Opinion ID: 6500414
Heading Depth: 1
Heading Rank: 3

Heading: Delay of Summary Judgment

Text: As an initial matter, Hershey and Nagra contend that summary judgment should have been delayed because of the COVID-19 pandemic 8 Case: 21-30379 Document: 00516395400 Page: 9 Date Filed: 07/15/2022 No. 21-30379 scheduling challenges. Federal Rule of Civil Procedure 56(d) allows for the extension of time for discovery if “a nonmovant shows by affidavit or declaration that, for specified reasons, it cannot present facts essential to justify its opposition.” Neither Hershey nor Nagra filed such a motion in the district court. We review that court’s decision whether or not to suspend summary judgment to permit discovery for abuse of discretion. 4 The district court did not abuse its discretion by not delaying its entry of summary judgment to allow additional discovery. It rejected Katy Jenkins’s request for additional time for discovery because she “failed to submit a plausible basis for believing that further discovery will lead to specified facts that will affect the outcome of this motion for summary judgment.” The district court was in the best position to determine if further time was warranted and, seeing no error, we defer to its decision.