Terminating Litigation Before Trial (continued)
Summary Judgment (Defendant)
No reasonable jury could find for plaintiff with respect to at least one element of the
cause of action.
Summary Judgment (Plaintiff)
No reasonable jury could find for defendant with respect to each element of the cause
of action.
Usually only partial summary judgment; there is usually a trial over the damages.
If a reasonable jury could find for the nonmovant, summary judgment is inappropriate –
the question is not how likely it would be that a jury would find for the nonmovant
The judge does not act as a jury.
The intersection between pleading standards and summary judgment
in the pleading cases we had, the plaintiff did not have enough evidence at the time of
pleading such that a reasonable jury could find in his favor
in Sierocinski, the P’s evidence (the blasting cap blew up) was insufficient to
convince a reasonable jury of negligence
in Twombly, the Ps’ evidence (parallel behavior by the defendants) was
insufficient to convince a reasonable jury of an agreement
In Iqbal, the P’s evidence (actions disproportionately affecting Muslims) was
insufficient to convince a reasonable jury of discriminatory intent
the question remains whether this problem should stop a plaintiff at the pleading
stage, which keeps him from getting to discovery (where he might find evidence
sufficient to convince a reasonable jury)
Murphy v. Cuomo: SJ was granted to Δ, in addition to R 11 sanctions being imposed
upon P’s lawyer. There was insufficient evidence (actually no evidence) that the
defendant had conspired to test the pepper spray on innocents
The “reasonable jury” standard for summary judgment must take into account the
standard of proof – SJ for the defendant is appropriate if no reasonable jury could find
that the standard of proof is satisfied
1st example slide:
-Two cars at 90 degrees hit and kill
everyone in the cars.
-No witnesses
-Only evidence is the working
traffic light, meaning one of them
but only one went thru a red light
-One family sues the estate of the
other.
-The estate/defendant moves for
SJ.
-Appropriate?
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