Pell v. E.I. Dupont De Nemours & Co.

231 F.R.D. 186, 63 Fed. R. Serv. 3d 222, 2005 U.S. Dist. LEXIS 22504, 2005 WL 2439169
CourtDistrict Court, D. Delaware
DecidedOctober 4, 2005
DocketCiv.A. No. 02-21KAJ
StatusPublished
Cited by6 cases

This text of 231 F.R.D. 186 (Pell v. E.I. Dupont De Nemours & Co.) is published on Counsel Stack Legal Research, covering District Court, D. Delaware primary law. Counsel Stack provides free access to over 12 million legal documents including statutes, case law, regulations, and constitutions.

Bluebook
Pell v. E.I. Dupont De Nemours & Co., 231 F.R.D. 186, 63 Fed. R. Serv. 3d 222, 2005 U.S. Dist. LEXIS 22504, 2005 WL 2439169 (D. Del. 2005).

Opinion

MEMORANDUM OPINION

JORDAN, District Judge.

I. INTRODUCTION & BACKGROUND1

Presently before me is a Motion for Reconsideration (Docket Item [“D.I.”] 137; the “Motion”) filed by plaintiffs Melvin Pell, a retired employee of DuPont, and Ellen Pell, his wife (collectively, “Plaintiffs”) pursuant to Federal Rule of Civil Procedure 59(e). Plaintiffs’ Motion comes in response to my December 8, 2004 Opinion, in which I granted summary judgment for defendants E.I. du Pont de Nemours & Co. Inc. and the Board of Benefits and Pensions of E.I. du Pont de Nemours & Co. Inc. (“the Board”) (collectively “DuPont”) after finding that “[t]he evidence of record simply does not support Mr. Pell’s assertion that he relied on the January 13, 1984 letter from Consol in making the decision to transfer to DuPont.” (D.I. 136 at 12.) This finding was based on Mr. Pell's deposition testimony regarding when he signed the documents transferring his employment to DuPont. (Id. (citing D.I. 133 at B19, Dep. Melvyn Pell, July 20, 2004, at 72:23-24).) Based on the arguments presented in the summary judgment memoran-da, his testimony appeared to be subject to only one reasonable interpretation: that he changed employment status before receiving the January 13, 1984 letter (the “Letter”). (See id.) Thus, I found that Mr. Pell had received only an oral representation of his future benefits, which was insufficient as a matter of law to modify an ERISA benefit plan. See, e.g., Hozier v. Midwest Fasteners, Inc., 908 F.2d 1155, 1164 (3d Cir.1990). I therefore held that Plaintiffs did not have sufficient evidence to establish that Dupont should be equitably estopped from calculating Mr. Pell’s pension based on a later start date. (D.I. 136 at 12-18.) Additionally, I held that Plaintiffs could not prove a breach of fiduciary duty because they could not establish that they relied to their detriment on a representation of future benefits. (Id.)

Based on additional evidence highlighted by the Plaintiffs, their Motion will be granted. Because the Motion will be granted, Defendants’ Motion to Strike the Report and Preclude the Testimony of Plaintiffs’ Proposed Expert Witness (D.I. 105; the “Motion [188]*188to Strike and Preclude”) will also be addressed herein.

II. STANDARD OF REVIEW

A. Motion for Reconsideration

Motions for reconsideration are to correct manifest errors of law or fact or to present newly discovered evidence. Seawright v. Carroll, No. 02-1258-KAJ, 2004 WL 396310, at *1 (D.Del. Mar. 2, 2004) (citing Harsco Corp. v. Zlotnicki, 779 F.2d 906, 909 (3d Cir.1985)). “A motion for reconsideration is not appropriate to reargue issues that the court has already considered and denied.” Id. (internal citation omitted). A court may grant a motion for reconsideration “if the moving party shows: (1) an intervening change in the controlling law; (2) the availability of new evidence that was not available when the court issued its order; or (3) the need to correct a manifest injustice.” Id. (citing Max’s Seafood Cafe v. Quinteros, 176 F.3d 669, 677 (3d Cir.1999)).

B. Motion to Exclude Testimony

Motions to exclude evidence are committed to the court’s discretion. See In re Paoli R.R. Yard PCB Litig., 35 F.3d 717, 749 (3d Cir.1994) (on a motion to exclude proffered expert testimony, the trial court’s inquiry is a flexible one, and its decision to admit or exclude expert testimony is reviewed under an “abuse of discretion” standard) (internal citations omitted). “[W]hen the district court’s exclusionary evidentiary rulings with respect to scientific opinion testimony will result in a summary or directed judgment,” the Court of Appeals will give those rulings “a ‘hard look’ to determine if a district court has abused its discretion in excluding evidence as unreliable.” Id. at 750.

III. DISCUSSION

Plaintiffs argue that the issue of whether Mr. Pell agreed to become a DuPont employee before receiving the Letter was not specifically raised in DuPont’s Motion for Summary Judgment (D.I. 116), and thus, “Plaintiffs were, to an extent, deprived of an opportunity to fully research, brief and answer the arguments raised by the Court.” (D.I. 137 at 1.)

First, Plaintiffs assert that there is more than one way to interpret Mr. Pell’s deposition testimony. Specifically, Plaintiffs say that when Mr. Pell stated, “[t]hat was at the end of ’83,” he was referring to when he became a DuPont employee, not when he signed the documents to transfer. (D.I. 137 at 4; D.I. 140 at 5.) Thus, Plaintiffs claim, with reasonable inferences drawn in then-favor, as the summary judgment standard of review requires, Mr. Pell’s testimony should be sufficient to create a genuine issue of material fact as to whether Mr. Pell reasonably relied upon the Letter. (D.I. 137 at 4-8.) Second, Plaintiffs argue that they were entitled to rely on the pension “estimates” received by Mr. Pell during his employment with DuPont because they “estimated” the “value of his monthly pension benefit,” not “the underlying data” of the numbers of years used to calculate his pension. (See id. at 9.) Plaintiffs assert that the testimony of Ms. Uhde, supports their argument as well. (D.I. 137 at 9-10.) Finally, Plaintiffs assert that DuPont breached its fiduciary obligation by failing “to provide full and accurate data when requested.” (Id. at 10-11.) Plaintiffs argue that “[t]he continued misrepresentations clearly stopped Mr. Pell in 1984, 1991, 1992, and 1998 from making informed decisions based on vested rights.” (Id. at 11.)

In response, DuPont argues that my ruling is “amply supported” by the record and was based on arguments clearly presented in the briefing on its motion for summary judgment. (D.I. 139 at 3.) DuPont asserts that Plaintiffs’ argument regarding the Letter is “surprising” because Plaintiffs sought to rely upon the Letter in their Opposition brief. (Id.) Thus, DuPont argues that if Plaintiffs had believed that DuPont’s Reply Brief raised a new issue on which they needed to present argument, “they should have brought it to the Court’s attention at that time.” (Id. at 3 4.) Second, although DuPont does not take issue with Plaintiffs’ characterization of the “estimates,” as estimating the value of the monthly pension benefit, not the underlying data of the number of years used to calculate Mr. Pell’s pension (D.I. 139 at 6-8), [189]*189DuPont does attack the Plaintiffs’ use of Ms. Uhde testimony as “allegedly newly-discovered evidence,” arguing that it “should have ... [been brought] to the court’s attention immediately,” instead of “after receiving an unfavorable ruling----” (Id. at 7.) Third, DuPont argues that Maiuro v. Federal Express Corp., 843 F.Supp. 935 (D.N.J.1994), “did not involve or discuss fiduciary duties or appropriate remedies for breach of fiduciary duties,” and therefore does not support Plaintiffs’ assertion that DuPont breached a fiduciary duty. (Id.

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231 F.R.D. 186, 63 Fed. R. Serv. 3d 222, 2005 U.S. Dist. LEXIS 22504, 2005 WL 2439169, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/pell-v-ei-dupont-de-nemours-co-ded-2005.