Trial courts cannot grant summary judgment sua sponte

This is a very unusual case where the district court granted summary judgment without notice to either party on the eve of trial, prompting an appeal to the Second Circuit, which reinstates the case because things like this just don't happen in federal court.

The case is Kowalchuck v. Metropolitan Transit Authority, issued on February 27. This case is brought under the Federal Employers' Liability Act (FELA), where the plaintiff claims he suffered injuries clearing snow at an MTA property. Note that personal injury cases like this are usually not available under state law, which provides workers' compensation instead. But that is not the issue here.

What happened here was that defendant wanted to move for summary judgment, and they told the trial court as such at a pre-motion conference. Many judges hold these conferences to gain a sense of whether the motion is worth filing. In this case, the trial court deemed the pre-motion request as the motion itself and then denied the motion after reading the parties' letter briefs on the issue. Now everyone has to prepare for trial. But two years, later only four days prior to trial, the district court sua sponte granted summary judgment to defendant, dismissing the case.

So we have a summary judgment order that issued without briefing, much less oral argument. Can the trial court do this? No, says the Court of Appeals.

Only a few days prior to trial, the district court was reviewing the file and determined that undisputed facts and recent appellate law made it clear that plaintiff could not win the case. While the Court said it was taking this action at the eleventh hour, it wrote that it was doing everyone a favor because a short bench trial would otherwise be too costly, and plaintiff was traveling from North Carolina for trial and would face enhanced COVID risks. 

The Court of Appeals (Chin, Walker and Robinson) reemphasizes that trial courts cannot sua sponte grant summary judgment without giving the parties a chance to make their case in writing through the formal motion process. Rule 56 outlines that procedure. Sua sponte summary judgment orders procedurally prejudice the parties, especially the party that loses the case without a chance to make their case. Back the case goes to the Eastern District of New York to resolve the motion properly.