Opinion ID: 787387
Heading Depth: 3
Heading Rank: 2

Heading: Prejudice from the Conversion

Text: 32 Rule 12(c) provides that when a court converts a motion for judgment on the pleadings into one for summary judgment, it shall provide all parties ... a reasonable opportunity to present all material made pertinent to such a motion. Here, the district court did not notify the parties prior to converting the motion. Defendants assert that this failure requires reversal because they were prejudicially denied an opportunity to present all pertinent material as required by Rule 12(c). Here again, we disagree. 33 A party is deemed to have notice that a motion may be converted into one for summary judgment if that party should reasonably have recognized the possibility that such a conversion would occur. Gurary v. Winehouse, 190 F.3d 37, 43 (2d Cir.1999). By attaching to their motion extensive materials that were not included in the pleadings, defendants plainly should have been aware of the likelihood of such a conversion. See id. Under such circumstances, they cannot complain that they were deprived of an adequate opportunity to provide the materials they deemed necessary to support their motion. See M.J.M. Exhibitors, Inc. v. Stern (In re G. & A. Books, Inc.), 770 F.2d 288, 295 (2d Cir.1985). 34 In any event, defendants cannot demonstrate prejudice. Their complaint is not, after all, that judgment was entered in favor of Sira without affording them a full opportunity to be heard. Their complaint is that judgment was not entered in their favor. But if defendants could not establish their entitlement to qualified immunity on a presentation that supplemented the pleadings, they would certainly not have fared better had the district court ignored their attachments and treated their motion as one to dismiss. To the extent defendants submit that sua sponte conversion deprived them of the opportunity to submit affidavits or to discover evidence that might have strengthened a summary judgment motion, we note that district courts enjoy considerable discretion in entertaining successive dispositive motions. See Kovacevich v. Kent State Univ., 224 F.3d 806, 835 (6th Cir.2000) (District courts may in their discretion permit renewed or successive motions for summary judgment....); Enlow v. Tishomingo County, 962 F.2d 501, 507 (5th Cir.1992); see also 10A C. Wright, et al., Federal Practice and Procedure § 2712, at 215 (3d ed.1998). The district court has not here precluded the defendants from filing a further motion for summary judgment at the conclusion of discovery; thus, we discern no prejudice from the challenged conversion warranting reversal.