What does "excusable neglect" mean under the Federal Rules?

I know that you know this, but it always bears repeating: deadlines are important. Miss and deadline and the case could go way for good. That is what happened here.

The case is Doe v. Board of Education of N. Colonie Central Sch. Dist., a summary order issued on June 17. This is a First and Fourteenth Amendment case with a few state law claims. After the district court dismissed plaintiffs' lawsuit without prejudice, citing their failure to meet pleading requirements, plaintiffs were given a deadline amend the complaint and make it right. This is common in federal practice: trial judges usually give the plaintiff at least one chance to amend a deficient complaint on the theory that cases should be resolved on the merits and not based on attorney error or procedural irregularities.

The dismissal order said plaintiffs had until April 27, 2023 to amend the complaint. But that date came and went without an amended complaint, and the district court dismissed the case altogether. A few weeks later, plaintiff filed a motion under Rule 60 to vacate the judgment of dismissal based on excusable neglect. The district court denied that motion, which brings the case to the Court of Appeals.

The Second Circuit (Lohier, Sack and Kahn) finds that the district court did not abuse its discretion in denying the Rule 60 motion. That means the case is over. To get around a dismissal like this, the plaintiff has to prove "excusable neglect." The main factor in determining "excusable neglect" is "the reason for the delay, including whether it was within the reasonable control of the movant." 

The concept of "excusable neglect" sounds forgiving, but that is not always the case. Plaintiffs' lawyer said there was excusable neglect because "the docket notifications containing the April 6 order were emailed to their counsel’s spam folder, rather than his inbox." The district court said this excuse was "highly questionable” as "the Plaintiffs have never plausibly explained why only the April 6 notifications were sent to counsel’s spam folder, while all other notifications were sent to his inbox." 

It is pretty scary to think that a court-related directive might find its way into your spam box. I just checked my own spam box to see if there is anything important there. In any event, that was not the only reason the Rule 60 motion was denied. The Court of Appeals says that counsel also admitted that "a part-time employee at counsel’s firm did receive the April 6 notifications in the employee’s inbox. In addition, the District Court noted that counsel had failed to comply with prior deadlines because he had been unaware of docket notifications.  Counsel also implied that he had not otherwise been monitoring the docket for over two months because he was under the impression [he was] waiting for a Decision from the Court.”  

What we learn from this is that counsel's failure to pay attention to the docket is not excusable neglect. That phrase refers to circumstances beyond plaintiff's control.