Sanders v. District of Columbia ( 2014 )

UNITED STATES DISTRICT COURT
FOR THE DISTRICT OF COLUMBIA
_________________________________________
)
CHRISTOPHER SANDERS, )
)
Plaintiff, )
)
v. ) Civil Action No. 06-1411 (PLF)
)
DISTRICT OF COLUMBIA, et al., )
)
Defendants. )
_________________________________________ )
MEMORANDUM OPINION AND ORDER
On October 1, 2013, the Court ordered the parties to file supplemental
memoranda regarding the parties’ pending cross-motions for summary judgment. The parties
filed their respective memoranda on November 12, 2013. On November 3, 2014, however,
plaintiff filed an unsolicited “Notice of Supplemental Authority.” In addition to notifying the
Court of recent potentially relevant court decisions, the Notice contains significant legal
argument and appears to be more a supplemental memorandum of law than a “notice.”
Neither the Federal Rules of Civil Procedure nor the Local Rules of this Court
provide for the filing of supplemental authorities. In practice, however, this Court has allowed
notices of supplemental authority to be filed without leave of court, provided that such notices
are limited. Cf. FED. R. APP. PRO. 28(j) (A party may file a letter “setting forth the citations” and
“stat[ing] the reasons for the supplemental citations” in 350 words or less). But “[a] surreply
may be filed only by leave of Court, and only to address new matters raised in a reply to which a
party would otherwise be unable to respond.” United States ex rel. Pogue v. Diabetes Treatment
Ctrs. of Am., Inc., 238 F. Supp. 2d 270, 276-77 (D.D.C. 2002). Plaintiff did not request such
leave.
Although plaintiff has filed an impermissible surreply, the Court, in its discretion,
will not strike plaintiff’s Notice of Supplemental Authority. Defendants instead will be given the
opportunity to respond to plaintiff’s arguments, in a brief of similar length, to be filed on or
before November 21, 2014.
Accordingly, for the foregoing reasons, it is hereby
ORDERED that defendants shall file their response to plaintiff’s Notice of
Supplemental Authority [Dkt. No. 125] on or before November 21, 2014.
SO ORDERED.
/s/____________________________
PAUL L. FRIEDMAN
DATE: November 6, 2014 United States District Judge