Background
In two thousand and nineteen, the State of Mississippi and other plaintiffs filed suit alleging a taking of property through a flowage easement created by the operation of the Old River Control Complex. The Government asserted the deliberative process privilege to withhold certain documents during discovery. The Court of Federal Claims dismissed the takings claims based on the statute of limitations after converting the Government’s motion for summary judgment into a motion to dismiss without notifying the parties.
The court’s reasoning
The court held that the Court of Federal Claims abused its discretion by sua sponte converting a motion for summary judgment into a motion to dismiss under Rule twelve point one b one without providing notice. The Federal Circuit found that the rules do not sanction such conversion without procedures that allow parties to present pertinent material. The court determined that the lack of notice prejudiced the plaintiffs by denying them the opportunity to argue under the correct legal standard. Regarding discovery, the court found no abuse of discretion in the lower court’s handling of the deliberative process privilege claims.
What it means going forward
The decision requires federal courts to provide explicit notice and an opportunity to respond before converting summary judgment motions into motions to dismiss. It reinforces the procedural protections available to plaintiffs in takings cases involving government privilege claims.