Annemarie Carney Axon
How Judge Axon decides
Patterns drawn from this judge's own signed orders. Every observation links to the order it came from.
What persuades
Gets the procedural posture right even when it cuts against the recommendation: corrected an R&R because FTCA time bars are non-jurisdictional, so the proper disposition was summary judgment, not a jurisdictional dismissal.
“the time limits contained in the Federal Tort Claims Act are not jurisdictional. ... the court modifies the recommendation ... the court WILL GRANT summary judgment in favor of the United States”
Procedural preferences
Strict on scheduling-order discipline: a motion to amend filed after the pleading deadline must satisfy Rule 16(b) 'good cause' (diligence), not just Rule 15; briefing only relation-back loses.
“Because Plaintiffs wholly fail to address Rule 16(b)'s good cause standard in their motion ... the court WILL DENY the motion for leave to amend.”
Holds pro se litigants to procedural rules: untimely objections to an R&R, filed without a motion for extension, are overruled (and were meritless anyway).
“Although the court construes filings by pro se litigants liberally, such litigants are still required to comply with procedural rules.”
Cautions
A party that ignores served discovery cannot invoke Rule 56(d) to stave off summary judgment — and inaccurate 'no discovery taken' affidavits will be checked against the record.
“Parties that 'decline[] to . . . proactively participate in the discovery process' are not entitled to Rule 56(d) relief.”
Motion outcomes
Counted from classified signed orders only. Percentages are shown only where the sample is large enough to be meaningful; smaller samples are reported as raw counts.
| Motion to dismiss or summary judgment N = 1 |
Granted in part: 1 | counts only |
| Summary judgment N = 1 |
Granted: 1 | counts only |
| Motion for rule 56d relief N = 1 |
Denied: 1 | counts only |
| Motion for leave to amend N = 1 |
Denied: 1 | counts only |
A "1 of 1" is one ruling, not a tendency. Treat small samples as illustrative, not predictive.
Signed rulings
A grounded sample of orders signed by this judge, with the verbatim dispositive language.
“the court WILL GRANT IN PART and WILL DENY IN PART Defendants' motion to dismiss or, in the alternative, motion for summary judgment. ... WILL DISMISS all claims except the Eighth Amendment claim WITH PREJUDICE for failure to exhaust administrative remedies. The court WILL DENY the motion to dismiss Mr. Bolong's Eighth Amendment claim against Mr. Ward but WILL GRANT the motion for summary judgment on that claim ... because Bivens does not provide a remedy”
“the court WILL GRANT EBSCO Information Services's motion for summary judgment and WILL ENTER SUMMARY JUDGMENT in its favor. (Doc. 66).”
“the court WILL DENY Plaintiffs' motion for Rule 56(d) relief. (Doc. 69).”
“the court WILL DENY the motion for leave to file a second amended complaint. (Doc. 68).”
Caseload & timing
From public federal docket records for this judge.
Median case duration in the sampled dockets: 355 days (N = 8).
Case-level only (no FJC IDB baseline — post-2021 IDB gap). Counts from the enumerated sample slice, illustrative not exhaustive.