Christine D. Little
How Judge Little rules, drawn from 7 signed orders. Every observation links to the order it came from.
How Judge Little decides
Patterns drawn from this judge's own signed orders. Every observation links to the order it came from.
What persuades
On tribal sovereign immunity, she looks to the tribe's own constitution for the scope of any waiver and treats an officer sued only for actions within the scope of tribal employment as standing in the tribe's shoes: immune absent an unequivocal waiver.
“The Osage Nation has not waived sovereign immunity for any of the claims asserted against Officer Fish in the Complaint.”
Procedural preferences
She freely grants leave to amend under Rule 15 when an opposing party's objection to a second amendment is buried in a footnote and doesn't affirmatively argue undue delay, prejudice, bad faith, or futility: even where the objecting party has already briefed a motion to dismiss the earlier pleading.
“Here, the School District Defendants only raise their objection to amendment in a footnote. They do not assert that any undue delay or prejudice would result from the filing of plaintiff's SAC... As such, the plaintiff's SAC is accepted as amended, as leave shall be freely given.”
Cautions
On motions in limine, she prefers to defer fact-specific evidentiary questions (e.g., evidence of other lawsuits against a party, disputed damages exhibits) to trial rather than issuing a blanket pretrial exclusion, requiring the proponent to raise the issue again with the court once the evidence and its purpose are concrete.
“a court is almost always better situated during actual trial to assess the value and utility of evidence... Before referencing any such information, claims, or lawsuits by others at trial, the plaintiffs' counsel shall first raise the issue at pretrial and obtain a ruling permitting such introduction of evidence.”
Signed rulings
A grounded sample of orders signed by this judge, with the verbatim dispositive language.
“Upon consideration of the motions and applicable law, the Court recommends that the dismissal motions be granted and the plaintiff's claims be dismissed without prejudice.”
“the undersigned recommends that the motion of Officer Fish to dismiss pursuant to Rule 12(b)(1) be granted, and the claims against him in his official and individual capacities be dismissed.”
“the claims against Diane Hanmer, individually and officially, should be dismissed.”
“For the reasons set forth below, the Court affirms the Commissioner's decision denying benefits.”
“For the reasons set forth below, the Court reverses the Commissioner's decision denying benefits and remands the case for further proceedings.”
“denying 36 Motion in Limine Regarding Repair Estimates that Utilize Pricing that Post-Dates the Date of Loss”
“granting in part and denying in part 37 Motion to Exclude Opinion Testimony by Lay Witnesses, Testimony Not Based on Personal Knowledge, and Referring to Fact Witnesses as ‘Experts’”
“defendant's requests to exclude evidence or argument as to categories A, B, C, D, G, and H are granted in part (as to Phase I of the trial).”
“granting in part and denying in part 39 Motion in Limine - Omnibus and Brief in Support”
“denying 40 Motion to Exclude”
“The School District Defendants' first Motion to Dismiss (Doc. 16) is therefore moot.”
“Therefore, to the extent the SAC purports to assert claims under Title VI against any defendant in an individual capacity (i.e. Arnett, Hausner, Orcutt, and Williams), such claims are dismissed with prejudice.”
“any purported Title IX claims asserted against individual defendants are dismissed with prejudice.”
“For the foregoing reasons, the Motion for Summary Judgment is granted inasmuch as the Court has determined there is no genuine issue of material fact and Employers Mutual is entitled to judgment as a matter of law that it has no duty to defend Dirt Daddy or Austin Murray in the state court suits brought by Eagle Redi-Mix or KSMI.”
“Therefore, the decision of the Commissioner finding Plaintiff not disabled for the relevant period is reversed and remanded for further proceedings consistent with this opinion.”
Caseload & timing
From public federal docket records for this judge.
Median motion-to-ruling time: 554 days (N = 19).
Little's consent docket is dominated by Social Security disability appeals, with a smaller number of insurance, employment, and civil-rights cases in which the parties consented to her presiding through trial. She also handles referrals, including recommendations and discovery disputes, in district judges' civil and criminal cases.
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