Paolino v. US Airways Incorporated

Filing 44

ORDER that the Motion to Extend Plaintiff's Expert Disclosure Deadline (Doc. 41 ) is denied. See order for details. Signed by Judge Neil V. Wake on 4/9/15. (NKS)

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WO

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IN THE UNITED STATES DISTRICT COURT

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FOR THE DISTRICT OF ARIZONA

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Jonathan Paolino,

No. CV-14-01672-PHX-NVW
Plaintiff,

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v.

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ORDER

US Airways Incorporated,

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Defendant.

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Before the court is the Motion to Extend Plaintiff’s Expert Disclosure Deadline

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(Doc. 41). Plaintiff’s prior counsel withdrew from this case on March 13, 2015, two

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weeks after the initial deadline for disclosing expert witnesses lapsed on February 27,

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2015. (Doc. 34; Doc. 30 at 2.) Plaintiff’s current counsel entered an appearance on

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March 18, 2015, and moved without opposition to extend certain discovery deadlines

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later that day. (Docs. 36, 37.) The proposed revised scheduling order that Plaintiff

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attached to that motion noted that the deadline for his expert disclosures had already

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passed (Doc. 37-1 at 2), as did the Amended Scheduling Order issued by the court (Doc.

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40 at 2.) Now, three weeks after obtaining a new schedule, Plaintiff seeks to extend the

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deadline for his initial expert disclosures to April 22, 2015.

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Plaintiff cannot show sufficient justification for such an extension. Prior counsel

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apparently determined, in their professional judgment, that experts were unnecessary to

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Plaintiff’s case. That Plaintiff did not personally acquiesce in this decision is irrelevant.

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Litigants are bound by their attorneys’ conduct, and retention of new counsel who views

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the case differently does not entitle them to reset the court’s clear case management

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deadlines, on which opposing parties must be able to rely. Even if prior counsel’s

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determination was in error, it does not follow that Plaintiff’s Motion should be granted;

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tactical misjudgments are not a license to prolong litigation. In any event, it is not clear

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that Plaintiff must call experts in order to prevail. Plaintiff does not explain exactly what

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types of experts he would call, or how those experts would be crucial to proving either

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causation or damages. A bare assertion that Plaintiff “needs expert testimony to prove

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his case under the ADA” (Doc. 41 at 5) is unpersuasive.

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Amending the scheduling order again at this late date could also prejudice

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Defendant. From the time this action was filed in July 2014 until the original disclosure

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deadline in February 2015, prior counsel had seven months to locate possible expert

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witnesses. After stipulating to Plaintiff’s March 18, 2015 Motion to Extend Discovery

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Deadlines (Doc. 37), which recited that Plaintiff’s time for disclosing expert witnesses

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had passed, Defendant should be free to focus on preparing its own case, rather than

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anticipating testimony from untimely witnesses. The court would not have granted that

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motion had Plaintiff made clear he would later attempt to use it to obtain extension of a

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contested deadline to which Defendant did not consent.

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IT IS THEREFORE ORDERED that the Motion to Extend Plaintiff’s Expert
Disclosure Deadline (Doc. 41) is denied.
DATED this 9th day of April, 2015.

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