Opinion ID: 529944
Heading Depth: 2
Heading Rank: 2

Heading: EAC's Other Claims

Text: 29 The bulk of EAC's remaining claims on appeal stem from the district court's refusal to allow EAC to amend its answer to include the affirmative defenses of failure of consideration, fraud, breach of duty of good faith, and illegality of contract. Under Rule 15(a) of the Federal Rules of Civil Procedure, however, a district court has extensive discretion to decide whether to grant leave to amend, 6 C. Wright & A. Miller, Federal Practice and Procedure Sec. 1486 (1971), and, given the untimeliness of EAC's motion to amend, we see no reason to reverse the district court's exercise of its discretion herein. 30 EAC also claims that the district court erred in allowing Cross to introduce certain documents that were not listed in the pretrial order. Again, however, EAC's claim fails in light of the district court's considerable discretion in managing a trial. As the commentary to Rule 16(e) notes, although pretrial orders should not be changed lightly[,] ... total inflexibility is undesirable. Fed.R.Civ.P. 16(e) advisory committee notes (citing Clark v. Pennsylvania R.R. Co., 328 F.2d 591, 594-95 (2d Cir.), cert. denied, 377 U.S. 1006, 84 S.Ct. 1943, 12 L.Ed.2d 1054 (1964)). From our review of the record, we conclude that EAC suffered no serious prejudice as a result of the documents at issue, see McFadden v. Sanchez, 710 F.2d 907, 911 (2d Cir.), cert. denied, 464 U.S. 961, 104 S.Ct. 394, 78 L.Ed.2d 337 (1983), thus, we decline to disturb the trial court's decision to admit those documents into evidence.