Opinion
11832-20
04-29-2024
AVENTIS, INC. AND SUBSIDIARIES, Petitioner v. COMMISSIONER OF INTERNAL REVENUE, Respondent
ORDER
David Gustafson, Judge.
Trial in this case is set for February 2025. (Docs. 33-34.) At petitioner's request the pretrial schedule made allowance for the filing of a motion for summary judgment on a debt-vs.-equity issue, and for the briefing of that motion the Court set a schedule (see Docs. 35-36) that was intended to allow sufficient time so that the Court could rule on the motion well in advance of the scheduled trial date. The final brief (i.e., petitioner's reply brief) was to be filed March 15, 2024, but there has been some slippage in that schedule, and the deadline for the final reply brief was extended to April 26, 2024. (See Docs. 39, 41, 52, 53.) A reply brief was timely filed (Doc. 59), but it was accompanied by two declarations (Docs. 60-61) with 15 exhibits.
Rule 121(d) presumes that the evidentiary materials relied on in support of a motion for summary judgment will accompany the motion, so that the non-movant's response can take them into account in arguing the presence of a genuine dispute of material fact. As far as we know, respondent did not have those materials in view when preparing his objection (Doc. 42), memorandum (Docs. 43, 50), and supporting declarations (Docs. 44-46). It is therefore
ORDERED that, no later than May 10, 2024, respondent shall file a status report, stating whether he wishes to file a supplemental objection to the motion for summary judgment and, if so, by what date he requests to be permitted to do so (and whether petitioner agrees to his request).