Opinion ID: 1918264
Heading Depth: 2
Heading Rank: 3

Heading: The motion to consolidate.

Text: The plaintiff also contends that Judge Winfield erred in denying the plaintiff's motion to consolidate the present action with her second complaint  No. 98-8611  which she filed in November 1998. The reader will recall that in the second complaint, the plaintiff alleged that she had been subjected to additional acts of retaliation which were said to have occurred after the first trial of the present case in 1997. We discern no error on Judge Winfield's part in denying the motion to consolidate. We note, however, that the judge's ruling has been overtaken by events, and that on remand the trial court will face a situation materially different from the one which confronted Judge Winfield when the original motion was filed and denied. The plaintiff asked the court to consolidate her two suits on February 6, 1999. The motion was based on Rule 42(a) of the Superior Court's Rules of Civil Procedure, which provides in pertinent part: When actions involving a common question of law or fact are pending before the Court, it may order a joint hearing or trial of any or all the matters in issue in the actions; it may order all the actions consolidated; and it may make such orders concerning proceedings therein as may tend to avoid unnecessary costs or delay. The two actions brought by Dr. Carter-Obayuwana potentially presented common questions of law and fact, and some or all of the evidence in each case may well have been admissible in the other. A play cannot be understood on the basis of some of its scenes but only on its entire performance, and similarly, a discrimination analysis must concentrate not on individual incidents, but on the overall scenario. Andrews v. City of Philadelphia, 895 F.2d 1469, 1484 (3d Cir.1990). As the Supreme Court explained in Local Lodge No. 1424 v. NLRB, 362 U.S. 411, 416 n. 6, 80 S.Ct. 822, 4 L.Ed.2d 832 (1960) (quoting Axelson Mfg. Co., 88 N.L.R.B. 761, 766 (1950)), [e]vents obscure, ambiguous, or even meaningless when viewed in isolation may, like the component parts of an equation, become clear, definitive, and informative when considered in relation to other action. Conduct, like language, takes its meaning from the circumstances in which it occurs. Accord, Wallace, supra, 715 A.2d at 878 n. 4; Clark v. United States, 593 A.2d 186, 195 (D.C.1991). In discrimination cases, as in others, it is generally in the interests of justice that the trier of fact consider the entire mosaic. Tyree v. Evans, 728 A.2d 101, 106 (D.C.1999) (citation omitted). The evidence in the second case might well shed light on the issues in the first, and vice versa. But when the plaintiff moved to consolidate the two actions, discovery in the second case had not yet been completed. If the judge had granted the motion, she might well have been compelled either to postpone the trial in the first case or to force the University to proceed to trial without an adequate opportunity to conduct discovery or to prepare properly for barristerial combat. The judge could reasonably conclude that further delay, in a case which turned in part on events that had occurred more than six years earlier, was not justified, [24] and that forcing an unprepared defendant to trial would be unfair. The question of consolidation is a decision in which the [trial] court has great latitude and ... its ruling thereon is not to be disturbed on appeal except for an abuse of discretion. Alfred A. Altimont, Inc. v. Chatelain, Samperton & Nolan, 374 A.2d 284, 287-88 (D.C.1977). On these facts, we are not prepared to second-guess Judge Winfield's exercise of her broad discretion. We have been advised, however, that the plaintiff's second suit was stayed pending the disposition of the present appeal, and that it is presently scheduled for trial in April 2001. The factors that informed the judge's exercise of discretion in 1999 may no longer exist in 2001. We therefore direct that on remand, the trial court give further consideration to the plaintiff's motion to consolidate in light of the changed circumstances and in conformity with the authorities cited in this opinion. See 791-93, supra. If, as seems probable, the evidence in the two cases would be reciprocally admissible, and if the two cases are at comparable stages of advancement, it may constitute good judicial husbandry, Lawlor v. District of Columbia, 758 A.2d 964, 974 (D.C.2000) (citation and alteration omitted), to avoid duplication by holding a single trial rather than two.