Deadline Karma

The issue in Stewart v. Gruber was the exclusion of an untimely expert report; among other points made in affirming, the Fifth Circuit noted:

Plaintiffs fail to identify any precedent barring courts from considering whether the proponent of an untimely expert report declined an opportunity to cure such untimeliness by refusing to join a motion to continue that would have extended deadlines for both parties and therefore lessened any prejudice to the opposing party. Put another way, Plaintiffs were only willing to have extra time for them, not a similar extension for the Defendants who would need to, of course, have an expert that addressed the Plaintiffs’ expert. Such a notion on the part of the Plaintiffs was totally improper.

No. 23-30129 (Dec. 14, 2023, unpublished).