The Maryland Court of Special Appeals decided this week in Benway v. Maryland Port Administration where a pro se Plaintiff raised an interesting yet still useless question: Is it an error to rule on a summary judgment motion filed after the scheduling order deadline?
The question is interesting because the current version of Maryland Rule 2-501 does not contain the phrase, “file at any time,” because amendments to the Rule in 2004 took the language out in light of the nearly universal use of scheduling orders. But, the question is ultimately just an academic exercise because if you win on “the motion was filed late” argument, you are still going to lose a directed verdict because the evidence never comes out better than “most favorable to the Plaintiff.” So Plaintiff’s winning this motion is only a temporary stay of execution.