Opinion ID: 222427
Heading Depth: 1
Heading Rank: 6

Heading: Motion for a New Scheduling Order

Text: Rimbert finally contends that even if the district court properly exercised its discretion to revisit the previous judge's Daubert ruling, it erred in thereafter denying Rimbert's motion for a new scheduling order to allow time to name a new expert and, as a result, entering summary judgment for Eli Lilly. We review a court's refusal to enter a new scheduling order for abuse of discretion. Summers v. Missouri Pac. R.R. Sys., 132 F.3d 599, 604 (10th Cir.1997). While the district court is afforded broad discretion in managing the pretrial schedule, this court has recognized that a scheduling order can have an outcome-determinative effect on the case and total inflexibility is undesirable. Id. (quotation omitted); see 103 Investors I, L.P. v. Square D Co., 372 F.3d 1213, 1215-16 (10th Cir.2004). A scheduling order which results in the exclusion of evidence is, moreover, a drastic sanction. Summers, 132 F.3d at 604. In reviewing the denial of a party's motion for a new scheduling order to name a previously undisclosed witness, this court considers four factors to determine whether the district court abused its discretion: (1) the prejudice or surprise in fact of the party against whom the excluded witnesses would have testified, (2) the ability of that party to cure the prejudice, (3) the extent to which waiver of the rule against calling unlisted witnesses would disrupt the orderly and efficient trial of the case or of other cases in court, and (4) bad faith or willfulness in failing to comply with the court's order. Id. at 604 (quotation omitted). In Summers, this court held a district court abused its discretion in refusing to grant a continuance for a plaintiff to secure a new expert after the original expert's testimony was ruled inadmissible under Daubert. Id. There, the first two factors weighed in favor of modifying the scheduling order because the [d]efendant could hardly have been surprised that plaintiffs would attempt to procure alternative expert testimony in the event the court granted defendant's [ Daubert ] motion and the defendant already had prepared its own expert testimony. Id. at 605. The defendant was also able to cure any prejudice through review of the new expert's reports and depositions. Id. The court found the third factor likewise counseled in favor of allowing the new expert, because the motion for a new scheduling order was filed eighty days prior to trial and the plaintiffs had acted promptly to find new experts. Id. Finally, there was no bad faith on the part of the plaintiffs, who acted diligently and whose original experts were doctors plaintiffs had been referred to by the defendant, thereby indicating the defendant may have had a hand in the plaintiffs' predicament. Id. Here, the single most important fact about the posture of Rimbert's motion for a new scheduling order is that, at the time it was made, there was no longer any impending trial date or pretrial schedule remaining. That schedule had been completely vacated by the second district judge who, immediately upon being assigned a complex case less than two months before the scheduled trial date, understandably required additional time to familiarize herself with the case. As a consequence, there was no scheduling order or deadlines to disrupt when Rimbert moved for a new scheduling order. Despite this critical fact, the district court, in somehow attempting to ensure that [Rimbert was] not unfairly prejudiced by the Court's vacating of the prior trial Court's [ Daubert ] ruling, inexplicably analyzed [Rimbert's] motion [for a new scheduling order] as if it had ruled to exclude [the expert's] testimony on the same date that the initial trial Court gave its ruling. Rimbert v. Eli Lilly & Co., No. 06-0874, at 3-4, 2009 WL 2208570, at -2 (D.N.M. July 21, 2009) (order granting motion to reconsider and Daubert motion). As a result, the district court concluded: It is only because it concludes that [Rimbert] would not have been eligible to add a new expert on September 29, 2008 that the Court now denies [Rimbert's] motion. Id. at 4. On September 29, 2008, the date Eli Lilly's Daubert motion was initially denied, however, there was an imminent trial date and a full pretrial schedule. In contrast, at the time Rimbert filed his motion, the district court had long ago vacated the scheduling order and the case was thus in a vastly different posture. Considering Rimbert's motion as if it had been made ten months earlier blinded the district court to the most salient fact extant at the time of its Daubert ruling, i.e., no scheduling order or deadlines remained. The lack of a trial schedule likewise bears on the question of whether Eli Lilly would have been prejudiced by a new scheduling order, the first of the Summers factors. Like the defendant in Summers, Eli Lilly would not be prejudiced by a new scheduling order in the sense of being unable to mount a defense against the new expert's testimony. Compare Summers, 132 F.3d at 605 (concluding party opposing extension of time would not be prejudiced because there was sufficient time to adequately prepare a defense against the newly named expert's testimony), with Smith v. Ford Motor Co., 626 F.2d 784, 798-99 (10th Cir.1980) (determining party was prejudiced by witness testifying at trial who was not timely disclosed because counsel was only allowed eleven minutes to prepare cross-examination). Since no trial date was set at the time Rimbert requested a new scheduling order, there is no reason the district court could not provide ample opportunity for Eli Lilly to test the opinions of the new expert witness, review the witness's reports, depose the new witness, and adequately defend against that expert at trial. See Davey v. Lockheed Martin Corp., 301 F.3d 1204, 1210-11 (10th Cir.2002) (holding, under the Summers rubric, a district court abused its discretion in refusing to amend a pretrial order to include a previously unasserted affirmative defense, noting, the timing of the motion in relation to the commencement of trial is an important element in analyzing whether the amendment would cause prejudice). The district court considered the additional expense Eli Lilly would incur to test the expert opinions of a newly named witness as establishing prejudice to Eli Lilly. Reliance on such expenses, however, was misplaced. While repeated attempts to secure the admission of expert testimony is a concern, see United States v. Nacchio, 555 F.3d 1234, 1253 (10th Cir.2009) (en banc), extra expense alone is not the type of prejudice contemplated under Summers. The type of prejudice that rises to the level of warranting the exclusion of a witness's testimony under Summers is the inability of the opposing party to fully litigate the case and defend against the new testimony, a concern that is not presented in this case. Moreover, in light of Eli Lilly's own successful attempt to renew its previously failed Daubert motion, with attendant expense and delay, Eli Lilly's claim of unfairness stemming from extra expense of discovery pertaining to a second expert rings hollow. Cf. 103 Investors I, L.P., 372 F.3d at 1216 (reversing denial of new scheduling order and noting multiple previous extension requests of party opposing new schedule). As to the final factor under Summers, the record reflects Rimbert acted diligently and even Eli Lilly concedes there was no indicia of bad faith. Although the district court suggested Rimbert failed to act diligently because he had not actually identified a new expert at the time he moved for a new scheduling order, Summers draws no bright line rule to that effect. Rimbert requested a modest sixty-day period to name a new expert and represented to the court there were experts with relevant experience he could secure for this purpose who could be prepared in a short time frame. Moreover, he moved for a new scheduling order within days of the order granting Eli Lilly's Daubert motion and before any action was taken on its motion for summary judgment. In contrast, over three and a half months, almost twice the time requested by Rimbert, passed before the court ruled on the motion for a new scheduling order. While in Summers the defendant's hand in directing plaintiffs to their original experts was a factor in the calculus and no such involvement by Eli Lilly occurred here, other factors unique to this case similarly demonstrate Rimbert was not at fault for the situation he faced. Eli Lilly makes much of the fact that Rimbert was on notice of its Daubert challenge to the expert's testimony and alleged flaws in the expert's methodology, but Rimbert was in the odd position of having prevailed on the Daubert issue in the first instance. Thus, whatever flaws in the expert's testimony Rimbert can see now in hindsight, it cannot be said Rimbert's reliance on his expert was so unreasonable as to warrant a finding of bad faith when his expert was in fact deemed reliable by the initial district judge. Second, although Rimbert did not seek to name a new expert prior to the first Daubert ruling, several subsequent events occurred that would have been impossible to predict. Rimbert could not have guessed that, after the initial judge's rulings on the dispositive motions, the case would thereafter be reassigned. It was equally impossible for Rimbert to predict that the second judge would revisit the Daubert issue. In the normal course of events, district courts are well within permissible discretion to deny the opportunity to name a new expert after discovery has closed and a party receives an unfavorable Daubert ruling. Here, however, the district court was not faced with a case that had proceeded normally, and the unique circumstances presented called for flexibility in the discovery schedule. In light of the procedural oddities of the case, including an initial favorable Daubert ruling, and the district court's unorthodox consideration of the motion for a new scheduling order as if it had been made at a prior date when the case was in a vastly different posture, this court is left with the definite and firm conviction that disallowing Rimbert's request for additional time to name a substitute expert was an abuse of discretion. Atlantic Richfield Co. v. Farm Credit Bank of Wichita, 226 F.3d 1138, 1164 (10th Cir.2000).