Nancy S Berent v. City of Surprise, et al.

CourtDistrict Court, D. Arizona
DecidedApril 14, 2026
Docket2:25-cv-02870
StatusUnknown

This text of Nancy S Berent v. City of Surprise, et al. (Nancy S Berent v. City of Surprise, et al.) is published on Counsel Stack Legal Research, covering District Court, D. Arizona primary law. Counsel Stack provides free access to over 12 million legal documents including statutes, case law, regulations, and constitutions.

Bluebook
Nancy S Berent v. City of Surprise, et al., (D. Ariz. 2026).

Opinion

1 WO 2 3 4 5 6 IN THE UNITED STATES DISTRICT COURT 7 FOR THE DISTRICT OF ARIZONA

9 Nancy S Berent, No. CV-25-02870-PHX-MTL

10 Plaintiff, ORDER

11 v.

12 City of Surprise, et al.,

13 Defendants. 14 15 Pending before the Court are Plaintiff’s Motion for Reconsideration (Doc. 40) and 16 Plaintiff’s Amended Complaint (Doc. 41). 17 I. MOTION FOR RECONSIDERATION 18 A. Background 19 Plaintiff filed a Motion for Reconsideration (Doc. 40), moving the Court to 20 reconsider and vacate its prior Order (Doc. 39). On December 5, 2025, the Court dismissed 21 Plaintiff’s Complaint (Doc. 1) pursuant to 28 U.S.C. § 1915(e)(2). (Doc. 33.) On December 22 15, 2025, the Court struck numerous notices filed by Plaintiff and extended the deadline 23 for Plaintiff to file her Amended Complaint (Doc. 39.) On January 14, 2026, Plaintiff filed 24 a Motion for Reconsideration (Doc. 40). The Motion asks the Court to reconsider its Order 25 issued on December 15, 2026. (Id. at 1.) The Motion, however, states that it is challenging 26 the Court’s “[O]rder of Dismissal,” and the Motion challenges the Court’s analysis of her 27 claims. (Id.) The Court will therefore analyze her Motion as asking the Court to reconsider 28 the Court’s Order dismissing her original Complaint (Doc. 33). 1 Plaintiff’s Motion for Reconsideration is untimely. “Absent good cause shown, any 2 motion for reconsideration shall be filed no later than fourteen (14) days after the date of 3 the filing of the Order that is the subject of the motion.” LRCiv 7.2(g). Whether Plaintiff’s 4 Motion is construed as challenging either of the Court’s prior Orders, she filed it more than 5 fourteen days after those Orders issued. The untimeliness of her Motion is grounds for its 6 denial, but for the benefit of Plaintiff, the Court will consider her Motion as if it were timely 7 filed. 8 B. Legal Standard 9 Motions for reconsideration are denied “absent a showing of manifest error or a 10 showing of new facts or legal authority that could not have been brought to its attention 11 earlier with reasonable diligence.” LRCiv 7.2(g). Motions for reconsideration should be 12 granted in only rare circumstances, Lerner & Rowe PC v. Brown Engstrand & Shelly LLC, 13 684 F. Supp. 3d 953, 955 (D. Ariz. 2023), and they should not be used to present evidence 14 for the first time when the evidence could have been raised earlier. Kona Enters., Inc. v. 15 Est. of Bishop, 229 F.3d 877, 890 (9th Cir. 2000). 16 C. Discussion 17 Plaintiff moves to vacate the order dismissing her original Complaint based on 18 “newly discovered evidence,” “manifest errors of law in the prior Order,” and 19 “extraordinary circumstances.” (Doc. 40 at 1-2.) The Court will deny the motion (Doc. 40). 20 1. New Facts 21 Plaintiff makes no showing that the new facts she raises were previously 22 undiscoverable through the exercise of reasonable diligence. The first piece of evidence is 23 an April 26, 2017, email from former City Attorney Robert Wingo sent to the Surprise 24 Police Chief, Fire Chief, and City Manager stating, “Please do not respond further to this 25 individual unless it goes through legal. She retained attorney’s and filed a Notice of Claim 26 last year and it is imperative that we not take some action… which would extend or waive 27 the statute of limitations in the matter.” (Doc. 40 at 4 (emphasis in original).) Plaintiff 28 maintains only that the “email chain [was] previously withheld from Plaintiff and this 1 Court” and that it was “actively suppressed.” (Id. at 4, 8.) Plaintiff does not provide the 2 Court with a copy of the email or the date that she discovered the email. Because Plaintiff 3 has not shown that the email “was newly discovered or unknown to it” and that the moving 4 party “could not with reasonable diligence have discovered and produced such evidence,” 5 the Court finds that the evidence is not a basis for reconsideration of its prior order. Wyle 6 Prof’l Corp. v. Texaco, Inc., 764 F.2d 604, 609 (9th Cir. 1985); see LRCiv 7.2(g). 7 The second set of facts Plaintiff raises is alleged misconduct relating to an 8 arbitration hearing that took place in December 2022. (Doc. 40 at 5.) Again, Plaintiff 9 provides almost no explanation as to how this information was previously undiscoverable. 10 She relies on her statement that this information was “actively suppressed. (Id. at 8.) Her 11 only elaboration is that documents showing clerical errors made by the Maricopa County 12 Clerk’s Office were “withheld . . . for over three years, releasing them in July 2025—after 13 this federal case was dismissed.” (Id. at 5-6.) But Plaintiff filed her complaint in August 14 2025, one month after she claims the documents were released to her. (Doc. 1.) Since 15 Plaintiff does not adequately explain why the evidence was undiscoverable prior to filing 16 this action, the Court finds that Plaintiff has failed to show that these facts are new, so they 17 are not a basis for reconsideration. See Wyle, 764 F.2d at 609. 18 Plaintiff alleges that a third piece of evidence, the Maricopa County Sheriff’s 19 Office’s Internal Affairs Report, is being unlawfully withheld. (Doc. 40 at 6.) A motion for 20 reconsideration is an inappropriate vehicle to obtain facts from the Maricopa County 21 Sheriff’s Office. Compare LRCiv 7.2(g) with Fed. R. Civ. P. 26, 45. Rather, Plaintiff must 22 show the Court new facts or legal authority pursuant to Local Rule of Civil Procedure 23 7.2(g). She has not done so here. 24 The final new fact raised by Plaintiff is that her homeowner’s association 25 management company sent a letter, “[w]ithin days of this Court’s dismissal,” that “cited a 26 paint color that had been explicitly approved by the previous HOA management.” (Doc. 40 27 at 7.) If Plaintiff believes she is entitled to relief based on events that occurred after the 28 ruling, the appropriate course was to include that in her Amended Complaint (Doc. 41). 1 See Hess v. Centurion Healthcare, No. CV-22-01864-PHX-SPL, 2024 WL 4329673, at *2 2 (D. Ariz. Sept. 12, 2024) (finding that “arguments that events that occurred after [the 3 motion at issue] entitle [plaintiff] to reconsideration . . . are improper” because “the proper 4 recourse was to file a new Motion”). The management company’s alleged conduct is not a 5 basis for reconsideration. The Court therefore finds that Plaintiff presents no new facts 6 entitling her to the Court’s reconsideration of its order dismissing the Complaint (Doc. 1). 7 2. Manifest Error 8 Plaintiff argues that the Court’s prior order contains manifest errors of law. (Doc. 40 9 at 9-11.) Plaintiff asserts that the Court failed to take into account certain legal standards 10 that govern her claims. (Id.) But those legal standards were not the basis of the Court’s 11 prior order. Rather, the Court’s dismissal of Plaintiff’s Complaint was based on Federal 12 Rule of Civil Procedure 8(a)(2), which requires a party to provide fair notice of the claims 13 against each Defendant with requisite specificity. (Doc. 33 at 6-9.) See Riehle v. Bank of 14 Am., N.A., No. CV-12-0051-PHX-NVW, 2013 WL 1694442, at *2 (D. Ariz. Apr. 18, 15 2013). The Court dismissed Defendants that were judicial officers and non-jural entities. 16 (Doc. 33 at 6-7.) With respect to the remaining Defendants, the Court determined that 17 Plaintiff “d[id] not raise particular enough allegations as to any of them.” (Id. at 7-8.) 18 Plaintiff does not mention Rule of Civil Procedure 8(a)(2), so she has not shown 19 that the Court has committed a “manifest error” in its interpretation or application of the 20 law that the challenged ruling was based on.

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Nancy S Berent v. City of Surprise, et al., Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/nancy-s-berent-v-city-of-surprise-et-al-azd-2026.