Opinion ID: 159203
Heading Depth: 3
Heading Rank: 2

Heading: The District Court's Failure to Amend the Pretrial Order

Text: 84 The Plaintiffs further argue the district court erred by failing to amend the pretrial order to permit the trial of accounting claims not predicated on proof of unusual or infrequently occurring losses as defined by GAAP. Although the Plaintiffs never formally moved for an amendment of the pretrial order, this court interpret[s] the assertion of an issue not listed in the pretrial order as the equivalent of a formal motion to amend the order . . . . Trierweiler, 90 F.3d at 1543. Thus, by opposing the Defendants' in limine motion, eliciting Eckert's testimony, and opposing the Defendant's motion to strike that testimony as beyond the scope of the pretrial order, the Plaintiffs effectively moved for an amendment of the pretrial order. 85 This court reviews a district court's failure to amend a final pretrial order for an abuse of discretion. See id. Federal Rule of Civil Procedure 16(e) provides, The order following a final pretrial conference shall be modified only to prevent manifest injustice. Fed. R. Civ. P. 16(e). Furthermore, the burden of demonstrating manifest injustice falls upon the party moving for modification. See R.L. Clark Drilling Contractors, Inc. v. Schramm, Inc., 835 F.2d 1306, 1308 (10th Cir. 1987). This court considers the following factors when faced with a challenge to a district court's exclusion of an issue by failing to amend a pretrial order: (1) prejudice or surprise to the party opposing trial of the issue; (2) the ability of that party to cure any prejudice; (3) disruption to the orderly and efficient trial of the case by inclusion of the new issue; and (4) bad faith by the party seeking to modify the order. 10 Cf. Roberts v. Roadway Express, Inc., 149 F.3d 1098, 1108 (10th Cir. 1998); Smith v. Ford Motor Co., 626 F.2d 784, 797 (10th Cir. 1980). This court should also consider whether the party favoring amendment of the pretrial order formally and timely moved for such modification in the trial court. When a party fails to formally move for modification, it neglects to focus the trial court's attention on the factors informing on the amendment determination and generally prevents the creation of an adequate record as to the other four factors, thus limiting our effectiveness in reviewing the trial court's decision. Cf. Hullman v. Board of Trustees of Pratt Community College, 950 F.2d 665, 667-68 (10th Cir. 1991). The failure to formally move to amend the pretrial order in this case resulted in exactly those consequences. This court must therefore independently surmise the import of amending the pretrial order to allow the trial of accounting claims not theretofore made. 86 Allowing the Plaintiffs to pursue any accounting claims without having to prove the expenses at issue were unusual or infrequently occurring as defined by GAAP would have significantly prejudiced and surprised the Defendants. When the district court issued its March 1998 in limine order, it fully apprised all parties of its understanding of the pretrial order and the parameters of the accounting claims for trial. The Defendants undoubtedly relied upon that ruling to prepare their own presentation of evidence as well as anticipate the Plaintiffs' case. As a consequence, the Plaintiffs' sudden attempt to inject into the trial evidence which the in limine order had precluded necessarily surprised the Defendants. Additionally, a proper defense of these essentially new accounting claims would have justified a mid-trial reopening of discovery, the addition of new witnesses, and further motions and briefings. 11 After spending thirteen years honing their defenses, this sudden amendment of the pretrial order would have significantly prejudiced the Defendants. Cf. Joseph Mfg. Co., Inc. v. Olympic Fire Corp., 986 F.2d 416, 420 (10th Cir. 1993) (stating that defendant's failure to raise specific defense at an earlier possible juncture cuts deeply against his claim of manifest injustice). Although the court could have allowed the Defendants to undertake this additional work in order to cure the prejudice of injecting new issues into the trial, to do so might have so severely disrupted the orderly and efficient course of an ongoing trial that we cannot say the district court's refusal was an abuse of discretion. Finally, the Plaintiffs' neglect in not formally moving for amendment of the pretrial order weighs against overturning the district court's decision. An analysis of the applicable factors leads this court to conclude the Plaintiffs have not demonstrated that manifest injustice resulted from the district court's failure to amend the pretrial order and correspondingly they have failed to demonstrate the district court abused its discretion in not amending the pretrial order.