You were warned this would happen.
Judge Williams issued in interesting order today in CAO Lighting, Inc. v. General Electric Company, C.A. No. 20-681-GBW, D.I. 330 (Oral Order) (D. Del. Sept. 20, 2022). CAO is one of Judge Williams' new cases which is nearest to trial (currently its set for October 24) and it has several pending SJ motions from both sides.
Taking a page from Judge Connolly's playbook, Judge Williams ordered the parties to submit letters ranking their respective SJ motions, "with the understanding that once the Court denies summary judgment as to any single ground raised in [the party's] motion, the Court will not address any summary judgment grounds that were ranked after that ground."
Judge Williams has not yet adopted a standing order mirroring Judge Connolly's on these grounds so it will be interesting to see if this practice will become part of his normal procedure, or if its just a one-off for a case that's almost ready for trial. I for one will be listening in to the dial-in (a public line will be provided on the docket) to see if we get any clues.
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