Kennedy v. Mt. Ridge Realty Associates, LLC

Filing 23

OPINION AND ORDER denying 12 Motion for summary judgment. Signed by Judge John E. Steele on 9/22/2016. (RKR)

UNITED STATES DISTRICT COURT
MIDDLE DISTRICT OF FLORIDA
FORT MYERS DIVISION
PATRICIA
individually,

KENNEDY,

Plaintiff,
v.

Case No: 2:15-cv-757-FtM-99MRM

MT. RIDGE REALTY ASSOCIATES,
LLC,
Defendant.
OPINION AND ORDER
This matter comes before the Court on review of the file.
Plaintiff Patricia Kennedy initiated her Complaint (Doc. #1) on
December 4, 2015, and defendant Mt. Ridge Realty Associates, LLC
appeared and filed an Answer and Affirmative Defenses (Doc. #7) on
December

23,

2015.

On

January

29,

2016,

after

conferring

telephonically, the parties filed their Case Management Report
(Doc.

#11)

proposing

certain

deadlines,

including

a

date

of

November 9, 2016, for defendant to disclose expert reports.
Eleven

days

later,

including

a

holiday

and

weekend,

on

February 9, 2016, plaintiff filed a Motion for Summary Judgment
(Doc. #12).
and

Defendant filed a Response in Opposition (Doc. #14)

Affidavit

in

Support

(Doc.

#15)

noting

the

lack

of

any

opportunity to conduct discovery, and plaintiff filed a Reply (Doc.
#18).

Rule 56 requires adequate time for discovery prior to entry
of summary judgment.
(1986).

Celotex Corp. v. Catrett, 477 U.S. 317, 322

Entry of summary judgment before the nonmoving party has

had time to conduct discovery constitutes reversible error.
WSB-TV v. Lee, 842 F.2d 1266, 1269 (11th Cir. 1988).

See

A party has

the right to challenge the factual evidence presented by the moving
party by conducting sufficient discovery so as to determine if it
may furnish opposing affidavits.

Snook v. Tr. Co. of Ga. Bank of

Savannah, N.A., 859 F.2d 865, 870 (11th Cir. 1988).

Ruling on the

merits of a case in which a motion for summary judgment has been
prematurely

filed

would

factually investigate.

frustrate

the

non-movant’s

right

to

Blumel v. Mylander, 919 F. Supp. 423, 429

(M.D. Fla. 1996).
On August 30, 2016, the court issued an Amended Related Case
Order and ADA Title III Track Two Notice (Doc. #19) indicating
that the Court would be issuing a modified scheduling order.

On

September 9, 2016, the court issued an ADA Title III Scheduling
Order

(Doc.

deadlines.

#22)

requiring

the

parties

to

adhere

to

special

In light of this Scheduling Order, discovery is stayed

until such time as settlement efforts have been exhausted.
#22, ¶ 8.)
time

of

(Doc.

The Court finds that the motion was premature at the

filing,

and

that

defendant

conducting a factual investigation.
Accordingly, it is hereby

- 2 -

is

now

foreclosed

from

The motion will be denied.

ORDERED:
Plaintiff's Motion for Summary Judgment (Doc. #12) is DENIED.
DONE and ORDERED at Fort Myers, Florida, this
of September, 2016.

Copies:
Counsel of Record

- 3 -

22nd

day