Cohen v. Board of Trustees of the University of the District of Columbia, 305 F.R.D. 10

This action was removed from the Superior Court of the District of Columbia to this Court on April 30, 2014.
Plaintiff Cohen sought to amend after the Superior Court accepted an amended complaint that raised a due process claim.
Defendants moved to dismiss on May 7, 2014; plaintiff did not timely oppose.
Plaintiff attempted two extensions to file an opposition, both denied for excusable neglect reasons.
Plaintiff’s opposition was filed June 20, 2014, after the 14-day deadline under Local Civil Rule 7(b).
Plaintiff later sought to amend, but the court denied as moot after granting the motion to dismiss as conceded.

Issue	Plaintiff's Argument	Defendant's Argument	Held
Whether plaintiff's extension motions were justified	Cohen seeks excusable neglect for late opposition	Neglect was not excusable; docket monitoring deficiency shown	Denies first extension; second extension denied as moot
Whether the motion to dismiss should be treated as conceded	Opposition timely to be considered	No timely opposition; nonopposition warrants conceding the motion	Granted as conceded
Whether plaintiff’s motion to amend was moot	Amendment needed to pursue federal claim	moot after dismissal	Denied as moot

Pioneer Inv. Servs. Co. v. Brunswick Assocs. Ltd. P'ship, 507 U.S. 380 (1993) (excusable neglect; equitable standard for extensions of time)
Halmon v. Jones Lang Wootton USA, 355 F. Supp. 2d 239 (D.D.C. 2005) (docket monitoring inexcusable neglect)
Inst. for Policy Studies v. CIA, 246 F.R.D. 380 (D.D.C. 2007) (negligence in docket review can be excusable in unusual circumstances)
Webster v. Pacesetter, Inc., 270 F. Supp. 2d 9 (D.D.C. 2003) (delay weighed; reason for delay pivotal)
Fox v. Am. Airlines, Inc., 389 F.3d 1291 (D.C. Cir. 2004) (ECF system malfunction not a sufficient excuse)
In re American Classic Voyages Co., 405 F.3d 127 (3d Cir. 2005) (negligence in reviewing docket entries)