This case revolves around a decades-old family saga that, as this Court observed in a previous Opinion, reads like the plot of one of John le Carré's Cold War novels. It opens in 1996 with the airport assassinations of Yevgenyi Scherban, a Ukrainian politician and businessman, and Nadejda Nikitina, his wife. Scherban left more than $100 million behind, along with three sons-Evgenyi, Ruslan, and Yevgen-who have since engaged in a global hunt for their missing inheritance.
This latest chapter concerns but a small sliver of the family fortune-namely, one savings account held with Defendant SunTrust Bank at its Boca Raton, Florida, branch. Scherban opened this account around 1994 and deposited more than a million dollars into it. In 2003, the account was apparently closed with no funds remaining, but SunTrust has little explanation for what happened to its balance. More than twelve years later, Plaintiffs brought a twelve-count Complaint, alleging foul play. The Court has since dismissed all but two of those counts, leaving one claim for accounting and one for fraudulent concealment. After protracted discovery, both parties now moves for summary judgment. The Court will grant SunTrust's Motion, thereby closing the book on the Bank's role in this unfortunate tale.
I. Background
A. Factual Background
The Court outlined the Scherban family history in detail in its previous Opinion. See Trudel v. SunTrust Bank,
At the outset, the parties debate when exactly Scherban opened this joint savings account. Plaintiffs plead that he did so around 1994, while SunTrust suggests it was opened on March 1, 1995. Compare Second Amended Complaint (SAC), ¶ 38 with ECF No. 79 (Def. MSJ), Exh. 3 (Affidavit of John A. Barry), ¶ 5. The ownership of that account is also somewhat murky, but the Court has assumed (to Plaintiffs' benefit) that Scherban designated two direct beneficiaries on the account: Nikitina and Ruslan. See Trudel,
Regardless of Ruslan's ownership status, he alleges that he "was not involved in managing" the account, "did not get any copies of any statements from SunTrust," and did not review any such statements. See ECF No. 31-9 (First Affidavit of Ruslan E. Scherban), ¶¶ 4-5, 10. He lacked *244this knowledge because Scherban's assistant, Alexei Alexeenko, was tasked with keeping tabs on the family's American financial interests. Id., ¶¶ 4, 10 (identifying Alexeenko as the "manager" of the account and speculating that copies of statements from SunTrust were "withheld by Alexeenko, who ... concealed various documentation from [Ruslan] and from the two other heirs").
With Ruslan left in the dark, the account's balance slowly dwindled. Before Scherban's and Nikitina's deaths on November 3, 1996, Plaintiffs pled that the 5216 account contained over one million dollars. See SAC, ¶ 41. On December 17 of that year, SunTrust received a fax signed "N. Nikitina" requesting that the Bank transfer via wire $282,000 from Account 5216 to a Czech Republic bank account held by a corporation, Gwynfe Holding Limited. See SAC, ¶¶ 45-46. Among other suspicious circumstances (e.g. , Nikitina was deceased), the fax misspelled the name of the Czech bank and did not use SunTrust's wire-transfer form. Id., ¶¶ 52-53. Yet SunTrust employees approved the transfer anyway. Id., ¶¶ 48-51. The family discovered in 2014 or 2015 that Gwynfe was incorporated in the British Virgin Islands until its dissolution sometime after 1999. Id., ¶¶ 57-58. In addition to suing SunTrust here, Plaintiffs named Gwynfe as a Defendant, and the Clerk of Court recently entered default against it. See ECF No. 99. That transfer and Gwynfe's culpability, however, are not before the Court now.
Given the counts that remain, the current controversy instead centers on one question: what happened to the remaining $812,215.93 in the account? The answer is elusive. According to SunTrust, any records related to the 5216 account are long gone, as it retained such information for only seven years after closing the account. Plaintiffs have pieced together several old bank statements, but those records paint only an incomplete picture of the account's activity. A June 30, 1997, statement, for example, shows an unexplained $50,000 debit, leaving a balance (after accrual of interest) of approximately $771,000. See ECF No. 46-5 (Pl. Opp. to MTD), Exh. A. Then, a statement dated March 31, 2001, shows $3,773.04 remaining. See ECF No. 71-2 (Pl. Reply to Mot. to Reopen Discovery), Exh. 5. SunTrust has little explanation of how roughly $767,000 went missing over those nearly four years, other than casually pinning the blame on Alexeenko. See Def. MSJ at 5. For their part, Plaintiffs seem to allege that the Bank has squirreled away the cash. See SAC, ¶¶ 62-65. Finally, SunTrust reports that the account "was closed" in January 22, 2003, apparently with no money remaining. See Def. MSJ at 3; see also id., Exh. 3. It again offers no explanation of where the $3,733 balance went, other than speculating that the funds "were withdrawn," perhaps by Ruslan. See ECF No. 87 (Def. Opp. to Pl. MSJ) at 8-9.
Adding to the intrigue, Plaintiffs have also discovered a June 2002 letter, purportedly from SunTrust, sent to lawyers for Nikitina's estate. See ECF No. 81-5 (Pl. MSJ), Exh. B. The letter reports that there has been no "client-initiated" activity in the account since March 1, 1995 (i.e. , the day SunTrust says that Scherban opened the account), and that the Bank's statements were repeatedly returned in the mail. Id. Defendant has no record of sending this letter, which contradicts Plaintiffs' own evidence showing withdrawals from the account between 1997 and 2001.
B. Procedural History
On November 6, 2015, the three sons and Scherban's and Nikitina's estates filed the present lawsuit against Defendants *245SunTrust, Alexeenko, Gwynfe, and Does 1 through 10 (ten unnamed individuals, including Gwynfe employees, who had facilitated the allegedly fraudulent transfer). See ECF No. 1. Since then, this suit has undergone several metamorphoses.
One month after filing, Plaintiffs apparently feared that the Court lacked personal jurisdiction over Alexeenko, and so they stipulated to dismissing him without prejudice. See ECF No. 11 (Notice of Voluntary Dismissal). Then, following SunTrust's first motion to dismiss, the Court issued an Opinion instructing Plaintiffs to remove the estates as parties, as estates cannot bring a direct suit, and to designate instead the proper personal representative. See Estate of Scherban v. SunTrust Bank,
The remaining two Plaintiffs (Trudel and Ruslan) brought twelve counts in tow, each largely related to the Bank's handling of the account between 1996 and 2003. While Tolstoy once observed that "the two most powerful warriors are patience and time," neither served Plaintiffs terribly well here. On December 12, 2016, this Court dismissed the lion's share of their Complaint, holding that Counts I-VII and XII were all untimely.
That left only two counts standing: one for accounting (Count VIII) and one for fraudulent concealment (Count X). Both sides have now moved for summary judgment on the whittled-down claims but not before fighting myriad battles over discovery. The Court describes those disputes in more detail below, but given that history, it is not surprising that Plaintiffs have alternatively moved under Rule 56(d) to forestall summary judgment until they can conduct even more discovery.
II. Legal Standard
"When faced with cross-motions for summary judgment, the [C]ourt must review each motion separately on its own merits 'to determine whether either of the parties deserves judgment as a matter of law.' " Family Trust of Mass., Inc. v. United States,
Summary judgment is appropriate "only if one of the moving parties is entitled to judgment as a matter of law upon material facts that are not genuinely disputed." Airlie Foundation v. IRS,
In considering a motion for summary judgment, "[t]he evidence of the non-movant is to be believed, and all justifiable inferences are to be drawn in [its] favor." Liberty Lobby,
III. Analysis
Having considerably narrowed the field, the Court now examines whether Plaintiffs' remaining two counts can survive another round. Applying Florida law, see Trudel,
A. Accounting
In an action for an accounting, a plaintiff broadly seeks from a defendant "a general investigation of all of the transactions between the parties." 1 Florida Jurisprudence 2d: Accounts & Accounting § 32 (2016). Here, Plaintiffs essentially contend that Scherban opened numerous bank accounts at SunTrust (some unknown and with unknown sums) and ask, as relief, that the Bank reveal what (if anything) is left of those accounts and who has drawn money from them. See SAC, ¶¶ 154-58; see also id., ¶ 186(E) (requesting the Court "[t]o order SunTrust to release to Plaintiffs herein all documentation associated with the above identified accounts, as well as any other accounts or assets held for the deceased or Plaintiffs in their own names or for their benefit, without limitation").
"Under Florida law, a party that seeks an equitable accounting must show that: 1) the parties share a fiduciary relationship *247or that the questioned transactions are complex, and 2) a remedy at law is inadequate." Am. United Life Ins. Co. v. Martinez,
"A bank and its customers generally deal at arm's-length as creditor and debtor, and a fiduciary relationship is not presumed." Bldg. Educ. Corp. v. Ocean Bank,
Plaintiffs do not dispute this general framework, nor do they argue that this case involves an especially complex transaction. Instead, they maintain that "special circumstances" here justify departing from the default rule. See ECF No. 89 (Pl. Opp. to MSJ) at 8. It is true that "the Florida Supreme Court has determined that a fiduciary relationship can arise between a bank and its customer from the parties' established relationship of trust and confidence." Arbitrajes Financieros, S.A. v. Bank of America, N.A.,
The plaintiff, however, has the burden of demonstrating like circumstances, see Orlinsky v. Patraka,
The same result obtains even if Plaintiffs expected SunTrust to protect their interests, as "[t]he fact that one party places trust or confidence in the other does not create a confidential relationship in the absence of some recognition, acceptance or undertaking of the duties of a fiduciary on the part of the other party." Id.; see also Jaffe v. Bank of Am., N.A.,
Ruslan and Trudel also suggest that SunTrust exercised "full control" over their assets, as the account languished for years with no "client-initiated activities," and "Nikitina's death had been published" pursuant to Florida probate law. See Pl. Opp. to MSJ at 8. This argument, too, misses the mark. While Trudel and Ruslan may have, in fact, failed to exercise control over the account, their entire suit is premised on the idea that they retained such a right. Indeed, they vigorously dispute authorizing SunTrust (or any other person) to unilaterally disburse or transfer funds from the account. See ECF No. 92-1 (Second Affidavit of Ruslan E. Scherban), ¶ 9 (stating Ruslan "remained the sole person with authority to withdraw funds from [the] joint savings account"). Plaintiffs, accordingly, never entered into an "established relationship of trust and confidence" in which SunTrust assumed "extensive control" over the assets. See Arbitrajes Financieros, S.A.,
All told, Florida law presumes that no fiduciary duty arises from a bank-customer relationship, and Plaintiffs do nothing to overcome that presumption. With no fiduciary duty (and no allegation that this case involves especially complex transactions), Trudel and Ruslan have no ground for the equitable remedy of accounting. The Court *249therefore grants SunTrust's Motion on that count.
B. Fraudulent Concealment
Next up is fraudulent concealment. In its last Opinion, the Court allowed Plaintiffs to pursue one count on that basis. See Trudel,
Instead, they pose a new theory of fraudulent concealment, one wholly unrelated to their original briefing on that count. See Pl. MSJ at 7-15; Pl. Opp. to Def. MSJ at 7-15. Although their Motion is somewhat opaque, Plaintiffs appear to seek "summary adjudication" on two issues: 1) that SunTrust violated Florida's escheat rules; and 2) that the Bank violated its own internal policy of retaining records of abandoned or escheated accounts for twenty years. See Pl. MSJ at 3. They believe legal determinations on those points would "simpli[fy] the issues on the cause of action for fraudulent concealment."
1. Failure to Escheat
Plaintiffs' latest theory unfolds as follows: (1) Florida escheat laws require a bank to turn over unclaimed property after 5 years, see
The Court has seen a variant of this argument before. At the motion-to-dismiss stage, Plaintiffs similarly contended that "SunTrust closed [the 5216] account in January 2003, apparently following years of inactivity." Trudel,
The Court rejected each of those claims as time-barred under the applicable statute either of limitations or repose.
In any event, had Plaintiffs raised this theory originally, it would have met the same fate as its peers. To wit, the Court would have held that the action was untimely, as it did for the other eight counts brought on this basis. As the Court explained then, Florida's statute of repose provides that "an action for fraud ... must be begun within 12 years after the date of the commission of the alleged fraud, regardless of the date the fraud was or should have been discovered." Trudel,
Although SunTrust did not raise a time-bar defense this go-round, the Court properly does so sua sponte . The Florida Supreme Court has distinguished between "jurisdictional statutes of non-claim (repose) and statutes of limitations," only the latter of which is "subject to waiver." Lutheran Bhd. Legal Reserve Fraternal Ben. Soc'y v. Estate of Petz,
As before, the Court answers affirmatively, since Trudel and Ruslan essentially bring the same claim by another name. The Florida Supreme Court has made clear that the 12-year statute of repose applies to fraudulent-concealment claims, running as soon as "the defendant's last act or omission" occurs. See Hess v. Philip Morris USA, Inc.,
True, Plaintiffs allege that Defendant committed further acts of fraudulent concealment through its allegedly misleading disclosures during litigation in this case. The Florida Supreme Court has held that "where there is evidence of the defendant's wrongful conduct within the repose period, the statute of repose will not bar a plaintiff's fraudulent concealment claim." Hess,
2. Failure to Follow Internal Policy
Plaintiffs also suggest that SunTrust violated its own record-retention policies. Specifically, they cite an internal policy of retaining "[r]ecords related to escheated/abandoned property [for] 20 years." Pl. MSJ at 16. Because the Bank kept records relating to the 5216 account for only seven years, Plaintiffs ask the Court to hold as a matter of law that it "failed and/or refused to comply with its own" policy. Id. at 17. This is an odd request, and one that need not detain the Court for long. As explained above, SunTrust never treated the property in the account as abandoned or escheated, so it had no reason to retain the records for 20 years. And, in any event, Plaintiffs supply no explanation for why SunTrust's violation of its own internal policy would give rise to any cause of action (much less one for fraudulent concealment). The Court thus cannot provide any relief on that ground.
3. Failure to Disclose Third-Party Relationships
That brings the Court back to where it started: SunTrust's allegedly misleading disclosures during litigation. To refresh the reader, Plaintiffs previously alleged that they had sought information about the various Scherban holdings from SunTrust. See SAC, ¶ 91. Defendant repeatedly responded that it had "reviewed the records at SunTrust Bank to determine if there were any accounts" and concluded that it "no longer has any records in its system." ECF No. 38-1 (Affidavit of John A. Barry), ¶¶ 3, 8; see SAC, ¶¶ 92-93 (quoting Barry Affidavit). According to Ruslan and Trudel, these representations omitted the crucial fact that SunTrust never held on to information for closed accounts in the first place. See SAC, ¶ 94. Old account information would thus not be "at" the Bank or in "its system." Instead, Plaintiffs alleged that SunTrust outsourced its archiving services, first to Iron Mountain Information Management LLC and, beginning in February 2002, to Viewpointe Archives Services LLC. Id., ¶¶ 95-96. Under this theory, Defendant should have directed Plaintiffs to Iron Mountain or Viewpointe to search for their account information. Id., ¶¶ 97-99. This omission, Plaintiffs said, crippled their protracted search for their assets. Id., ¶¶ 166-74.
To proceed on that basis, Plaintiffs must show that (1) Defendant concealed or failed to disclose a material fact, (2) it knew or *252should have known that fact should have been disclosed, (3) it knew that its concealment or nondisclosure would induce Plaintiffs to act, (4) it had a duty to disclose the fact, and (5) Plaintiffs detrimentally relied on the misinformation. See Hess,
And so it came to be. After Plaintiffs subpoenaed Viewpointe, the company informed them that, while it "maintains a check archive on behalf of SunTrust, in which SunTrust stores checks drawn on its accounts," it found no records related to Scherban's various accounts. See Def. MSJ, Exh. 11 (Affidavit of James Randolph Thomas), ¶ 3;
That leaves Iron Mountain. In its subpoena response, the company reported that it had located a now-defunct Customer ID number "for SunTrust's branch at 800 S. Federal Highway, Boca Raton, FL 33432." Def. MSJ, Exh. 10 at 1. Its account with SunTrust, however, "is inactive and has been for several years." Id."All inventory was either permanently withdrawn or destroyed and Iron Mountain no longer has access to this account."Id. As the vendor never retained "file level" information for its customers, it is unable to determine "what was in any individual carton stored." In other words, it cannot confirm or deny whether it ever stored records related to Account 5216 (or any other Scherban account). Iron Mountain can say definitively, however, that if it did house such records, it no longer does.
Given that Iron Mountain has "discarded the relevant files," this Court, too, must jettison Plaintiffs' fraudulent-concealment claim. See Trudel,
Indeed, Plaintiffs do little to defend their fraudulent-concealment claim, instead devoting fewer than two pages to *253"SunTrust's Declination to Produce Contractual Documents" relating to Iron Mountain. See Pl. Opp. to Def. MSJ at 33. They hint at opposing summary judgment only by maintaining (without explanation) that "whether or not SunTrust in fact has had a contractual relationship with Iron Mountain" has "ripened into a triable issue." Id. at 35. It is Civil Procedure 101, however, that parties must have a "dispute about a material fact [that] is genuine" to proceed to trial. Liberty Lobby,
This dispute, however, proves immaterial to resolving Plaintiffs' claim. As discussed above, regardless of whether SunTrust once contracted with Iron Mountain to store data, the latter no longer maintains records related to the 5216 account. While Plaintiffs level plenty of shots against SunTrust, they do nothing to impugn Iron Mountain's veracity, nor do they allege that the vendor might still actually maintain records of the account. The Court therefore concludes that there is no dispute of "material fact[s]" related to the fraudulent-concealment count, as none of the points in contention is capable of "affect[ing] the outcome of the suit." Liberty Lobby, Inc., 477 U.S. at 247-48,
C. Discovery Violations
Plaintiffs alternatively move under Federal Rule of Civil Procedure 56(d) to defer any ruling on summary judgment, alleging that they have not yet received an adequate opportunity to conduct discovery. See ECF No. 88. To resolve the Motion, the Court first recounts this case's lengthy discovery history before turning to Plaintiffs' alleged deficiencies.
1. Background
On January 27, 2017, having dismissed much of the case, the Court authorized Plaintiffs to conduct discovery on their remaining counts, starting with interrogatories, requests for production of documents, and requests for admissions from SunTrust. See Minute Order. It also permitted the issuance of the aforementioned subpoenas to Iron Mountain and Viewpointe, both of which duly responded. See Def. MSJ, Exhs. 10, 11.
SunTrust, too, answered each document request and provided approximately 1,000 responsive pages. See ECF No. 84 (Def. Opp. to Motion to Compel) at 2. Those documents included a portion of the Bank's document-retention policy, several versions of its Rules and Regulations from 1995 through 2013, and the Bank's agreement with Viewpointe.
After written discovery concluded, the parties convened before the Court on April *25427, 2017, for a status hearing. Plaintiffs there asked for additional third-party discovery, and the Court (over SunTrust's objection) agreed to extend the deadline so that they could subpoena two law firms in Florida, each of which had addresses listed on SunTrust's screenshots of the 5216 account. See Minute Order. Plaintiffs did so, and the parties returned for another status hearing on July 26, 2017. During that conference, Plaintiffs pitched two more requests: First, they asked SunTrust to turn over additional screenshots of the 5216 account. Second, they sought an additional sixty days to conduct depositions. Over objections from Defendant, the Court granted both of these requests as well. See Minute Order.
Originally, Plaintiffs stated that they wished to depose John Barry (Former Vice President and Counsel for SunTrust), who executed an affidavit in this matter, and Cindy Negron, a former employee who left SunTrust in 2005. The day after the July status conference, counsel for Plaintiffs asked to take three additional depositions: (1) Russell T. McAndrew, a former branch manager at the SunTrust Boca Raton branch who left the Bank in July 2002; (2) Janice Bucher, a former employee at that branch who left in July 1999; and (3) the person "most knowledgeable" about SunTrust's contracts for archiving documents. See ECF No. 74 (Def. Mot. for Protective Order) at 4. In a now-familiar pattern, SunTrust objected to each deposition, except to one for a corporate designee, as they related to the claims that had been dismissed. Id. at 6. Plaintiffs countered that the causes of action were dismissed "without prejudice," and they believed this discovery could prove fruitful in amending their Complaint. See ECF No. 75 (Pl. Opp. to Protective Order) at 3. In an abundance of caution, the Court denied SunTrust's Motion for a Protective Order on August 15, 2017, allowing the depositions to proceed during the ensuing month. See Minute Order.
Perhaps not surprisingly, each deposition had hiccups (including scheduling difficulties due to Hurricane Irma), but the crux of the parties' dispute turns on the deposition of SunTrust's corporate designee. Under Federal Rule of Civil Procedure 30(b)(6), a plaintiff may depose an organization (like SunTrust) and "describe with reasonable particularity the matters for examination." That organization must then designate at least one officer to "testify about information known or reasonably available to the organization." Id.
Plaintiffs so moved, and after amending the scope of this deposition several times, sought a person knowledgeable about (1) the archiving and handling of accounts at SunTrust's 800 S. Federal Highway, Boca Raton, Florida, branch; (2) "Dispatch of archived materials" from that branch with Iron Mountain; (3) the branch's contract with Iron Mountain; (4) how the branch handled the Scherban-Nikitina family accounts; (5) the branch's authority to implement outgoing wire transfers per instructions received by fax; (6) "Operation of the 'ARGO Sales and Service' " software used at the branch, "including but not limited to incorporation of the data system used in 1995-2003, data archiving, procedure for access, logs-in and retrievals of data missing for any reason"; and (7) operations of the branch's Departments of Dormant Accounts and of Returned Mail. See ECF No. 76 (Pl. Mot. to Compel), Exh. A at 2.
SunTrust ultimately selected John Barry as its corporate designee (the same counsel and former Vice President who also testified in his individual capacity). To prepare, Barry apparently consulted an employee with SunTrust's Operations Center in Richmond, Virginia, to gain additional information on the Argo Software *255System, which ran Channel Link, the company's internal banking system. See ECF No. 84 (Def. Opp. to Mot. to Compel), Exh. A (Deposition of John Barry) at 8-10. He asked that employee (1) to do another search for the Scherbans in the Bank's Channel Link system, (2) to explain the precursor bank systems before Channel Link, including one known as the A.M. Teller System, and (3) to describe what the department would do to recover missing information from Channel Link. Id. Based on those conversations (and his personal knowledge), Barry testified to some of the basics regarding Channel Link, including how employees logged in, how the software recorded such log-ins, and any modifications to data on that interface. Id. at 36-38. When pressed, however, he struggled to answer more technical questions about the Channel Link servers and software. Id. at 38-41.
After SunTrust declined to supplement Barry's testimony, Plaintiffs moved to compel it to produce a " Rule 30(b)(6) witness who is duly prepared and who is in a position to answer questions, at least on the groups of questions Nos. 6 and 7 in the Notice of the Deposition." ECF No. 76 at 19. They also asked this Court to order SunTrust to supplement its discovery under Federal Rule of Civil Procedure 26(e), which requires parties to provide additional discovery upon learning that its previous disclosures were "incomplete or incorrect" "in some material respect." Specifically, Trudel and Ruslan asked the Court to compel Defendant to (1) supplement, remove redactions, or provide a privilege log with respect to SunTrust's retention policy, and (2) produce extracts from its in-house technical operating instructions for archiving and deleting data regarding accounts. See Pl. Mot. to Compel at 19
While that Motion was pending, SunTrust moved for summary judgment, and Plaintiffs responded with the instant Rule 56(d) Motion, asking the Court to put the proceedings on ice until the Bank complied with their additional discovery requests. The Court turns now to that Motion.
2. Rule 56(d) Motion
Under Rule 56(d), a court may defer considering a motion for summary judgment, deny the motion, or allow time for the non-movant to obtain affidavits or declarations or to take discovery if that party "shows by affidavit or declaration that, for specified reasons, it cannot present facts essential to justify its opposition." Such an affidavit must state "with sufficient particularity why additional discovery is necessary." United States ex rel. Folliard v. Gov't Acquisitions, Inc.,
The Court concludes that Plaintiffs fail on the first prong. Although they allege a bevy of discovery deficiencies, they cannot show why any of those missing facts are "necessary" to the litigation. To wit, Plaintiffs seek the following:
• To depose another Rule 30(b)(6) witness who is more familiar with the ARGO system, as well as the operations of the Boca Raton branch's Departments of Dormant Accounts and of Returned Mail;
• An unredacted version of SunTrust's policies regarding data retention (or a *256privilege log justifying the redacted versions); and
• Extracts from the in-house operating instructions for archiving and deleting data concerning the accounts.
Pl. Rule 56(d) Mot. at 20. Each of these requests relates, at bottom, to SunTrust's data-retention practices and whether the Bank might still retain (or could recover) information pertaining to Scherban-family accounts. Plaintiffs proffer testimony from four purported IT experts, who attest that the "accounts' data" is likely "recoverable by the IT engineers," and that the experts are "nearly certain ... that the data on the accounts is still contained on SunTrust's servers."
The Court sympathizes with Plaintiffs' frustration that SunTrust cannot account for their missing million dollars. Even if the most likely culprit is Alexeenko, see, e.g., First Scherban Decl., ¶¶ 4-5, 10; SAC, ¶¶ 85-86, it is not unreasonable that they should expect the Bank to shed more light on what transpired. Unfortunately for Trudel and Ruslan, however, the Court's summary-judgment ruling does not turn on whether SunTrust might still recover data from the 5216 account. Rather, even assuming the Bank could do so, the Court granted judgment on the accounting count because no fiduciary relationship exists between the parties. Likewise, it rejected Plaintiffs fraudulent-concealment theories given the statute of repose and discovery showing that neither Iron Mountain nor Viewpointe retains relevant records. At this stage, it is simply irrelevant to these counts whether SunTrust still retains or could recover more information about the 5216 account.
In the end, Rule 56(d) is "intended to prevent railroading a non-moving party through a premature motion for summary judgment before the non-moving party has had the opportunity to make full discovery." Milligan v. Clinton,
D. Leave to Amend
Finally, in their Opposition to Defendant's Motion for Summary Judgment, Plaintiffs "reserve[ ]" their "request to be allowed to re-amend the pleadings after the phase of discovery." Pl. Opp. to Def. MSJ at 36. As the D.C. Circuit has often reiterated, however, "[A] request for leave [to amend] must be submitted in the form of a written motion." Benoit v. U.S. Dep't of Agric.,
*257IV. Conclusion
For the foregoing reasons, the Court grants SunTrust summary judgment and denies Plaintiffs' Cross-Motion. It also denies Plaintiffs' Motion for Relief under Rule 56(d), as well as their related Motion to Compel. A contemporaneous Order to that effect will issue this day.