Opinion ID: 19578
Heading Depth: 2
Heading Rank: 2

Heading: Pre-trial Procedure in the District Court

Text: 18 Plaintiffs contend that the pre-discovery orders requiring expert support for the details of each plaintiff's claim imposed too high a burden for that stage of litigation. In the alternative, they argue that they in fact complied with the orders and that their cases should be remanded for discovery and trial. The district court's dismissal of plaintiffs' claims in Garcia is reviewed for plain error, because plaintiffs did not make a timely objection to the magistrate judge's recommendation of dismissal. See Douglass v. United States Automobile Ass'n, 79 F.3d 1415, 1424 (5th Cir. 1996) (en banc); see also Crawford v. Falcon Drilling Co., Inc., 131 F.3d 1120, 1123-24 (5th Cir. 1997). Plaintiffs did file an objection in Acuna, and the district court therefore conducted a de novo review of the recommendation to dismiss. We review the district court's dismissal order under Fed.R.Civ.P. 16(f) for abuse of discretion. See National Hockey League v. Metropolitan Hockey Club, Inc., 427 U.S. 639, 642, 49 L. Ed. 2d 747, 96 S. Ct. 2778 (1976); FDIC v. Conner, 20 F.3d 1376, 1380 (5th Cir. 1994). 19 The pre-discovery orders in issue are of a type known as Lone Pine orders, named for Lore v. Lone Pine Corp., (N.J. Super. Ct. 1986). Lone Pine orders are designed to handle the complex issues and potential burdens on defendants and the court in mass tort litigation. In the federal courts, such orders are issued under the wide discretion afforded district judges over the management of discovery under Fed.R.Civ.P. 16. 20 In these two cases, treated as related in the district court, there are approximately one thousand six hundred plaintiffs suing over one hundred defendants for a range of injuries occurring over a span of up to forty years. Neither the defendants nor the court was on notice from plaintiffs' pleadings as to how many instances of which diseases were being claimed as injuries or which facilities were alleged to have caused those injuries. It was within the court's discretion to take steps to manage the complex and potentially very burdensome discovery that the cases would require. See Landry v. Air Line Pilots Ass'n Int'l AFL-CIO, 901 F.2d 404, 436 (5th Cir. 1990); Fournier v. Textron, Inc., 776 F.2d 532, 534 (5th Cir. 1985) (noting district court's authority to manage and develop complex litigation discovery). 21 The scheduling orders issued below essentially required that information which plaintiffs should have had before filing their claims pursuant to Fed.R.Civ.P. 11(b)(3). Each plaintiff should have had at least some information regarding the nature of his injuries, the circumstances under which he could have been exposed to harmful substances, and the basis for believing that the named defendants were responsible for his injuries. See Beanal v. Freeport-McMoran, Inc., 197 F.3d 161, 165 (5th Cir.) (plaintiff's complaint is insufficient where it is devoid of names, dates, locations, times, or any facts that would put [defendant] on notice as to what conduct supports . . . his claims). The affidavits supplied by plaintiffs did not provide this information. The district court did not commit clear error or an abuse of discretion in refusing to allow discovery toproceed without better definition of plaintiffs' claims.