Opinion ID: 3036297
Heading Depth: 4
Heading Rank: 2

Heading: The prejudice to the adversary.

Text: The District Court found that Briscoe’s failure to attend the conference prejudiced the defendants because the defendants could not “effectively prepare for trial so as to bring the litigation to a resolution.” Again, while the District Court correctly described the law, the record was insufficient for it to conclude that Briscoe’s conduct prejudiced the defendants without providing Briscoe with an opportunity to explain why he failed to attend the conference. We have stated that “[e]vidence of prejudice to an adversary would bear substantial weight in support of a dismissal or default judgment.” Adams v. Trustees of N.J. Brewery Employees’ Pension Trust Fund, 29 F.3d 863, 873-74 (3d Cir. 1994) (internal quotation marks and citation omitted). Generally, prejudice includes “the irretrievable loss of evidence, the inevitable dimming of witnesses’ memories, or the excessive and possibly irremediable burdens or costs imposed on the opposing party.” Id. at 874 (internal quotation marks and citations omitted). In the present case, the defendants were not prejudiced based on this general description of prejudice, i.e., Briscoe’s failure to attend the conference did not cause a loss of evidence, a dimming of the witnesses’ memories, or excessive costs. See id. However, prejudice is not limited to “irremediable” or “irreparable” harm. Id.; see also Ware v. Rodale Press, Inc., 322 F.3d 218, 222 (3d Cir. 2003); Curtis T. Bedwell & Sons, Inc. v. Int’l Fidelity Ins. Co., 843 F.2d 683, 693-94 (3d Cir. 1988). It also includes “the burden imposed by impeding a 13 party’s ability to prepare effectively a full and complete trial strategy.” Ware, 322 F.3d at 222. Oftentimes, this type of prejudice involves disputes between the parties on discovery matters because the defendants were deprived of necessary information or had to expend costs to obtain court orders for compliance. See, e.g., Poulis, 747 F.2d at 868 (finding that the defendants were prejudiced where the plaintiffs did not answer interrogatories, the defendants had to file a motion to compel the plaintiffs’ answers, and the defendant had “to file its pre-trial statement without the opportunity to review plaintiffs’ pretrial statement which was due to be filed first”); Ware, 322 F.3d at 220-23 (affirming the District Court’s conclusion that a defendant had been prejudiced where the plaintiff repeatedly ignored the defendant’s discovery request for the plaintiff’s computation of damages and did not provide it until one week prior to trial). The District Court was correct in extending this type of deprivation of necessary information to final pretrial conferences. At the final pretrial conference, the District Court “formulate[s] a trial plan, including a plan to facilitate the admission of evidence.” Fed. R. Civ. P. 16(e). By this time, each party has fully disclosed the evidence it plans to present at trial. If the plaintiff has not disclosed all of its evidence prior to trial or fails to attend the conference, the District Court would not be able to properly formulate a plan, prejudicing the defendants in their trial preparations. In the present case, assuming Briscoe’s failure to attend the conference was of his own accord, the District Court was unable to formulate the trial plan, prejudicing the defendants to 14 some extent.3 However, the District Court’s finding is dependent on the factual premise that Briscoe did not attend the hearing of his own accord. If it had conducted a hearing and found Briscoe’s assertion to be true, any prejudice to these defendants would be negated because, under those facts, the defendants themselves caused Briscoe’s no-show. Therefore, the District Court could not have reached its conclusion as to prejudice without providing Briscoe with an opportunity to be heard.