Opinion
Case No. 05-2061-JWL.
August 25, 2006
ORDER
This matter is currently before the court on Plaintiff's Motion to Strike Defendant Mid-America Rehabilitation Hospital's Daubert Motion to Exclude Certain Opinions of Plaintiff's Experts (doc. #112). In this motion, plaintiff asks the court to strike the hospital's Daubert motion on the grounds that it was not filed by April 28, 2006, which was the deadline set forth in the court's scheduling order. See Scheduling Order (doc. #27), at 2. Importantly, however, because the pretrial order has been entered in this case it supersedes the pleadings and controls the subsequent course of this case. See Pretrial Order (doc. #90), at 1. The pretrial order sets a new deadline for Daubert motions, stating that all such motions "shall be filed by 28 days before trial [but, if such a motion as a practical matter will be case-dispositive, or if an evidentiary hearing on the motion is reasonably anticipated, then this deadline shall be set in accordance with the dispositive motion deadline stated above]." Id. § XV(c), at 16. The hospital filed its Daubert motion on August 15, 2006. At that time, the trial date was anticipated to be September 19, 2006. Thus, the hospital filed this motion before the applicable twenty-eight-day deadline. Moreover, it does not appear to the court (and plaintiff does not contend) that the motion as a practical matter will be case dispositive or that an evidentiary hearing on the motion was reasonably anticipated. Accordingly, plaintiff has not shown that the hospital's Daubert motion is the type of motion for which the deadline should have been in accordance with the dispositive motion deadline. Because the hospital's Daubert motion was filed by the twenty-eight-day deadline, then, the court will summarily deny plaintiff's motion to strike.
The court later granted the parties' joint motion to continue the trial setting and set this case for trial on September 26, 2006. See Minute Entry (doc. #109).
IT IS THEREFORE ORDERED BY THE COURT that Plaintiff's Motion to Strike Defendant Mid-America Rehabilitation Hospital's Daubert Motion to Exclude Certain Opinions of Plaintiff's Experts (doc. #112) is summarily denied. IT IS FURTHER ORDERED that the deadline for plaintiff to file its response to the hospital's Daubert motion is extended to 12:00 noon on Wednesday, August 30, 2006.
IT IS SO ORDERED.