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Defense Digest

Managing Stricter Case Management Orders

Defense Digest, Vol. 29, No. 1, March 2023

March 1, 2023

Key Points:

  • Florida is moving to stricter adherence to case management orders.
  • Beware of tougher sanctions for non-compliance.

Florida is experiencing a recent push towards strict compliance with case management orders to impose more judicial control on current civil caseloads. This includes tougher sanctions for non-compliance, including sanctions affecting discovery, depositions, and continuances.

The Judicial Management Council’s Workgroup on Improved Resolution of Civil Cases is making an effort to manage civil cases and had proposed numerous changes to the Rules of Civil Procedure and the Rules of General Practice and Judicial Administration. This focus on promoting judicial efficiency is due to the backlog of COVID-19 pandemic cases. The goal of the Workgroup is to improve the clearance rate of civil cases by reducing the length of time to litigate a case.

Some rule amendments or new rules proposed for the Florida Civil Procedure Rules relating to case management orders were: 1.200 (case management in general), 1.201 (complex cases), 1.440 (setting cases for trial), and 1.275 (to codify sanctions available to the courts for litigation-related offenses). For cases in the “case management in general” category:

The parties must meet and confer within 30 days after initial service of the complaint on the first defendant served (unless this deadline is extended by the court) and work out projected deadlines in seven categories, including discovery, potential dispositive motions, and anticipated trial readiness date. Within 120 days after the case is filed or within 30 days after service on the last defendant, whichever is earlier, the parties must file a joint case management report and proposed case management order based on the meet and confer, failing which the court will issue its own case management order. The contents of the joint case management report are delineated in [Rule 1.200] subdivision (e)(3)(C). The contents of the proposed case management order are listed in subdivision (e)(3)(D), which requires the parties to set numerous deadlines, to propose a trial period or a date for a case management conference to set the trial period, and to state the anticipated number of days for trial. The court must issue the case management order as soon as practicable after receiving the parties’ proposed order; the court may also call a case management conference before issuing the case management order. In short, the case management order sets a comprehensive master timetable for the remainder of the case’s pretrial proceedings.”

The Workgroup is concerned that case management orders are being looked at as guidelines or are being completely ignored by the parties. To prevent this, the proposal included plans to hold inflexible trial dates and rigid deadlines to be enforced, and to “impose sanctions without resort to a prefatory order to show cause, given that the parties are on notice, under the case management order, of what is required of them.” And the court, “if both parties fail to appear at a case management conference…may assume that the case has been resolved and dismiss it without prejudice.”

The Florida Supreme Court addressed these proposals and declined to adopt the Workgroup’s proposal to streamline Florida’s civil litigation system. However, it does not put to bed the push for stricter compliance, as the court noted, “[t]he Court declines to adopt the Workgroup’s proposed amendment at this time because additional refinements are necessary. Instead, the Court will make a series of phased referrals for the refinement and study of the Workgroup’s proposals, beginning with the attached referrals to the Civil Procedure Rules Committee, the Rules of General Practice and Judicial Administration Committee, the Florida Courts Technology Commission, and the Trial Court Budget Commission.” The Supreme Court’s order issued referrals for the refinement and study of the proposals submitted by the Workgroup on Improved Resolution of Civil Cases. It should be anticipated that the amendments will be back under review after the studies are completed.

The impact of inflexible deadlines will be felt mainly by the defense increased difficulties in obtaining experts and completing expert discovery within a strict time frame. While plaintiffs will have the chance to prepare their cases for trial prior to filing suit, the defense will be strapped with working under harsh deadlines. For this reason, it’s important to consider new defense strategies and onboarding experts early on in litigation. 

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Sheetz filed an administrative appeal pursuant to R.C. 2506 in the Montgomery County Court of Common Pleas, and two months later filed a complaint for damages and declaratory relief under 42 USC § 1983 as a takings action with the city, city council, and other objectors as improper takings and a violation of due process, as well as interference with business and contractual relationship. The city and city council removed the § 1983 action for damages to federal court. Montgomery County Court of Common Pleas reversed the city council’s denial, and allowed the Sheetz project to move forward. Upon that ruling, the federal court issued a show-cause order questioning whether the § 1983 action was barred by the doctrine of res judicata via claim preclusion (which includes all theories of recovery).  Sheetz argued that Ohio courts of common pleas do not have authority to award damages or declaratory relief as party of the R.C. Ch. 2506 appeal, therefore res judicata could not be triggered to apply to the § 1983 action. Additionally, Sheetz moved to certify the issue to the Ohio Supreme Court, citing differing results between the second and sixth districts on this same issue. Centerville approached the question, not from a claim preclusion standpoint, but from the holding in Grava v. Parkman, Twp which states that a final judgment rendered on the merits bars all subsequent action based on the same transaction or occurrence.  In yet another approach, an objector argued that claim preclusion was satisfied because Sheetz could have raised its damages claims in the administrative appeal – Sheetz disagrees. In their analysis, the Supreme Court of Ohio broke down the elements of a claim preclusion analysis: 1) a prior final, valid decision on the merits by a court of competent jurisdiction; (2) a second action involving the same parties, or their privies, as the first; (3) a second action raising claims that were or could have been litigated in the first action; and (4) a second action arising out of the transaction or occurrence that was the subject matter of the previous action. The Court held that R.C. Ch. 2506 does not permit a party to argue damages as R.C. Ch. 2506 limits the common pleas jurisdiction as if it were sitting on appeal, and therefore can only affirm, reverse, vacate, or modify the appealed order, or can remand the case to the administrative body. Further, the Court held that Grava’s conclusion that a final judgment precludes additional litigation for different relief is inapplicable under this fact pattern because it was meant only to apply to those matters in which the plaintiff brings the exact same case twice, but for new relief. The Court found Grava was inapplicable because Sheetz could have requested damages or declaratory relief in the R.C. 2506 appeal. Therefore, Grava would be nothing more than dicta if it even did apply. Going further, the Ohio Supreme Court disavowed Sixth Circuit precedent which, in reliance on Grava and other district court decisions, permitted an owner to seeking relief under 42 U.S.C. § 1983 alongside an administrative appeal. See Moore v Hiram Twp., 988 F.3d 353 (6th Cir.2021). The Ohio Supreme Court found that the Sixth Circuit had disregarded a critical decision in Community Concerned Citizens, Inc. v. Union Twp. Bd. of Zoning Appeals, 1993-Ohio-115, which clearly held that a R.C. Ch. 2506 appeal cannot be combined with a complaint seeking other claims for relief. Id. at ¶ 11. To that end, the Ohio Supreme Court has determined that the decisions Moore relied on (outside of Grava) are no longer good law, and that Moore was wrongly decided. The decision draws a clear procedural boundary: Chapter 2506 provides judicial review of an administrative decision, not a forum for independent claims seeking affirmative relief. Although Grava may place claims arising from a single transaction within the potential scope of claim preclusion, those claims are not barred unless the complete claim-preclusion test is satisfied. Because Sheetz could not have pursued damages or declaratory relief in its Chapter 2506 appeal, the separate action was not precluded. The remaining question for practitioners looking to apply or defend against this exception is when does the statute of limitations begin to run on damages and declaratory relief claims related to an administrative decision on appeal? A takings action in federal court has a 2-year statute of limitations, or as a state claim, 4 years (like the other tortious claims raised therein). Correlating this case with others, an administrative appeal will not likely toll the statute of limitations on claims based on a final decision by a municipal authority. Therefore, practitioners should look for these cases to be brought simultaneously.

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