In the ongoing civil litigation against Madoff feeder fund Fairfield Greenwich and others (see our previous coverage here), Judge Marrero took the unusual step yesterday of denying Standard Chartered’s request for a pre-motion conference for their contemplated summary judgment motion. Standard Chartered had argued that a summary judgment motion was appropriate on a number of grounds, including timeliness, SLUSA preclusion, and the plaintiffs’ failure to establish key elements of their material omission claim.
Judge Marrero told the parties at an earlier pre-motion conference in 2014 that he was “skeptical” of the defendants’ ability to show there were no disputed issues of material fact. After letter briefing by both sides and an earlier decision that resolved one of the claims, Judge Marrero remained unconvinced and concluded that further motion practice would be “counterproductive” and would cause needless delay:
The court remains persuaded that the Standard Chartered Defendants would be unable to “show[] that there is no genuine dispute as to any material fact” such that they would be entitled to judgment as a matter of law on the remaining claims of breach of fiduciary duty, negligence, and gross negligence. Standard Chartered Defendants’ pursuing summary judgment practice at this time in the light of the extensive prior proceedings, the current status of the litigation, and the Court’s familiarity with the issues would be counterproductive and serve to unnecessarily add to costs and delay.