NOT PRECEDENTIAL

UNITED STATES COURT OF APPEALS

FOR THE THIRD CIRCUIT

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No. 10-3041

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DEBORAH REARICK,

Appellant

v.

THE PENNSYLVANIA STATE UNIVERSITY

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APPEAL FROM THE UNITED STATES DISTRICT COURT

FOR THE MIDDLE DISTRICT OF PENNSYLVANIA

(D.C. Civ. No. 1:08-cv-01195)

District Judge: Honorable Yvette Kane, Chief Judge

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Submitted Under Third Circuit L.A.R. 34.1(a)

February 9, 2011

Before: JORDAN, GREENAWAY, JR. and WEIS, Circuit Judges.

(Opinion filed March 4, 2011)

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OPINION 

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WEIS, Circuit Judge.

Plaintiff appeals two orders in this case. The first denied her request for an 

extension of the discovery period; the second granted summary judgment in favor of 

defendant. Finding no error, we will affirm. 
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Because we write solely for the parties, we recite herein only the essential 

facts. Plaintiff, who has worked for The Pennsylvania State University since 1981, 

brought suit against her employer, claiming that she was denied a promotion in 2006 in 

retaliation for reporting sexual harassment to the University‟s affirmative action office in 

2001. She also asserted that defendant breached a contract by using her past performance 

assessments in evaluating her candidacy for that promotion. 

After filing her complaint in 2008, plaintiff retained current counsel. This 

attorney requested, and was granted, three extensions or stays of the discovery deadline, 

which totaled approximately seven months. The parties had almost eleven months after 

counsel entered his appearance to conduct and complete discovery. However, several 

weeks after the final discovery deadline had expired, plaintiff‟s counsel filed a “Motion 

for Enlargement of Time to Complete Discovery” and a motion to compel discovery. The 

District Court denied those motions on May 5, 2010. On June 17, 2010, summary 

judgment was entered in favor of defendant.

Plaintiff states that medical issues prevented her attorney from completing 

discovery in accordance with the (thrice-revised) scheduling order. We are not persuaded 

that the “denial of discovery „made it impossible [for plaintiff] to obtain crucial 

evidence,‟” nor has plaintiff satisfied her burden of showing that “„more diligent 

discovery was impossible‟” under the circumstances. See Mass. Sch. of Law at Andover, 

Inc. v. Am. Bar Ass‟n, 107 F.3d 1026, 1032 (3d Cir. 1997) (quoting In re Fine Paper 
3

Antitrust Litig., 685 F.2d 810, 818 (3d Cir. 1982)). We therefore find no abuse of 

discretion. See id. at 1032-33.

Nor do we find error in the District Court‟s grant of summary judgment on 

the plaintiff‟s retaliation claims. After careful review of the record, we find nothing more 

than the plaintiff‟s own speculation supporting her allegation that retaliatory animus was 

a factor in the denial of her application for promotion. See Watson v. Se. Pa. Transp. 

Auth., 207 F.3d 207, 215 (3d Cir. 2000) (discussing showing required for retaliation 

claim). Mere allegations are not sufficient to establish a genuine issue of material fact 

for purposes of summary judgment. See Lexington Ins. Co. v. W. Pa. Hosp., 423 F.3d 

318, 333 (3d Cir. 2005) (“Speculation does not create a genuine issue of fact” (quoting 

Hedberg v. Ind. Bell Tel. Co., Inc., 47 F.3d 928, 932 (7th Cir. 1995))).

With respect to the plaintiff‟s breach of contract claim, we have reviewed 

the Agreement and General Release and find it to be “a contract complete within itself . . . 

. represent[ing] the parties‟ entire agreement.” Yocca v. Pittsburgh Steelers Sports, Inc., 

854 A.2d 425, 436 (Pa. 2004) (internal quotations omitted). The contract‟s silence on the 

matter of the plaintiff‟s past performance evaluation scores does not amount to ambiguity. 

See Seven Springs Farm, Inc. v. Croker, 748 A.2d 740, 744 (Pa. Super. 2000) (en banc) 

(“[W]hen a contract fails to provide for a specific contingency, it is silent, not 

ambiguous” and court should neither consider extrinsic evidence nor “read into the 

contract a term . . . which clearly it does not contain”). 
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The District Court‟s grant of summary judgment on this claim was, therefore, proper. 

Accordingly, the District Court‟s orders will be affirmed.