If, dear reader, you are old enough to remember the radio program thus entitled, you are definitely in the zone for Medicare. Judge Courtney D (“CD”) Jones is not in that category, but today she puts a stop to an incipient waltz in Nautical Hill Holdings, LLC, Inland Capital Management, LLC, Tax Matters Partner, Docket No. 11971-20, filed 12/10/21.*

The Nautical Hillbillies were on for trial in Atlanta next Valentine’s Day, but moved jointly with IRS for a continuance (what we State courtiers call an “adjournment”) and a “new trial.”

Exactly how you get a “new trial” when you haven’t yet had the old trial eludes me. Judge CD Jones is more than equal to the task, and will give the Nautical Hillbillies a “special trial”, with a scheduling order adopted from the moving papers, setting discovery deadlines. So she renames the motion as one for a special trial, and grants the motion as thus restyled.

Except.

“We agree that setting the proposed pretrial schedule shall provide the parties with adequate time to prepare this case for trial. However, in the best interest of judicial economy, we will set trial for a time and date certain following a show of compliance with the pretrial schedule and substantive trial preparation.” Order, at p. 1.

Judge CD Jones will stop the music if the parties keep waltzing.

Here in NY, our major trial courts’ Rule 202.21 requires the filing of a Note of Issue and Certificate of Readiness, showing that all discovery is complete, before a case may be calendared for trial. Perhaps where large sums and complex issues are involved, Tax Court might wish to consider a similar rule.

*Nautical Hills Holdings LLC Docket No 11971-20 12 10 21