In re Repetitive Stress Injury Litigation

165 F.R.D. 367, 1996 U.S. Dist. LEXIS 3801
District Court, E.D. New York·Decided March 26, 1996·Published·Cited by 7 cases

Opinion

ORDER

HURLEY, District Judge.

As explained in the Court’s February 23, 1996 Order, counsel for plaintiffs in over forty (40) specified “repetitive stress injury” (“RSI”) cases has submitted a letter to the Court in reference to approximately sixty (60) pending motions by defendants that are based upon the applicable statutes of limitations.1 (See Lannigan’s Feb. 20, 1996 Letter.) * By such correspondence, the plaintiffs grouped defendants’ motions into two categories: (1) those that are directed at the pleadings and request no alternative relief, (see id. at 1-3); and (2) those that are directed at the pleadings and request summary judgment as alternative relief. (See id. at 3-4.)

With regard to such motions, plaintiffs “request leave to withdraw Dr. Pascarelli’s affidavit from consideration ... [or,] [alternatively, ... ask that they be granted leave to supplement their respective opposition papers to include plaintiff-specific support, in evidentiary form, for their claims.” (Id. at 4.) The moving defendants oppose the plaintiffs’ request.2

[371] The Court first considers the plaintiffs’ request to supplement their opposition papers. Then, the Court turns its attention to their request to withdraw Dr. Pascarelli’s affidavit from consideration. As explained below, the Court denies both of these requests by the plaintiffs.

DISCUSSION

I. Plaintiffs’ Request to Supplement Their Responses

The Court begins its discussion with the principle that a party is generally expected to submit, at the time that a motion is filed, all the materials that it wishes the Court to consider. Occasionally, a party may request permission to submit materials after a motion has been fully briefed and submitted, but prior to the Court’s decision on such motion. For example, a party may wish to submit materials that could not, by due diligence, have been obtained earlier. Sometimes, inadvertence is cited as the reason that relevant material was not provided to the Court in a timely fashion. Or, a party may request permission to supplement its submissions if it reasonably relied on the law as it existed at the time of filing, yet a later decision changed such law.

In any event, the decision to permit a party to file supplemental submissions is within the Court’s discretion. See, e.g., 5 Charles A Wright & Arthur R. Miller, Federal Practice and Procedure § 1193, at 50 (1990) (indicating that the court has the discretion to permit a party to amend its motion). As a general proposition, that discretion should be exercised in favor of granting such permission, lest the mechanics of motion practice be elevated over substance.

However, the plaintiffs in the case at bar do not suggest that the materials that they now seek to submit could not, by due diligence, have been obtained earlier. Nor is any claim of excusable neglect advanced in support of the relief requested. Moreover, no specificity is provided as to the type(s) of materials that the plaintiffs seek to submit— instead, they merely request leave “to include plaintiff-specific support, in evidentiary form, for their claims.” (See Lannigan’s Feb. 20, 1996 Letter at 4.)

The plaintiffs suggest that they did not seek to submit such materials earlier because of their reliance on the Court’s decision in Parajecki v. International Business Machs. Corp., 899 F.Supp. 1050 (E.D.N.Y.1995), vacated in part, 165 F.R.D. 20 (E.D.N.Y.1996). Specifically, they maintain that

[i]n responding to motions since the court’s decision in Parajecki, plaintiffs have used the Parajecki decision as a guide. Accordingly, up until this point, the above-described plaintiffs have not sought leave to amend their respective submissions in opposition to pending motions to dismiss or motions to dismiss with an alternative prayer for relief under F.R.C.P. 56. In light of this Court’s decision in Cadet [v. Unisys Corp., No. 93-CV-3174 (E.D.N.Y. Feb. 9, 1996) ], however, the above-described plaintiffs respectfully request leave to withdraw Dr. Pascarelli’s affidavit from consideration in opposition to the various pending motions described above, so that there is no doubt that plaintiffs do not seek to convert these motions to dismiss into summary judgment motions. Alternatively, plaintiffs ask that they be granted leave to supplement their respective opposition papers to include plaintiff-specific support, in evidentiary form, for their claims.

(Lannigan’s Feb. 20,1996 Letter at 4.)

[372] Of the approximately sixty (60) motions at issue,3 about twenty (20) were fully briefed and filed before the Court’s September 22, 1995 decision in Parajecki A careful reading of plaintiffs’ recent correspondence, including the above-quoted passage therefrom, reveals no explanation as to why the plaintiffs did not submit, when those motions were briefed, the materials that they now seek to present to the Court. Rather, they merely claim that due to reliance upon Parajecki they “have not sought leave to amend, their respective submissions in opposition to pending motions to dismiss or motions to dismiss with an alternative prayer for relief under F.R.C.P. 56.” (Lannigan’s Feb. 20, 1996 Letter at 4 (emphasis added).) Thus, at least with regard to one-third of the motions at issue — that is, those fully briefed and submitted prior to the Court’s September 22, 1995 Order in Parajecki — the plaintiffs have failed to proffer any explanation as to why the materials that they now seek to present were not initially submitted.

With regard to the defendants’ motions that were filed after the Court’s initial Order in Parajecki plaintiffs’ counsel does not state that because of reliance on that decision, they failed to submit the “plaintiff-specific” materials that they now seek to present to the Court. They do, however, claim that “[i]n responding to motions since the Court’s decision in Parajecki plaintiffs have used the Parajecki decision as a guide.” (Lannigan’s Feb. 20, 1996 Letter at 4.) Further, plaintiffs’ counsel represents to the Court that “plaintiffs have never considered the motions at issue as motions for summary judgment.” (Lannigan’s Mar. 1,1996 Letter at 2.)

The Court assumes, arguendo, that plaintiffs’ counsel is suggesting, by such statements, that because of Parajecki they reasonably assumed that the Court would not convert any motion by an RSI defendant, which was directed at the pleadings, into a summary judgment motion, and that they responded accordingly. However, an examination of the papers submitted by plaintiffs’ counsel in response to post-Parajecki motions undermines any such claim of reasonable reliance.

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In re Repetitive Stress Injury Litigation, 165 F.R.D. 367, 1996 U.S. Dist. LEXIS 3801 (E.D.N.Y. 1996).

165 F.R.D. 367 (In re Repetitive Stress Injury Litigation) — published by Counsel Stack Legal Research, free access to 12M+ legal documents.

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