Opinion ID: 22987
Heading Depth: 1
Heading Rank: 4

Heading: The Discovery Process

Text: 25 Finally, the Appellants contend that the district court improperly denied them additional time to conduct discovery before the court ruled on the School Board's motion for summary judgment. The district court delayed ruling on the appellants' motion for summary judgment and instead issued its memorandum and order granting the School Board's motion, which was filed shortly thereafter. We review the district court's decision to deny further discovery for abuse of discretion. See Leatherman v. Tarrant County Narcotics Intelligence and Coordination Unit, 28 F.3d 1388, 1394 (5th Cir. 1994) (citing Harris v. Amoco Prod. Co., 768 F.2d 669, 684 (5th Cir. 1985), cert, denied, 475 U.S. 1011 (1986)). 26 On September 2, 1999, the appellants moved for an extension of time to respond to the School Board's motion, claiming that they needed to conduct additional discovery. They asked the court to extend their answer date to forty days from the day of the court's ruling on their own motion for summary judgment. The court granted the appellants an extension, but required them to submit their response by September 23. The appellants filed their response in which they requested more time to conduct discovery. The district court issued its final order on November 10, 1999. 27 In order to obtain a continuance of a motion for summary judgment for discovery purposes, a party must set forth some statement to the court indicating why additional discovery is necessary and how additional discovery will create a genuine issue of material fact. Leatherman, 28 F.3d at 1395 (quoting Krim v. BancTexas Group, Inc., 989 F.2d 1435, 1441 (5th Cir. 1993)). It does not appear from the record that the appellants ever established how additional discovery would create a fact issue concerning the validity of the School Board's summary judgment evidence. The appellants had ample time to conduct discovery in this case, as evidenced by their own motion for summary judgment. In any event, the district judge granted the appellants additional time to conduct discovery after the School Board submitted its affidavits supporting the summary judgment motion. Based on these facts, we conclude that the district court did not abuse its discretion by denying the appellants any more time to conduct discovery. Accordingly, we affirm the district court's order granting summary judgment in favor of the Bossier Parish School Board. AFFIRMED