In honor of Monday’s assignment, I’ve posted a new handout on the types of summary judgment, the “put up or shut up” rule. Varying somewhat from Glannon’s approach, I define four (4) types of summary judgment:
- Proof of all of my own (the movant’s) elements
- Disproof of one or more of my opponent’s (non-movant’s) elements
- Absence of proof of one or more of my opponent’s (non-movant’s) elements
- The Combo Plate: combining methods# 2 and # 3
See the handout for further details.
Here’s something else for you to think about: why call the rule put up or shut up?
“Put up or shut up” means that at the summary judgment (“SJ”) stage, it’s no longer enough for a pleading party to rest on its unverified allegations. Instead, a properly supported motion for SJ may require the non-movant to pony up materials of record that show the need for a fact-finder. Thus, once the movant meets its initial burden, the non-movant must put up (put forth affidavits or other materials creating a genuine dispute of material fact) or shut up (realize that the claim will be dismissed as a matter of law).
Photo credits: Photo by Quinn Dombrowski via Creative Commons license: Attribution-ShareAlike 2.0 Generic (CC BY-SA 2.0)