Madeline Hughes Haikala
How Judge Haikala decides
Patterns drawn from this judge's own signed orders. Every observation links to the order it came from.
What persuades
On a 12(b)(6)/12(c) motion she rigorously construes every well-pleaded fact for the non-movant and lets thinly-but-plausibly-pled claims through (Title VII retaliation survived on suspicious timing + pretext).
“Mr. Barrieu has alleged facts sufficient to support his retaliation claim at this stage of the proceedings.”
Enforces contracts as plainly written and gives full effect to anti-waiver clauses, defeating course-of-performance waiver theories as a matter of law.
“the non-waiver clause in the G4S/Mithras agreement forecloses this argument; Allied's waiver argument is 'defeated as a matter of law by the [anti-waiver provision] itself.'”
Procedural preferences
Strictly enforces the Rule 15(a) windows for amending pleadings — struck a defendant's amended answer filed days late without consent or leave.
“Because Endurance filed its amended answer on September 27, 2024 without consent or leave, the Court will strike Endurance's amended answer from the record.”
Treats a claim cited but not factually argued at summary judgment as ABANDONED — brief the law AND apply it to your facts.
“a legal claim or argument that has not been briefed before the court is deemed abandoned and its merits will not be addressed.”
Cautions
Monell municipal-liability claims need a pled widespread custom/policy or a genuinely similar prior incident; a single dissimilar past complaint will be dismissed.
“Mr. Musso cannot establish a policy or custom by pointing to one past, unproven complaint.”
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.
| Motions to dismiss N = 4 |
Granted: 3Denied: 1 | counts only |
| Motion for judgment on pleadings N = 1 |
Granted: 1 | counts only |
| Summary judgment N = 1 |
Granted: 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.
“Because there is no dispute between the plaintiffs and Protective and because Protective is not a necessary party to this litigation, the Court grants Protective's motion to dismiss it from this action.”
“Accordingly, the Court grants the plaintiffs' motion for judgment on the pleadings against Endurance on the plaintiffs' request for a declaratory judgment that Protective exhausted its payment obligations.”
“Accordingly, the Court denies the City's motion to dismiss.”
“Accordingly, the Court grants Mithras's motion to dismiss Allied's cross-claims, (Doc. 138; see Doc. 143).”
“For the reasons discussed, the Court grants the defendants' motion and dismisses Counts IV, V, VI, and VII of Mr. Musso's complaint without prejudice for failure to state a claim.”
“For the reasons stated above, the Court grants the City of Madison Board of Education's motion for summary judgment.”
Caseload & timing
From public federal docket records for this judge.
Median case duration in the sampled dockets: 127 days (N = 12).
Median motion-to-ruling time: 264 days (N = 3).
Case-level only (no FJC IDB baseline available — post-2021 IDB gap). Counts are from the enumerated sample slice, illustrative not exhaustive.