Opinion ID: 2996338
Heading Depth: 3
Heading Rank: 1

Heading: Motion to strike affidavits

Text: A district court’s refusal to strike or disregard portions of an affidavit in a motion for summary judgment is reviewed for an abuse of discretion. Adusumilli v. City of Chicago, 164 F.3d 353, 359 (7th Cir. 1998). Fairbanks filed a motion for summary judgment along with affidavits. Plaintiffs filed a response to that motion with their own affidavits. Fairbanks then filed a reply 12 No. 01-1166 to plaintiffs’ response including additional affidavits. Plaintiffs moved to strike the affidavits filed with the reply, or, in the alternative, requested “permission to depose the affiants on the new material and to file a response.” Plaintiffs challenge the district court’s refusal to strike the affidavits in the reply, contending that the district court “relied in part on the new material asserted in the thirteen affidavits” in granting summary judgment. Under FED. R. CIV. P. 56(a), either party may make a motion for summary judgment, with or without supporting affidavits. The district court may grant judgment if “the pleadings, depositions, answers to interrogatories, and admissions on file, together with the affidavits, if any, show that there is no genuine issue as to any material fact and the moving party is entitled to a judgment as a matter of law.” FED. R. CIV. P. 56(c). The nonmoving party may respond, with or without affidavits, and “must set forth specific facts showing that there is a genuine issue for trial.” FED. R. CIV. P. 56(e). Summary judgment should not be entered “until the party opposing the motion has had a fair opportunity to conduct such discovery as may be necessary to meet the factual basis for the motion.” Celotex Corp. v. Catrett, 477 U.S. 317, 326 (1986). Under Rule 56(a), Fairbanks was correctly allowed to submit affidavits with its motion for summary judgment. Plaintiffs were then allowed to submit affidavits with their response to the summary judgment motion under 56(c). There is no blanket prohibition from filing additional affidavits when a movant for summary judgment files a reply brief following a nonmovant’s response. See Egger v. Phillips, 710 F.2d 292, 295 (7th Cir. 1983), overruled on other grounds by Feit v. Ward, 886 F.2d 848, 856 (7th Cir. 1989). However, plaintiffs did not request a continuance “to permit affidavits to be obtained or depositions to be taken No. 01-1166 13 or discovery to be had,” as allowed by Rule 56(f). A Rule 56(f) motion requires a party to set forth a justification for the continuance, which includes providing a compelling argument why discovery should be continued. See Kalis v. Colgate-Palmolive Co., 231 F.3d 1049, 1056-57 (7th Cir. 2000). Plaintiffs failed to make a Rule 56(f) motion and failed to provide a compelling justification to continue discovery as to the new affidavits. The district court judge believed that she was “required to consider new information that does not contradict deposition testimony and I have done so.” See Buckner v. Sam’s Club, Inc., 75 F.3d 290, 292 (7th Cir. 1996) (“As a general rule, the law of this circuit does not permit a party to create an issue of fact by submitting an affidavit whose conclusions contradict prior deposition or other sworn testimony.”); Kalis, 231 F.3d at 1055-56. The district court noted that although plaintiffs’ affidavits in response to the summary judgment motion did not contradict plaintiffs’ deposition testimony, the affidavits added “entirely new matters to ‘flesh out’ the deposition testimony.” For instance, in his deposition, Balderston had stated that he never thought he should have been considered for Cockerham’s position. But in plaintiffs’ response to summary judgment, Balderston alleged that he could have been but was not considered for Cockerham’s position and that Cockerham was not qualified. Many, if not all, of the plaintiffs’ affidavits were submitted to refute statements and assertions made in Fairbanks’ motion for summary judgment. The district court felt this was “something of an ambush” for the moving party, and, therefore, allowed all of the affidavits, those of both plaintiffs and defendants, in order to make a fair determination of the facts. However, in denying plaintiffs’ motion to strike the affidavits accompanying Fairbanks’ reply, the court correctly identified the new affidavits filed with Fairbanks’ reply as providing cumulative informa14 No. 01-1166 tion supporting allegations in defendant’s answer to plaintiffs’ complaint that there were problems with both Balderston’s and Gabriel’s performance. These did not represent “new” arguments as plaintiffs suggest. The district court’s findings, taken from the parties’ proposed findings of fact, carefully took into consideration all of the permissible evidence in determining which facts were material and undisputed. We do not find it unreasonable that the district court refused to strike the new affidavits filed with Fairbanks’ reply to plaintiffs’ response. See Adusumilli, 164 F.3d at 359 (holding that decisions “that are reasonable, i.e., not arbitrary, will not be questioned”) (citation omitted). In addition, in this type of situation similar to a Rule 56(f) motion, reversal of a district court’s denial is made only where there is an abuse of discretion which results in actual and substantial prejudice to the party seeking additional discovery. See Kalis, 231 F.3d at 1055-56. We find no actual and substantial prejudice and no abuse of discretion.