and the parties as a finding of no liability as applied to all 82 Plaintiffs, thereby dismissing this action.

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Cite This Page — Counsel Stack

Bluebook (online)
204 F.R.D. 26, 2001 U.S. Dist. LEXIS 17960, 2001 WL 1355944, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/garcia-v-monroig-prd-2001.