Opinion ID: 146651
Heading Depth: 2
Heading Rank: 1

Heading: two years before the amendment

Text: We review district court decisions regarding amendment of pretrial orders for abuse of discretion. Quick Techs., Inc. v. Sage Group PLC, 313 F.3d 338, 345 (5th Cir.2002). Because of the importance of the pre-trial order in achieving efficacy and expeditiousness upon trial in the district court, appellate courts are hesitant to interfere with the court's discretion in creating, enforcing, and modifying such orders. Id. (quoting Flannery v. Carroll, 676 F.2d 126, 129 (5th Cir. 1982)). It is axiomatic that under Federal Rules of Civil Procedure 15 and 16, a final pretrial order supersede[s] all prior pleadings. Rockwell Int'l, 549 U.S. at 474, 127 S.Ct. 1397 (citations omitted). After a scheduling order deadline has passed, a party must show good cause to obtain leave to amend the operative pleadings. S&W Enters., L.L.C. v. SouthTrust Bank of Alabama, NA, 315 F.3d 533, 536 (5th Cir.2003) (citing FED.R.CIV.P. 16(b)). The district court's discretion to allow amendment or modification of a pretrial order is guided by the following factors: (1) the explanation for the failure to timely move for leave to amend; (2) the importance of the amendment; (3) potential prejudice in allowing the amendment; and (4) the availability of a continuance to cure such prejudice. Id. (citations and internal alterations omitted). The district court did not abuse its discretion in allowing Meaux to seek lost profits. Defendants assert that the district court allowed amendment of the pretrial order because this was Meaux's counsel's first federal trial, which is not a reasonable excuse. The court did acknowledge that it gave some leeway in light of counsel's lack of experience. This explanation is far from persuasive, and weighs in defendants' favor. See id. at 536 (noting that inadvertence as an explanation is tantamount to no explanation at all). However, the court's remarks in this regard were minor relative to its careful sounding of other germane factors, which reveal that there was good cause to allow amendment. The court recognized that the amendment was very important to Meaux's case. See id. Without lost profits, Meaux would have no remaining theory of recovery. Because disallowing the amendment would have left Meaux dead in the water, the court held that modification of the pretrial order was warranted to prevent substantial injustice. This finding is watertight. Additionally, the prejudice to defendants was minor. See id. at 536-37. In the two years between filing and trial, defendants obtained discovery and filed motions concerning lost profits. Meaux's inclusion of lost profits instructions, which the court deemed part of the pretrial order, gave defendants a warning shot across the bow months in advance of trial that this remedy was not abandoned. It is unpersuasive for defendants to say that they believed otherwise, especially when the pretrial order and proposed jury instructions made no reference to other remedies. Defendants repeatedly bewail the ambush they suffered when the district court allowed Meaux's case to proceed. As did the district court, we find such protestations empty and disingenuous. Defendants were not waylaid by guerilla litigation tactics. Being denied the ability to prevail on a technicality is not the kind of prejudice we must remedy. Finally, a continuance was impracticable because trial was imminent. The unfortunate timing was largely defendants' fault. Defendants could have challenged at any time that Meaux's request for lost profits, either in the original petition or the pretrial order, adequately met federal pleading standards and the requirements of local rules. Defendants waited to do so, quite literally, until the eve of trial. As far as the district court was concerned, the ship had sailed. In light of the facts and circumstances present in this case and the solicitude we afford the district court's hand on the tiller of trial management, we cannot conclude that the court abused its discretion in allowing Meaux to seek lost profits at trial. See id. ; Quick Techs., 313 F.3d at 345.