A plaintiff in a pending Superior Court civil action sought interlocutory appellate review after a judge denied her motions to amend her complaint and supplement discovery responses. She petitioned for the Supreme Judicial Court’s extraordinary power of general superintendence, arguing that the Superior Court judge abused her discretion and that she would otherwise face the cost of trial and appeal to vindicate her claims.
The Supreme Judicial Court affirmed the denial of relief. The court explained that its superintendence power is not a substitute for ordinary trial and appeal procedures. Orders denying motions to amend and supplement discovery are correctable on appeal following trial if they prove erroneous. The petitioner’s reliance on the doctrine of present execution was also meritless; had she believed the orders were subject to immediate execution, she should have appealed them as a matter of right to the Appeals Court rather than filing an extraordinary petition in the Supreme Judicial Court. The court noted this was the second time the petitioner had improperly invoked its general superintendence power in this same litigation.
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SJC‑11338
NATALY MINKINA vs. LAURIE A. FRANKL & others.[1]
April 9, 2013.
Supreme Judicial Court, Superintendence of inferior courts.
The petitioner, Nataly Minkina, is the plaintiff in a civil action that is currently pending in the Superior Court. After a judge in that case denied two of her motions — for leave to amend her complaint, and for leave to supplement certain discovery responses –- the petitioner sought interlocutory appellate review, first from a single justice of the Appeals Court under G. L. c. 231, § 118, first par., which was denied, and then from a single justice of this court under G. L. c. 211, § 3, which was also denied. She now appeals from the latter ruling. The case is before us on her memorandum and appendix pursuant to S.J.C. Rule 2:21, as amended, 434 Mass. 1301 (2001). We affirm.
The petitioner claims that she was entitled to have the single justice employ the court’s extraordinary power of general superintendence because the Superior Court judge’s rulings were an abuse of discretion, and that she was entitled to have the rulings corrected by the single justice immediately because otherwise she would be required to incur the cost of a trial and appeal to vindicate her claims. This demonstrates a fundamental misunderstanding of the general superintendence power.[2] The court’s superintendence power is not a substitute for the ordinary process of trial and appeal. McGuinness v. Commonwealth, 420 Mass. 495, 497 (1995). Foley v. Lowell Div. of the Dist. Court Dep’t, 398 Mass. 800, 802 (1986). The orders at issue here are eminently correctable on appeal after trial if they prove to be wrong. The petitioner’s additional assertion that general superintendence relief was somehow required because the Superior Court orders were subject to the doctrine of present execution is also meritless; if she believed the orders were subject to present execution (a dubious proposition), she should have sought to appeal them to the Appeals Court as a matter of right on that basis, not file an extraordinary petition in this court. See McMenimen v. Passatempo, 452 Mass. 178, 185-187 (2008).
Judgment affirmed.
The case was submitted on the papers filed, accompanied by a memorandum of law.
Christopher Maffucci for the petitioner.
[1] Jonathan J. Margolis and Rodgers, Powers & Schwartz, LLP.
[2] This is the second time that this petitioner, represented by counsel, has improperly invoked the court’s general superintendence power in this litigation. See Minkina v. Frankl, 458 Mass. 1003 (2010).