Marilyn Jean Horan
How Judge Horan decides
Patterns drawn from this judge's own signed orders. Every observation links to the order it came from.
What persuades
She enforces administrative-exhaustion prerequisites strictly: an employment-discrimination plaintiff who has not pled an EEOC charge and right-to-sue letter has not stated a claim, and a related state-law count falls with the federal claim once supplemental jurisdiction is declined.
“Because Plaintiff has failed to exhaust her administrative remedies by filing a charge with the EEOC and receiving a right to sue letter, her disability discrimination claim cannot be maintained.”
On premises-liability summary judgment she requires the plaintiff to prove the landowner had actual or constructive notice of the specific hazard; a hazard that existed only seconds (snow blown through a briefly-malfunctioning door) cannot, as a matter of law, supply notice, defeating the duty element.
“absent notice of the hazardous conditions, there is no duty upon Walmart in this case.”
Procedural preferences
She runs a structured pre-trial process (a Standing Order on Civil Motion Practice, early case-management conferences, and routine referral to Early Neutral Evaluation/ADR); many of her civil dockets resolve at ENE/ADR rather than on dispositive motions.
“Under this Court's Standing Order and Procedures on Civil Motion Practice (ECF No. 3), any response to Defendant's Motion to Dismiss should have been filed on or before August 30, 2021.”
Cautions
If a represented party fails to respond to a motion to dismiss even after a show-cause order, she will treat the motion as unopposed and grant it without a full merits analysis -- do not let a response deadline lapse.
“To date, Ms. Lyles has not filed a Response. Accordingly, the matter is now ripe for consideration.”
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 = 2 |
Granted: 1Denied: 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.
“Defendant's Motion to Dismiss Pursuant to Fed. R. Civ. 12(b)(6) and Defendant's Motion to Dismiss Pursuant to Fed. R. Civ. 12(b)(1) will both be granted.”
“Defendant American Cap Company's Motion to Dismiss is DENIED.”
“Defendant Walmart Stores East, L.P.'s Motion for Summary Judgment will be GRANTED.”
Pro se prisoner suit; adopting MJ Maureen P. Kelly's R&R over objections after de novo review. 28 U.S.C. 1915(e) sua sponte dismissal: federal claims with prejudice (leave denied as futile), state claims without prejudice. 'all claims asserted by Mr. Taylor are dismissed, and the Complaint is dismissed with prejudice.' Excluded from motion stats (no party motion).
Pro se IFP filing. IFP granted; complaint dismissed under 1915(e)(2)(B) as frivolous/failing to state a claim/violating Rule 8, leave to amend denied as futile. Plaintiff's pro se MSJ denied as premature (procedural). Excluded from motion stats (screening order).
Caseload & timing
From public federal docket records for this judge.
Enumerated via assigned_judge='Marilyn Jean Horan', cases filed 2022-2023. NOS mix: prisoner civil rights (Williams, Bell ref. MJ Christopher B. Brown), product liability (Fouse v. eBay), insurance (Rosenberg v. Hudson), ADA (Ritter, Douglass), civil-rights employment (Brooks), securities class action (Taylor v. Viatris), FLSA (Hill). Many civil dockets terminate at Early Neutral Evaluation/ADR (durations groundable; dispositive-motion latency sparse). Not tallied to a fixed N.