Taitt-Phillip v. Lockheed Martin Corp.

District Court, D. New Mexico·Decided December 5, 2022·No. 2:21-cv-00150·Unknown

Opinion

UNITED STATES DISTRICT COURT DISTRICT OF NEW MEXICO

CRYSTAL TAITT-PHILLIP, Plaintiff, v. 2:21-cv-00150-DHU-GBW LOCKHEED MARTIN CORP. and ADVANCED IT CONCEPTS, INC.,

Defendants.

MEMORANDUM OPINION AND ORDER This matter is before the Court on the following pending motions: Defendant Lockheed Martin Corp.’s (“Lockheed”) Motion for Summary Judgment (Doc. 50); Lockheed’s Motion for Summary Judgment – No Medical Causation (Doc. 51); Crystal Taitt-Phillip’s (“Plaintiff’s”) Motion for Leave to File Responses to Defendant Lockheed Martin’s Motions for Summary Judgment (Doc. 65); Lockheed’s Motion for Order to Show Cause and to Strike Plaintiff’s Expert Disclosures and Responses to Motions for Summary Judgment (Doc. 73); Lockheed’s Motion to Strike Untimely Responses to Lockheed’s Motions for Summary Judgment (Doc. 74); Advanced IT Concepts, Inc.’s (“AITC”) Motion to Strike Plaintiff’s Purported Expert Disclosure; Preclude Any Expert Testimony Proffered by Plaintiff; and Attorney’s Fees and Costs (Doc. 93); AITC’s Motion for Entry of Summary Judgment on all Claims for Failure to Establish All Required Elements; Supporting Memorandum (Doc. 107); AITC’s Motion to Dismiss All Claims for Multiple Violations and Abuses; for an Order to Show Cause; and for Attorney’s Fees and Costs (Doc. 115); Plaintiff’s Motion for Leave to Supplement Evidence in Support of Her Opposition to Defendants’ Motions for Summary Judgment (Doc. 148); Plaintiff’s Motion for Leave to Supplement Evidence in Support of Her Opposition to Defendants’ Motions for Summary Judgment (Doc. 149); and Plaintiff’s Motion for Leave to File Supplemental Evidence in Support of Her Opposition to Defendants’ Motions for Summary Judgment (Doc. 151). On November 21, 2022, the Court held a hearing and heard argument on the above motions. During the hearing, the Court orally GRANTED the following motions:

1) Plaintiff’s Motion for Leave to File Responses to Defendant Lockheed Motions for Summary Judgment (Doc. 65);1

2) Plaintiff’s Motion for Leave to Supplement Evidence in Support of Her Opposition to Defendants’ Motions for Summary Judgment (Doc. 148);

3) Plaintiff’s Motion for Leave to Supplement Evidence in Support of Her Opposition to Defendants’ Motions for Summary Judgment (Doc. 149); and

4) Plaintiff’s Motion for Leave to File Supplemental Evidence in Support of Her Opposition to Defendants’ Motions for Summary Judgment (Doc. 151).2

At the hearing, the Court also DENIED Lockheed’s Motion to Strike Untimely Responses to Lockheed’s Motions for Summary Judgment (Doc. 74).3 The Court took the remaining motions under advisement. As explained more fully below, the Court denies Defendants’ request for a variety of sanctions, orders additional expert discovery and establishes additional deadlines related to that discovery, and reserves ruling on Defendants’ remaining dispositive motions.

1 Because Plaintiff has already filed the response briefs on the docket, no further action by Plaintiff is needed. 2 Because Plaintiff has already filed the supplemental evidence on the record, no further action by Plaintiff is needed. In light of this ruling, the Court will grant Defendants leave to file supplemental reply briefs within 21-DAYS of entry of this Order. 3 Lockheed twice moved to strike Plaintiff’s summary judgment response briefs in separate pleadings (Docs. 73 and 74). The Court’s ruling applies to both motions. BACKGROUND To better contextualize Defendants’ motions, the Court sets out the following background information. In November 2021, Federal Magistrate Judge Wormuth reset pretrial deadlines in a scheduling order which established expert disclosure deadlines of February 4, 2022 for Plaintiff and April 8, 2022 for Defendants. See Doc. 37. The order established a June 16, 2022 deadline for

discovery and July 18, 2022 dispositive motion deadline. Plaintiff’s February 4, 2022 expert disclosure deadline passed without Plaintiff disclosing experts. In March 2022, she moved to extend the expert disclosure deadline. Plaintiff explained that her prior lead counsel had died and that after his passing, “it was discovered – on the day of the [expert disclosure] deadline – that the paralegal who had been responsible for calendaring deadlines … had not done so.” Doc. 46, 3. On April 28, 2022, the Magistrate Judge entered a Memorandum Opinion and Order denying Plaintiff’s motion to extend the expert disclosure deadline. See Doc. 52. To prevail, the Court noted, Plaintiff had to satisfy both Fed. R. Civ. P. 6(b)(1)(B), which governs extensions of

time when the deadline for completing an act has passed, and Fed. R. Civ. P. 16(b)(4), which governs modifications to scheduling order deadlines. The Court found that Plaintiff failed to establish good cause under Rule 16(b)(4). Using a similar rationale for the Rule 6(b)(1)(B) inquiry, the Court held that Plaintiff’s alleged calendaring error was not excusable neglect given that her “counsel has done nothing to select hire, coordinate with, identify or properly disclose experts.” Id. at 15. Allowing late-added experts would result in hardship for Defendants, the Court said, because although Defendants could possibly depose experts before the June 16, 2022 discovery deadline, Defendants “would be unable to add additional defense experts to respond to Plaintiff’s expert(s) within the confines of the existing discovery schedule.” Id. at 13. The Court also found that Plaintiff had been “dilatory during the discovery process” by not “timely provid[ing] [her] discovery responses to” AITC. Id. at 16. On April 18, 2022, Lockheed filed its initial two motions for summary judgment, see Docs. 50, 51, which required Plaintiff to file response briefs by May 2, 2022 under D.N.M.LR-Civ 7.4(a). Plaintiff filed no responses. On May 11, 2022, she moved for leave to file summary judgment

response briefs. Plaintiff, by her own admission, did not meet the May 2 deadline, but argued that she “did not receive service at the correct appointed [email] address … and as such, had no knowledge” of the summary judgment motions. Doc. 65, 1. This “calendaring error,” she says, occurred during the unanticipated change of legal counsel. Id. at 3. When she saw the error, she quickly moved to rectify the situation. See id. To that end, Plaintiff contemporaneously filed the response briefs on the docket. On May 12, 2022, Plaintiff then filed “Rule 72 Objections” seeking “de novo review of the Order and findings of the Magistrate Judge.” Doc. 68, 1. On May 13, 2022, Plaintiff, for the first time, disclosed John Tobias as “a retained expert

... who will give opinions and testimony regarding electrical engineering” matters. Doc. 73-2. The disclosure contained Mr. Tobais’ CV but not his signed expert report. Plaintiff’s deposition was noticed for May 19, 2022. The day before, on May 18, Plaintiff’s counsel emailed Defendants’ counsel that she would not attend the deposition because of “the wrong email address being used for service.” Doc. 73-3. Plaintiff did not appear at the deposition and the court reporter appended a certificate of non-appearance of witness to the transcript. On May 24, 2022, Plaintiff’s lawyer emailed the defense teams asking for dates to take depositions of Defendants’ four expert witnesses. Defendant Lockheed offered potential dates to depose witnesses.

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