Opinion ID: 2517745
Heading Depth: 4
Heading Rank: 1

Heading: The Trial Court's Denial of the Motion on Timeliness Grounds

Text: ¶ 15 We begin our analysis by establishing the proper standard of review. Motions to reconsider are not recognized by the Utah Rules of Civil Procedure. Gillett v. Price, 2006 UT 24, ¶¶ 5, 7-8, 135 P.3d 861. Because trial courts are under no obligation to consider motions for reconsideration, any decision to address or not to address the merits of such a motion is highly discretionary. If Tschaggeny wanted to oppose the motion in limine, her proper course of action was to file a memorandum in opposition to the motion within ten days of its filing. Utah R. Civ. P. 7(c)(1). Any memoranda filed beyond this ten-day window would be untimely and could be considered only with leave of court. Id. In short, the decision to consider any late-filed opposition to the motion in limine was vested in the discretion of the trial court. ¶ 16 Although a trial court is free, in the exercise of sound judicial discretion, to alter a previous in limine ruling, Luce v. United States, 469 U.S. 38, 41-42, 105 S.Ct. 460, 83 L.Ed.2d 443 (1984), a trial court may also exercise its discretion to disregard motions to reconsider prior in limine rulings when those motions do not conform to the Utah Rules of Civil Procedure, see Univ. of Utah v. Indus. Comm'n, 736 P.2d 630, 633 (Utah 1987) (A trial judge is accorded broad discretion in determining how a trial shall proceed in his or her courtroom.). Thus, we review the trial court's denial of the motion to reconsider under an abuse of discretion standard. Under this standard, the trial court's ruling may be overturned only if there is no reasonable basis for the decision. Langeland v. Monarch Motors, 952 P.2d 1058, 1061 (Utah 1998). ¶ 17 We conclude that the trial court did not abuse its discretion in this case because there was ample support for its decision to deny Tschaggeny's motion to reconsider for being untimely. Tschaggeny waited more than seven months after the initial motion in limine was filed and almost three months after it was granted to seek reconsideration. More significantly, Tschaggeny filed her motion to reconsider just minutes before trial was scheduled to begin. We have consistently held that a trial court does not abuse its discretion when it denies as untimely last minute motions on the eve of trial. Gerbich v. Numed Inc., 1999 UT 37, ¶ 17, 977 P.2d 1205 (Therefore, we conclude that the trial court did not abuse its discretion when it prevented the inspector from testifying as an expert based on the lateness of the designation and the fact that Numed's counsel did not have an opportunity to either prepare a cross-examination or call rebuttal witnesses.); Kelson v. Salt Lake County, 784 P.2d 1152, 1157 (Utah 1989) (holding that it was not an abuse of discretion to deny a motion to suppress a stipulation of blood alcohol content on the eve of trial because it would prejudice the defendants, who had relied on the stipulation and had not prepared to put on any other evidence of intoxication); The Berkshires, L.L.C. v. Sykes, 2005 UT App 536, ¶ 15, 127 P.3d 1243 (holding that a trial court did not abuse its discretion in denying leave to amend a pleading because requiring Plaintiffs to address an amended pleading on the eve of trial after over a year of litigation, including discovery and motion phases, would undoubtedly result in prejudice to them).