PHI Health, LLC v. WFAS, Inc.

District Court, S.D. Texas·Decided September 13, 2021·No. 7:20-cv-00196·Unknown

Opinion

UNITED STATES DISTRICT COURT September 13, 2021 SOUTHERN DISTRICT OF TEXAS Nathan Ochsner, Clerk MCALLEN DIVISION

PHI HEALTH, LLC f/k/a PHI Air Medical, § L.L.C., § § Plaintiff, § § CIVIL ACTION NO. 7:20-cv-00196 VS. § § WFAS, INC. § § Defendant. §

OPINION AND ORDER

The Court now considers Plaintiff PHI Health, LLC f/k/a PHI Air Medical, L.L.C.’s “Motion for Leave to File Motion Under 56(e) to Submit Additional Evidence in Support of Motion for Summary Judgment.”1 Defendant has not filed a response and the time for doing so has passed, rendering Plaintiff’s motion unopposed by operation of this Court’s Local Rule.2 On June 21, 2021, Plaintiff sought favorable summary judgment on its claim against Defendant WFAS, Inc. for breach of contract and on Defendant’s counterclaim for breach of contract.3 The Court granted Plaintiff’s motion only as to the latter, finding that Plaintiff had failed to establish all elements necessary to recover on its breach of contract claim.4 The parties subsequently dismissed the case and all claims,5 and the Court granted dismissal and closed the case.6 Plaintiff and Intervenor then complained that they made a mistake and asked for the case to

1 Dkt. No. 34. 2 LR7.4 (“Failure to [timely] respond to a motion will be taken as a representation of no opposition.”). 3 Dkt. No. 26. 4 Dkt. No. 27. 5 Dkt. No. 29. 6 Dkt. No. 30. be reopened with respect to Plaintiff’s breach of contract claim,7 which the Court granted.8 In the instant motion, Plaintiff again tests the Court’s tolerance for bad lawyering by asking the Court to revisit its July 26th opinion denying Plaintiff favorable summary judgment in light of previously available evidence only now tendered to the Court. The Court turns to the analysis. I. PLAINTIFF’S MOTION FOR LEAVE TO FILE MOTION UNDER RULE 56(E)

First, the Court notes that the dispositive motions deadline has lapsed.9 Plaintiff’s motion may be, and is intended to be, dispositive.10 Therefore, Plaintiff requires the Court’s leave to file a late motion.11 Consistent with Plaintiff’s haphazard approach to its case, Plaintiff does not address this issue. Nevertheless, the Court will treat Plaintiff’s motion for leave to file a motion as a request for an extension of time under Federal Rule of Civil Procedure 6(b). The Court may extend the time to act after a deadline “on motion made after the time has expired if the party failed to act because of excusable neglect.”12 “[D]istrict courts have ‘broad discretion’ to extend filing deadlines.”13 Relevant factors include: “(1) ‘the possibility of prejudice to the other parties,’ (2) ‘the length of the applicant's delay and its impact on the proceeding,’ (3)

‘the reason for the delay and whether it was within the control of the movant,’ and (4) ‘whether the movant has acted in good faith.’”14 “‘[E]xcusable neglect’ under Rule 6(b) is a somewhat ‘elastic concept’ and is not limited strictly to omissions caused by circumstances beyond the

7 Dkt. No. 31. 8 Dkt. No. 32. 9 Dkt. No. 32 at 3. 10 See Dkt. No. 34 at 2, ¶ 6. 11 See Prevmed, Inc. v. MNM-1997, Inc., No. 4:15-cv-2856, 2016 WL 3773399, at *10 (S.D. Tex. July 8, 2016) (Lake, J.) (citing Sw. Bell Tel. Co. v. City of El Paso, 346 F.3d 541, 547 (5th Cir. 2003)) (holding that district courts generally preserve scheduling order deadlines). 12 FED. R. CIV. P. 6(b)(1)(B). 13 Neurology & Neurophysiology Assocs. v. Tarbox, 628 F. App'x 248, 251 (5th Cir. 2015) (quoting Hetzel v. Bethlehem Steel Corp., 50 F.3d 360, 367 (5th Cir. 1995)). 14 Salts v. Epps, 676 F.3d 468, 474 (5th Cir. 2012) (quoting 4B ADAM N. STEINMAN, FEDERAL PRACTICE AND PROCEDURE § 1165 (4th ed.)). control of the movant.”15 “Even if good cause and excusable neglect are shown, it nonetheless remains a question of the [district] court's discretion whether to grant any motion to extend time under Rule 6(b).”16 The party potentially harmed by Plaintiff’s motion is Defendant WFAS, Inc., who did not respond to Plaintiff’s earlier motion for summary judgment17 and who evidently did not

compensate or properly communicate with its counsel (whom the Court eventually excused).18 Defendant also did not respond to the instant motion. It appears that Defendant WFAS has ceased caring about these proceedings. Furthermore, Plaintiff appears to have acted in good faith by acquiring the additional evidence within one month after the Court’s opinion denying summary judgment.19 On the other hand, Plaintiff’s delay in acquiring the evidence now offered from its chief operating officer was almost entirely within its control, has resulted in the unnecessary waste of judicial resources which scheduling orders are meant to preserve,20 and has nearly resulted in a conflict with the Court’s September 14th final pretrial conference. The Court finds that the factors for testing Plaintiff’s excusable neglect are approximately equally balanced, but that the tie goes

to resolving the case on the merits on summary judgment rather than an unnecessary trial setting.21 The Court therefore permits Plaintiff’s overdue motion seeking leave under Federal Rule of Civil Procedure 56(e).

15 DaSilva v. U.S. Citizenship & Immigr. Servs., 599 F. App'x 535, 544 (5th Cir. 2014) (quoting Pioneer Inv. Servs. v. Brunswick Assocs., 507 U.S. 380, 392 (1993)). 16 Porto Castelo, Inc. v. BP Expl. & Prod., 716 F. App'x 373, 374 (5th Cir. 2018) (alteration in original) (quotation omitted). 17 Dkt. No. 27 at 1. 18 See Dkt. Nos. 23–25. 19 Compare Dkt. No. 27, with Dkt. No. 34-4 at 2. 20 The Court should not adjudicate any motion for summary judgment more than once. 21 See Berry v. Fed. Nat’l Mortg. Ass'n, No. 3:11-cv-1288-L, 2013 WL 1715482, at *2 (N.D. Tex. Apr. 19, 2013) (“As this is the only dispositive issue that remains, resolving it in a [second] motion for summary judgment rather than in a trial would conserve scarce judicial resources and be more efficient and cost effective for the parties.”). Turning to the merits of Plaintiff’s motion, Plaintiff argues that the Court should permit it to cure the deficiency identified in the Court’s July 26 opinion and order—specifically, Plaintiff’s failure to show that it performed or tendered performance as contractually required—by offering an additional (the third) affidavit of its chief operating officer and additional evidence.22 Under Federal Rule of Civil Procedure 56(e)(1), the Court may grant Plaintiff an opportunity to properly

support or address its own contractual performance because Plaintiff earlier failed to support its assertions of fact. “[T]he district court may reconsider a previously denied summary judgment motion even in the absence of new material presented.”23 Plaintiff argues that permitting it leave to file the new evidence will “establis[h] the sole remaining issue, i.e. the element of performance, which the Court determined was absent from [Plaintiff’s] previous submission.”24 The Court agrees and holds that Plaintiff’s motion for leave to submit additional evidence is GRANTED.25 II. PLAINTIFF’S MOTION TO SUBMIT ADDITIONAL EVIDENCE The Court GRANTS Plaintiff’s motion to submit additional evidence26 and now considers Plaintiff’s additional evidence. The Court restates that a “[b]reach of contract requires pleading

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PHI Health, LLC v. WFAS, Inc., (S.D. Tex. 2021).

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