Opinion ID: 714979
Heading Depth: 3
Heading Rank: 1

Heading: Final Pretrial Order

Text: 61 The Defendants argue that the holding by the district court (to wit, the issue of mismanagement had not been preserved in the final pretrial order) amounted to an abuse of discretion. The Defendants' final pretrial order does contain some language which generally describes the remaining issues of law in this case that could arguably be interpreted as an affirmative defense relating to Life Care's alleged mismanagement of the nursing home. 7 However, the absence of language which specifically addressed the subject of mismanagement lends support to the conclusion of the district court that the final pretrial order only contained a preservation of those arguments in support of the Defendants' eighth affirmative defense. 62 Nevertheless, it is clear from the record that the defense of mismanagement had received specific attention by the parties throughout the litigation. In fact, this issue had been the subject of a discovery request by Life Care and an extensive response by the Defendants. 8 Thus, it is equally clear that Life Care was fully aware of the Defendants' mismanagement defense. Under such circumstances, the preclusion of mismanagement evidence by the district court on the basis of the Defendants' failure to specifically list the mismanagement defense in the final pretrial order was unjust under the facts and circumstances of this case. However, as the ensuing discussion explains, the defense of mismanagement is not admissible in this case under Tennessee law and, therefore, the decision of the district court to exclude this issue on the basis of the deficiencies in the final pretrial order does not amount to reversible error. 63