ROBERT B. KUGLER, District Judge.
This matter comes before the Court on Defendant Café Sbarro Atlantic City LLC's ("Defendant Sbarro") Motion for Reconsideration of this Court's Order dismissing Defendant Sbarro's Motion for Summary Judgment as untimely. (Doc. No. 146.) For the foregoing reasons, Defendant Sbarro's Motion is denied.
The parties to this action have been litigating for nearly three years. The most recent Amended Scheduling Order, entered on June 30, 2015, established that dispositive motions were to be filed no later than July 24, 2015. (Doc. No. 128.) It also instructed the parties that "[a]ny application for an extension of time beyond the deadlines set herein shall be made in writing to the undersigned and served upon all counsel prior to expiration of the period sought to be extended" and that the deadlines would not be extended "unless good cause is shown." (
Defendant Sbarro is the only party who failed to meet the dispositive motion deadline. On July 23, 2015, Defendants Hoot Owl Restaurants, L.L.C. and Adam Good, L.L.C. d/b/a Firewaters filed their Motion for Summary Judgment, and Plaintiff filed the next day. Defendant Sbarro did not file its Motion for Summary Judgment until August 19, 2015, twenty-six days after the filing deadline. (Doc. No. 134.) It did not request leave to file after the July 24 deadline.
On August 27, 2015, Defendant Sbarro's Counsel sent a letter to this Court explaining that she "was not aware of the filing date in the Scheduling Order and did not make an application for extension or other relief before preparing the motion." (Doc. No. 139.)
Defendant Sbarro asks the Court to reconsider its September 3, 2015 Order dismissing Sbarro's untimely filed Motion for Summary Judgment. In support of its motion, it offers additional facts it wishes the Court to consider, namely the delay in scheduling depositions for material witnesses and obtaining transcripts for those depositions. (Pl.'s Letter Br. 2, Doc. 146-1.) According to Defendant Sbarro, five expert witnesses were deposed through July 15, 2015 even though the discovery deadline was July 30, 2015 because the parties agreed to extend the deadline. (Cert. of Brian C. Harris ¶ 8-9.) Defendant Sbarro inferred from this extended deadline that the parties agreed to also extend the dispositive motion deadline. Defendant has also shown that it was unable to obtain transcripts of those depositions until August 18th. (
In the District of New Jersey, Local Civil Rule 7.1(i) governs motions for reconsideration.
Federal Rule of Civil Procedure 16 governs pretrial management and scheduling orders. Under Rule 16(b)(4), a scheduling order "may be modified only for good cause and with the judge's consent." Fed. R. Civ. P. 16(b)(4). "[S]cheduling orders are at the heart of case management. If they can be disregarded without a specific showing of good cause, their utility will be severely impaired."
Defendant Sbarro has not shown this Court good cause to disregard its enforcement of the scheduling order. That Sbarro was unaware of the deadline or believed extended because of the delayed depositions
Moreover, the delay in obtaining the deposition transcripts is also not a sufficient basis to disregard the scheduling order. With depositions scheduled through July 15, Sbarro could easily foresee that it may have difficulty meeting the July 24, 2015 deadline.
Thus, although the Court does not detect any improper motive in Defendant Sbarro's untimely filing, it sees no reason to consider a motion filed in disregard of a clear and unambiguous deadline. This Court's scheduling orders are integral to the management of its docket, and disregarding them because of inferred extensions or inadvertent mistakes undermines their utility. Accordingly, the Court denies Defendant Sbarro's Motion for Reconsideration.
For the foregoing reasons, Defendant Sbarro's Motion is