EState R. Gaither v. Dist. of D.C.

• Decision Date: 28 February 2011
• Docket Number: Civil Action No. 03–01458 (CKK).
• Citation: 771 F.Supp.2d 5
• Parties: ESTATE OF Mikal R. GAITHER, by and through Pearl GAITHER, Personal Representative, Plaintiff,v.DISTRICT OF COLUMBIA, et al., Defendants.
• Court: U.S. District Court — District of Columbia

771 F.Supp.2d 5

ESTATE OF Mikal R. GAITHER, by and through Pearl GAITHER, Personal Representative, Plaintiff,

v.DISTRICT OF COLUMBIA, et al., Defendants.

Civil Action No. 03–01458 (CKK).

United States District Court, District of Columbia.

Feb. 28, 2011.

Eric I. Goldberg, John Moustakas, Kartik N. Venguswamy, Richard Lee Matheny, Goodwin Procter LLP, Washington, DC, for Plaintiff.Corliss Vaughn Adams, Eric Sebastian Glover, Phillip A. Lattimore, III, Office of the Attorney General for the District of Columbia, Washington, DC, Shameka L. Gainey, Fulbright & Jaworski, LLP, Washington, DC, for Defendants.

MEMORANDUM OPINION

COLLEEN KOLLAR–KOTELLY, District Judge.

Plaintiff Pearl Gaither (“Plaintiff”) commenced this action on July 1, 2003, as the personal representative of the estate of Mikal R. Gaither. Named as defendants are the District of Columbia, Odie Washington, Marvin L. Brown, Dennis Harrison, Zerline Brooks, Gounod Toppin, and Joseph White (collectively, “Defendants”). Presently before the Court is Defendants' [195] Motion for Reconsideration of the Court's September 8, 2009 Order Granting in Part and Denying in Part Their Motion for Judgment on the Pleadings and/or for Summary Judgment (“Motion for Reconsideration”). Although styled as such, Defendants' motion plainly is not one for reconsideration, as it either raises arguments that should have been raised in their underlying motion for summary judgment but were not, or merely recycles the same arguments already pressed and rejected. Accordingly, based on the parties' submissions, the attachments thereto, the relevant authorities, and the record as a whole, the Court shall DENY Defendants' [195] Motion for Reconsideration.¹

I. BACKGROUND

The Court assumes familiarity with its prior opinions in this action, which set forth in detail the extensive history of this case, and shall therefore only address the factual and procedural background necessary to address the discrete issues currently before the Court.

Plaintiff first commenced this action on July 1, 2003, as the personal representative of the estate of Mikal R. Gaither (“Gaither”), who was fatally stabbed on December 14, 2002 while incarcerated at the District of Columbia's Central Detention Facility (the “Jail”). See Compl., Docket No. [1]. In her Second Amended Complaint,² Plaintiff asserts the following three causes of action:

• First Cause of Action (Section 1983). For her first cause of action, based on 42 U.S.C. § 1983 (“Section 1983”), Plaintiff alleges that Defendants deliberately or recklessly subjected Gaither to an unreasonable risk of violent injury as a result of the conditions at the Jail, in violation of Gaither's Fifth Amendment rights. Second Am. Compl., Docket No. [34], ¶¶ 59–71.

• Second Cause of Action (Negligence/Survival). For her second cause of action, Plaintiff alleges that Defendants were under a statutory and common law duty to provide for the safekeeping, care, and protection of detainees, and their breach of that duty resulted in Gaither's death. Id. ¶¶ 72–78.

• Third Cause of Action (Wrongful Death). For her third cause of action, Plaintiff contends that Defendants' negligence proximately caused Plaintiff, as Gaither's next of kin, to suffer the loss of, inter alia, Gaither's services, companionship, and financial support. Id. ¶¶ 79–81.

This action was stayed for approximately three years pending resolution of a criminal investigation into the circumstances surrounding Gaither's death, after which an extended and often contentious period of discovery ensued. At the conclusion of discovery, the parties filed cross-motions for summary judgment. As described in greater detail below, see infra Part III, Defendants raised some of the very same arguments in support of their Motion for Summary Judgment that they now press in their Motion for Reconsideration, and failed to raise others altogether despite having ample opportunity to do so. See generally Mem. of P. & A. in Supp. of Defs.' Mot. for Summ. J. (“Defs.' Summ. J. Mem.”), Docket No. [146]; Stmt. of Material Fact as to Which There Is No Genuine Issue (“Defs.' Summ. J. Stmt.”), Docket No. [146]; Reply to Pl.'s Opp'n to Defs.' Mot. for Summ. J. (“Defs.' Summ. J. Reply”), Docket No. [162]; Resp. to Pl.'s Resp. Stmt. Regarding Material Facts and Suppl. to Defs.' Stmt. of Material Facts (“Defs.' Resp. Summ. J. Stmt.”), Docket No. [162]. On September 8, 2009, the Court issued a 61–page decision resolving the parties' respective cross-motions for summary judgment. See Estate of Gaither ex rel. Gaither v. District of Columbia, 655 F.Supp.2d 69 (D.D.C.2009). Immediately on the heels of the Court's decision, Defendants filed the present [195] Motion for Reconsideration.

II. LEGAL STANDARD

Under Rule 54(b) of the Federal Rules of Civil Procedure, the district court may revise its own interlocutory orders “at any time before the entry of judgment adjudicating all the claims and all the parties' rights and liabilities.” ³ Fed.R.Civ.P. 54(b). While Rule 54(b) affords a procedural mechanism for courts to reconsider prior interlocutory orders, its actual text provides little guidance as to when reconsideration may be appropriate. Wultz v. Islamic Republic of Iran, 762 F.Supp.2d 18, 23, 2011 WL 263676, at *3 (D.D.C. Jan. 28, 2011). To fill this gap, the United States Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia has provided that relief under Rule 54(b) is available “as justice requires.” Capitol Sprinkler Inspection, Inc. v. Guest Servs., Inc., 630 F.3d 217, 227 (D.C.Cir.2011). The “as justice requires” standard may be met where the district court has “patently” misunderstood the parties, strayed far afield of the issues presented, or failed to consider a controlling or significant change in the law or facts since the submission of the issue. Konarski v. Donovan, 763 F.Supp.2d 128, 135, 2011 WL 383995, at *5 (D.D.C. Feb. 7, 2011). In the final analysis, the district court must ask whether relief upon reconsideration is “necessary under the relevant circumstances.” Lewis v. District of Columbia, 736 F.Supp.2d 98, 102 (D.D.C.2010) (internal quotation marks omitted). In this regard, the district court's discretion is broad. Id.

III. DISCUSSION

Defendants ascribe three errors to this Court's prior opinion resolving the parties' cross-motions for summary judgment:

• First, Defendants contend that this Court erred because Gaither's detention status at the time of his death precludes Plaintiff from relying on the Fifth Amendment as the basis for the predicate constitutional violation supporting her Section 1983 claim, requiring judgment as a matter of law in their favor on that claim. See Defs.' Mem. at 9–10; Defs.' Reply at 1–10.

• Second, Defendants posit that this Court erred in finding that myriad genuine factual disputes were “material” because Plaintiff failed to connect Defendants' conduct with a specific standard of care. See Defs.' Mem. at 11–20; Defs.' Reply at 10–16.

• Third, Defendants assert that this Court erred because Plaintiff failed to establish that Defendants' conduct proximately caused Gaither's death, warranting judgment as a matter of law in their favor. See Defs.' Mem. at 20–23; Defs.' Reply at 16–20.

All three arguments are without merit. The first should have been, but plainly was not, raised in Defendants' Motion for Summary Judgment; indeed, the Court chastised both parties at some length in its opinion for failing to address the argument altogether. The second and third arguments, in contrast, were to some extent raised by Defendants in their Motion for Summary Judgment, but far from “overlooked,” as Defendants suggest, they were considered and rejected by the Court.

The Court shall address each of these arguments in turn, but considers it necessary to begin with an overarching observation. As previously stated, although styled as such, Defendants' motion is plainly not one for reconsideration. Defendants' entire motion either raises arguments that should have been, but were not, raised in their underlying Motion for Summary Judgment, or merely recycles the same arguments already pressed and rejected. This approach is, frankly, a waste of the limited time and resources of the litigants and the judicial system. In this Circuit, it is well-established that “motions for reconsideration,” whatever their procedural basis, cannot be used as “an opportunity to reargue facts and theories upon which a court has already ruled, nor as a vehicle for presenting theories or arguments that could have been advanced earlier.” ⁴ Secs. & Exch. Comm'n v. Bilzerian, 729 F.Supp.2d 9, 14 (D.D.C.2010) (internal citations omitted). While filing a motion of this kind is almost never appropriate, Defendants' decision to do so in this case is especially troubling because the parties were expressly warned that the Court would not entertain “motions for reconsideration” simply repackaging old arguments or presenting arguments that should have been raised earlier. See Scheduling & Procedures Order, Docket No. [59], at 5–6.

While Defendants consistently attempt to elide the nature of the present motion, they effectively concede that the original briefing in support of their Motion for Summary Judgment was wholly inadequate. Indeed, in a footnote in the notice accompanying the Motion for Reconsideration, Defendants' counsel “apologizes to this Court for the brief originally filed in this case.” Defs.' Mot. for Recons. of the Court's September 8, 2009 Order Granting in Part and Denying in Part Their Mot. for J. on the Pleadings and/or for Summ. J., Docket No. [195], at 1 n. 1.⁵ The apology, while appreciated, does not transform Defendants' Motion for Reconsideration from an attempt to relitigate matters that have already been decided or that should have been raised earlier into a bona fide motion for reconsideration. The Court shall not belabor the point further; Defendants are cautioned that they should refrain from filing...