Rachel v. City of Mobile, Alabama et al
Filing
149
ORDER granting 145 Motion to file an omnibus response, and the embedded motion to exceed the page limitations. Signed by Chief Judge William H. Steele on 3/10/2015. (tgw)
IN THE UNITED STATES DISTRICT COURT
FOR THE SOUTHERN DISTRICT OF ALABAMA
SOUTHERN DIVISION
AMY RACHEL, etc.,
)
)
Plaintiff,
)
)
v.
) CIVIL ACTION 13-0522-WS-M
)
CITY OF MOBILE, ALABAMA, et al., )
)
Defendants.
)
ORDER
The plaintiff has filed a motion to file an omnibus response to the four
remaining defendants’ motions for summary judgment. (Doc. 145). The plaintiff
has also filed its response, which totals 94 pages (including nine pages of tables of
contents, signature page and certificate of service). The plaintiff’s motion at least
implicitly seeks leave to file a brief longer than the 30 pages permitted by local
rule.
The plaintiff appears to assume that her 85-page brief is unobjectionable
because it is shorter than the 120 pages she could have utilized had she filed four
separate briefs. (Doc. 145, ¶ 6). But it is difficult to see how 85 pages could fail
to be excessive, given the plaintiff’s representation that “the facts are largely in
common for all four briefs” filed by the defendants and that “much of the law
involved in all four briefs is identical.” (Id., ¶¶ 2, 3).
Excess, however, is common in this lawsuit. The City file a proper 25-page
brief, (Doc. 118), but it gamed the system by spinning off its entire statement of
facts to a separate, 30-page document. (Id. at 4; Doc. 125). The other defendants
engaged in the same practice. (Docs. 124 at 2; Doc. 125; Doc. 129 at 3; Doc. 131;
Doc. 134 at 2; Doc. 136). As this Court has repeatedly observed, such a practice is
improper.1
1
The local rules require the filing of proposed determinations of uncontroverted
fact. Local Rule 7.2(a). However, that rule “was not intended to allow parties to evade
The Court did not notice the defendants’ tactic initially, and it is too late in
the day to address it now. However, having unknowingly allowed the defendants
to file overly long briefs without motion, authorization or showing of true need,
the Court cannot deny the plaintiff the same privilege. Accordingly, the plaintiff’s
motion to file an omnibus response, and her embedded motion to exceed the page
limitations of Local Rule 7.1(b), is granted.2
DONE and ORDERED this 10th day of March, 2015.
s/ WILLIAM H. STEELE
CHIEF UNITED STATES DISTRICT JUDGE
page limitations imposed by LR 7.1(b) … ; rather, the purpose of the Suggested
Determinations of Fact and Conclusions of Law requirement is to have a party restate the
facts and law from its brief in a form that the Court could adopt as its ruling in that
party’s favor.” Phillips v. Irvin, 2006 WL 1663677 at *1 n.3 (S.D. Ala. 2006), rev’d in
part on other grounds, 222 Fed. Appx. 928 (11th Cir. 2007); see also State Farm Fire &
Casualty Co. v. Richardson, 2008 WL 4531765 at *1 n.1 (S.D. Ala. 2008) (“The 30-page
briefing limitation set forth in Local Rule 7.1(b) would be meaningless if a party could
disaggregate the fact and law portions of its brief into two different filings. … [T]he
brief should be a self-contained filing including all factual recitation and legal discussion
necessary to support the movant’s position.”). Moreover, allowing filings under Rule
7.2(a) to include material not included in the movant’s brief “is inefficient and unwieldy
because it obligates the Court to read two interwoven documents in tandem in order to
glean the gist of [the movant’s] arguments.” English v. CSA Equipment Co., Civil Action
No. 05-0312-WS-B (Doc. 49 at 3); accord Gross-Jones v. Mercy Medical, Civil Action
No. 11-0132-WS-M (Doc. 59) (striking defendant’s brief and proposed determinations on
this basis); see also Collar v. Austin, ___ F.Supp. 3d ___, 2015 WL 505667 at *7 n.22
(S.D. Ala. 2015) (“Parenthetically, the defendant’s purported ‘adopt[ion] and
incorporat[ion]’ of his argument concerning Haralson from his reply brief on [a previous
motion] is an improper and ineffective effort to avoid the page limitations of Local Rule
7.1(b).”); Morgan v. Bill Vann Co., 2011 WL 6056083 at *1 n.1 (S.D. Ala. 2011) (“Those
page limitations exist for good reason, to protect litigants and judicial resources alike, and
are neither aspirational nor advisory in a litigant’s discretion.”). In short, “[l]ike its sister
courts, the Court will not countenance any attempt to avoid the page limit requirement of
the Local Rules.” FNB Bank v. Park National Corp., 2013 WL 68427788 at *1 n.1 (S.D.
Ala. 2013) (internal quotes omitted).
2
The 15-page limitation for reply briefs found in Local Rule 7.1(b) will be strictly
enforced.
2
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