Various v. Various

278 F.R.D. 126, 2011 WL 5570670, 2011 U.S. Dist. LEXIS 133021
CourtDistrict Court, E.D. Pennsylvania
DecidedNovember 14, 2011
DocketMDL No. 875
StatusPublished
Cited by8 cases

This text of 278 F.R.D. 126 (Various v. Various) is published on Counsel Stack Legal Research, covering District Court, E.D. Pennsylvania primary law. Counsel Stack provides free access to over 12 million legal documents including statutes, case law, regulations, and constitutions.

Bluebook
Various v. Various, 278 F.R.D. 126, 2011 WL 5570670, 2011 U.S. Dist. LEXIS 133021 (E.D. Pa. 2011).

Opinion

[128]*128MEMORANDUM

EDUARDO C. ROBRENO, District Judge.

Before the Court are various Defendants’ Motions to Dismiss in numerous cases that are part of MDL 875, the consolidated asbestos products liability multidistrict litigation pending in the United States District Court for the Eastern District of Pennsylvania.

I. BACKGROUND

Defendants’ Motions to Dismiss were filed in a group of eases transferred to the Eastern District of Pennsylvania from the Indiana, Illinois, and Wisconsin, in which Plaintiffs are represented by Cascino Vaughan Law Offices (“Cascino Vaughan”). The eases in which Cascino Vaughan represent plaintiffs account for approximately 2.000 cases in MDL 875, the second largest land-based group of cases to remain in the litigation, which once contained more than 150.000 plaintiffs and in excess of eight million claims.

On May 4, 2009, approximately five thousand (5,000) Cascino Vaughan cases were referred to the Honorable Lowell A. Reed for mediation and settlement. Three thousand (3,000) cases were resolved or dismissed during that process. On April 18, 2011, anticipating the retirement of Judge Reed, the remaining cases were referred to the Honorable David R. Strawbridge, United States Magistrate Judge, to “conduct pretrial procedures, supervision of discovery, settlement conferences and preparation for trial.” (See, e.g., 08-89441, doc. no. 23). Consistent with the order of referral, Judge Strawbridge entered a scheduling order with respect to two hundred (200) cases on July 15, 2011 with the expectation that the cases would be put on scheduling orders in groups of two hundred (200) on a monthly basis.

The deadlines relevant to the motions at issue are as follows:1

1. Defendants shall file any motions to dismiss based upon noncompliance with Administrative Order No. 12 by: July 29, 2011
2. Plaintiffs shall respond to any such motions to dismiss by: August 5, 2011
3. All medical evidence in plaintiffs’ possession, or that will be presented to, or relied upon by, plaintiffs’ expert, including x-rays, pathology, and 524(g) [129]*129bankruptcy trust submissions shall be submitted to IKON by: August 1, 2011

Before the Court are Various Defendants’ Motions to Dismiss Plaintiffs’ Claims pursuant to Federal Rule of Civil Procedure 41(b) for failure to comply with the above deadlines, based on either Plaintiffs’ lack of submissions or allegedly inadequate submissions.

Each of the bases is discussed below ad seriatim.2

II. LEGAL STANDARD

Under Federal Rule of Civil Procedure 41(b), “[i]f the plaintiff fails to prosecute or to comply with these rules or a court order, a defendant may move to dismiss the action or any claim against it.”

The Third Circuit has identified certain factors a court must consider in determining whether to dismiss an action under Rule 41(b). See, e.g., Capogrosso v. State Farm Ins. Co., 2010 WL 3404974, at *15 (D.N.J. 2010) (citing Hoxworth v. Blinder, Robinson & Co., 980 F.2d 912, 919 (3d Cir.1992)). In assessing the propriety of such an action, a court must balance the following factors:

(1) the extent of the party’s personal responsibility; (2) the prejudice to the adversary caused by the failure to meet scheduling orders and respond to discovery; (3) a history of dilatoriness; (4) whether the conduct of the party or the attorney was willful or in bad faith; (5) the effectiveness of sanctions other than dismissal, which entails an analysis of alternative sanctions; and (6) the meritoriousness of the claim or defense.

Id. (quoting Azkour v. Aria, 330 Fed.Appx. 373, 375 (3d Cir.2009); Poulis v. State Farm Fire & Cas. Co., 747 F.2d 863, 867 (3d Cir.1984)). Although all of the above factors should be considered, there is no “magic formula.” See Briscoe v. Klaus, 538 F.3d 252, 263 (3d Cir.2008). In fact, “where a litigant wilfully refuses to prosecute his case or effectively makes it impossible to proceed,” a District Court need not even eonsider the Poulis factors at all, but rather is left with “little recourse other than dismissal.” Ware v. Rodale Press, Inc., 322 F.3d 218, 222 (3d Cir.2003).

It is widely recognized that District Court judges “must have authority to manage their dockets, especially during massive litigation” such as multidistrict litigation. In re Fannie Mae Sec. Litig., 552 F.3d 814, 822-23 (D.C.Cir.2009) (upholding a district court’s imposition of sanctions on a party when the party violated a scheduling order and “dragged its feet until the eleventh hour”; and noting that overturning the district court’s decision could undermine “the authority of district courts to enforce the deadlines they impose.”).

Additionally, “administering cases in multi-district litigation is different from administering eases on a routine docket.” In re Phenylpropanolamine (PPA) Prods. Liab. Litig., 460 F.3d 1217, 1229 (9th Cir.2006). The Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit has discussed the importance of complying with case management orders in such litigation as follows:

multidistrict litigation is a special breed of complex litigation where the whole is bigger than the sum of its parts. The district court needs to have broad discretion to administer the proceeding as a whole, which necessarily includes keeping the parts in line. Case management orders are the engine that drives disposition on the merits.

Id. at 1232. And yet, regardless of how massive or complex the litigation is, success in administering the case by the Court cannot be measured solely in terms of the number of cases settled, or claims dismissed or adjudicated. Each party to the litigation is not just a number. Rather, each is entitled to a full and fair day in court as to the merits of its claims and defenses. How to reconcile the need for efficiency in the administration of the ease without compromising a party’s right to a full and fair hearing remains the utmost goal of the Court in this litigation.

[130]*130With these principles in mind, the Court turns to the merits of the motions.

III. DISCUSSION

A. Motions to Dismiss for Failure to Submit Any X-Rays to the IKON Depository

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Bluebook (online)
278 F.R.D. 126, 2011 WL 5570670, 2011 U.S. Dist. LEXIS 133021, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/various-v-various-paed-2011.