Opinion ID: 449515
Heading Depth: 2
Heading Rank: 1

Heading: The Motion for a Continuance and the Post-Deadline Submissions.

Text: Fed.R.Civ.P. 56(f) provides: 12 Should it appear from the affidavits of a party opposing the motion that he cannot for reasons stated present by affidavit facts essential to justify his opposition, the court may refuse the application for judgment or may order a continuance to permit affidavits to be obtained or depositions to be taken or discovery to be had or may make such other order as is just. 13 [T]he law is clear that in order to obtain a continuance for further discovery or any other dispensation from the requirements of Rule 56(e), the opposing party must state in an affidavit the reasons for its inability to present an affidavit on personal knowledge. Moon v. Central Intelligence Agency, 514 F.Supp. 836, 840 (S.D.N.Y.1981) (citations omitted). A court may disregard a failure to formally comply with Rule 56(f) if the opposing party's request for a continuance clearly sets out the justification for the continuance. See, e.g., Littlejohn v. Shell Oil Co., 483 F.2d 1140 (5th Cir.), cert. denied, 414 U.S. 1116, 94 S.Ct. 849, 38 L.Ed.2d 743 (1973). The plaintiff attempted to justify his application for a continuance by alleging that discovering the existence of members of Betty Zajec's family was at least difficult. The plaintiff complied with the requirements of Rule 56(f) by reciting his justification for the continuance in the affidavit of Robert W. Pfeil, Sr. even though he labeled his motion for a continuance as a Motion and Memoranda for Extension of Time to File Affidavits Pursuant to Rules 59(c) and 60(b). 10 14 Because the plaintiff complied with the affidavit requirement of Rule 56(f), the issue is whether the district court abused its discretion in denying the continuance. Absent an abuse of discretion, the trial court's determination of whether a continuance is justified will not be interfered with by an appellate court. Harris v. Pate, 440 F.2d 315, 318 (7th Cir.1971); see also Cohen v. Ayers, 596 F.2d 733, 743 n. 20 (7th Cir.1979). The justification for a continuance of a motion for summary judgment proceeding must be genuine and convincing to the court rather than merely colorable. Robin Construction Co. v. United States, 345 F.2d 610, 614 (3d Cir.1965). In his affidavit, the plaintiff asserts that he was unable to submit the affidavits of the Zajec family members because he did not learn of the existence of the family members from a neighbor until August 10, 1983, approximately two months after the deadline for filing supporting affidavits. However, the affidavits of Gene and Melody Anderson submitted as part of the plaintiff's response to the defendants' motion for summary judgment were dated November 19, 1982. The Andersons were friends of Betty Zajec and in fact Gene Anderson was present in her home when she committed suicide. The plaintiff would have us believe that he failed to ask Anderson whether anyone else was present in the Zajec home when Betty Zajec committed suicide, but that he happened to learn from a Zajec neighbor some ten months later that Betty Zajec's relatives were at her home when she committed suicide. It strains credibility to argue that a person investigating a notorious murder, such as Rob's, in a small town like Ladysmith, Wisconsin where both Rob's and Zajec's deaths would be well publicized, would fail to ask a person who was in the house where the only witness to the murder committed suicide the simple question Was anyone else at Betty Zajec's house when she committed suicide? Furthermore, in view of the fact that Zajec committed suicide at the very time officers of the Wisconsin Division of Criminal Investigation were in the next room waiting to continue their interrogation of her knowledge of Rob's murder, we fail to understand why the plaintiff did not attempt to interview the officers to obtain the names of the other witnesses contained in their official report. Although the plaintiff may not have been aware of the names of the persons who were at the Zajec home at the time of her death, he failed to establish in the court record that he had exercised reasonable diligence in his attempt to ascertain the existence of the Zajec family members in a timely fashion. We will not overturn the judgment of the court or find an abuse of discretion by the court in its refusal to grant a continuance because we are convinced the plaintiff should have been able to obtain the names with due diligence if he had asked Gene Anderson if anyone else was present at the time Zajec committed suicide. When a party fails to secure discoverable evidence due to his own lack of diligence, it is not an abuse of discretion for the trial court to refuse to grant a continuance to obtain such information. Reeg v. Shaughnessy, 570 F.2d 309, 316 (10th Cir.1978). We hold that the district court's denial of the motion for a continuance of the summary judgment proceedings was proper and not an abuse of discretion. 15 We now turn to the issue of whether the district court could disregard other affidavits and briefs submitted by the plaintiff after the previously announced filing deadline and not submitted as part of the motion for a continuance. Rule 56(c) provides that affidavits in opposition to a motion for summary judgment must be served on the moving party prior to the day of the hearing. Exercising their power under Rule 83, 11 several judicial districts have adopted local rules requiring the opposing party to file opposing affidavits and briefs within a specified time period between the service of the summary judgment motion and the date set for the hearing. 10A Wright, Miller & Kane, Federal Practice and Procedure Sec. 2719, at 12-13 (1983). The purpose of these local rules is to provide a specific time within which the opposing party must respond to the motion and to make certain that the issues on the motion are properly framed. Id. at 13. The local rules of the Western District of Wisconsin, which as the court's opinion pointedly notes were provided to both parties, specify that the affidavits and other materials of the opposing party shall be filed on or before the schedule issued by the court. Requiring strict compliance with the local summary judgment rule--specifying that all material must be filed in accordance with the district court's scheduling order--furthers the purpose of properly framing the issues in allowing the moving party to respond to all of the resisting party's arguments in its reply brief as well as allowing the trial court to organize and control its calendar in an orderly manner. The filing deadline therefore assures the court not only that its decisions will be accurate because the issues will have been fully briefed and argued but also that summary judgment motions will be heard in a timely fashion. In her order granting the summary judgment motion in favor of defendants, the district court judge specifically noted, I informed counsel by letter that I would not consider any briefs, affidavits, or other documents submitted after Defendants' reply brief on their summary judgment motion. Thus, there can be no doubt that the plaintiff was aware that he had to submit all of his evidence and argument to the district court before the filing deadline. The record reveals that the plaintiff submitted several documents after the filing deadline of June 14, 1983; specifically, he filed documents on July 19, 1983, July 27, 1983 and August 23, 1983. 12 The documents submitted on August 23 were offered in support of the motion for a continuance. Examination of the documents submitted on July 19 and 27th reveals that the documents attempted to reply to the arguments presented in the defendant's reply brief and were offered because [t]he plaintiff [felt] impelled to answer certain of defendants' statements contained in [the defendants' motion for summary judgment, reply brief, and motion to strike the plaintiff's affidavits 13 ] all of which collectively constitute the defendants' Brief in Opposition to Plaintiff's Material in Opposition to Defendant's Motion for Summary Judgment. That the plaintiff felt impelled to answer certain of defendants' statements fails to state a sufficient reason for ignoring the district court's admonition that all of the plaintiff's evidence and argument on the summary judgment motion must be submitted before the defendants' reply brief. Moreover, if the district court had considered the July 19th and 27th documents, to be fair it would have had to give the defendants an opportunity to respond and thus prolong the court's decision on the summary judgment motion. Because no colorable reason was given to explain the plaintiff's failure to file his documents before the deadline, the district court was not compelled to delay the proceeding by considering the late documents and allowing the defendants to respond. The decision to disregard all material submitted after a reasonable filing deadline is certainly not an abuse of discretion because it allowed the district court to preserve the moving party's right to respond to the resisting party's arguments and to decide the summary judgment motion in a timely fashion. We approve the court's ruling on this issue. 16