Anokiwave, Inc. v. Rebeiz

Opinion

ANOKIWAVE, INC., Case No.: 3:18-cv-629-JLS-AHG Plaintiff, ORDER GRANTING JOINT v. MOTION FOR ORDER EXTENDING DEFENDANT GABRIEL REBEIZ, et al., SPECTRABEAM LLC’S DEADLINE Defendants. TO RAISE DISCOVERY DISPUTE

[ECF No. 103] Before the Court is the parties’ Joint Motion to for Order Extending Defendnat SpectraBeam LLC’s Deadline to Raise Discovery Dispute. ECF No. 103. Under the Court’s 45-Day Rule (see Chmb.R. at 3), the parties would have been required to bring any discovery dispute regarding Plaintiff’s responses1 to the Court’s attention by November 21, 2019. Here, the parties move for a 15-day continuance. ECF No. 103 at 2. For the reasons set forth below, the Court GRANTS the parties’ joint motion. Parties seeking to continue deadlines must demonstrate good cause. Chmb.R. at 2

1 Plaintiff’s responses at issue here regard Defendant SpectraBeam’s fourth set of written requests for production of documents, served on September 6, 2019, which Plaintiff (stating that any request for continuance requires “[a] showing of good cause for the request’’); see also Fed. R. Civ. P 16(b)(4) (“A schedule may be modified only for good cause and with the judge’s consent”); Fed. R. Civ. P 6(b) (“When an act may or must be done within a specified time, the court may, for good cause, extend the time’). “Good cause” is a non-rigorous standard that has been construed broadly across procedural and statutory contexts. Ahanchian v. Xenon Pictures, Inc., 624 F.3d 1253, 1259 (9th Cir. 2010). The good cause standard focuses on the diligence of the party seeking to amend the scheduling order and the reasons for seeking modification. Johnson v. Mammoth Recreations, Inc., 975 F.2d 604, 609 (9th Cir. 1992) (“[T]he focus of the inquiry is upon the moving party’s reasons for seeking modification. .. . If that party was not diligent, the /inquiry should end.”) (internal citation omitted). The parties have represented to the Court that they have engaged in ongoing meet and confer efforts regarding Plaintiff’s responses to Defendant SprectraBeam’s discovery requests. See ECF No. 103-1 at 2. To facilitate the meet-and-confer process, and in light of the pending Thanksgiving holiday, the parties contend that a 15-day extension would allow the parties to resolve a number of the disputes at issue without court intervention. /d. The Court finds that the parties have demonstrated the diligence necessary to meet the good cause standard. Therefore, the Court GRANTS the motion, and orders that the parties bring any discovery dispute regarding Plaintiff's responses to the Court’s attention by December 6, 2019. Dated: November 15, 2019 _ArwiorwH. Xyolard Honorable Allison H. Goddard United States Magistrate Judge