Blanca Mendoza v. County of Kings

CourtDistrict Court, E.D. California
DecidedOctober 11, 2023
Docket1:21-cv-00721
StatusUnknown

This text of Blanca Mendoza v. County of Kings (Blanca Mendoza v. County of Kings) is published on Counsel Stack Legal Research, covering District Court, E.D. California primary law. Counsel Stack provides free access to over 12 million legal documents including statutes, case law, regulations, and constitutions.

Bluebook
Blanca Mendoza v. County of Kings, (E.D. Cal. 2023).

Opinion

1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 UNITED STATES DISTRICT COURT 9 FOR THE EASTERN DISTRICT OF CALIFORNIA 10 11 BLANCA MENDOZA, et al., Case No. 1:21-cv-00721-JLT-BAM 12 Plaintiffs, ORDER GRANTING PLAINTIFFS’ MOTION FOR LEAVE TO AMEND CASE 13 v. SCHEDULE TO FILE THEIR SECOND AMENDED COMPLAINT 14 COUNTY OF KINGS, et al., (Doc. 71) 15 Defendants.

16 17 Currently pending before the Court is the motion of Plaintiffs Blanca Mendoza and B.M., 18 a minor by and through his guardian ad litem Jessica Garcia, for leave to modify the Scheduling 19 Conference Order to file a Second Amended Complaint. (Doc. 71.) On August 30, 2023, 20 Defendants Fabien Avalos and Alfred Rivera filed an opposition to the motion, (Doc. 73), and 21 Defendants County of Kings, Taylor Lopes, Blake Bursiaga, Tim Steadman, Cory Dobbins, and 22 Nate Hunt (collectively “Kings County Defendants”) filed a statement of non-opposition to the 23 motion, (Doc. 74). Plaintiffs filed a reply on September 8, 2023. (Doc. 75.) The motion was 24 submitted on the papers. (Doc. 72.) 25 Having considered the parties’ briefs, along with the entire record in this case, Plaintiffs’ 26 motion will be granted pursuant to Federal Rules of Civil Procedure 16(b)(4) and 15(a). 27 /// 28 /// 1 BACKGROUND 2 On May 3, 2021, Plaintiffs initiated this civil rights action under 42 U.S.C. § 1983, 3 alleging excessive force and unlawful detention/arrest under the Fourth Amendment, along with 4 state law violations. Plaintiffs filed a First Amended Complaint on October 12, 2021. (Doc. 23.) 5 On July 21, 2023, the Court issued a Scheduling Conference Order. (Doc. 58.) Among 6 other deadlines, that order set the deadline for amendment of the pleadings as December 1, 2022, 7 and the non-expert discovery deadline as April 28, 2023. (Id.) Following its issuance, the 8 Scheduling Conference Order was modified multiple times by stipulation of the parties to extend 9 the deadlines for non-expert and expert discovery. (See Docs. 62, 65, 70.) On July 28, 2023, 10 under the most recent modification of the Scheduling Conference Order, the Court extended the 11 non-expert discovery deadline for the limited purpose of completing the depositions of Jesse 12 Mendoza, Defendant Lopes, and third-party witness Trent Augustus. (Doc. 70.) Based on the 13 current deadlines, the expert discovery cutoff is December 30, 2023, the dispositive motion 14 deadline is January 15, 2024, and trial is set for August 20, 2024. (Doc. 65.) 15 On August 16, 2023, Plaintiffs filed the instant motion for leave to amend the Scheduling 16 Conference Order to file a Second Amended Complaint. By the proposed amendment to their 17 complaint, Plaintiffs seek to add Dakotah Fausnett as a defendant, to remove all other individual 18 defendants except Dakotah Fausnett, and Defendants Fabian Avalos and Alfred Rivera, and to 19 update the factual allegations with information learned during non-expert discovery. (Doc. 71.) 20 As background, Plaintiffs explain that on April 13, 2023, Defendant Kings County disclosed 21 previously unknown body-worn camera video of the incident at issue. Since that time, Plaintiffs 22 worked to identify the law enforcement officers who can be seen to use alleged force in the 23 camera video. (Doc. 71-1, Declaration of Ty Clarke (“Clarke Decl”), at ¶ 2.) On July 17, 2023, 24 Defendant Avalos, during his deposition, identified Dakotah Fausnett—a Kings County Sheriff’s 25 Deputy—as one of the officers who allegedly used force in the incident, but testified that he could 26 not say for sure that it was Deputy Fausnett. (Doc. 71-2, Fabian Avalos’ Depo., Ex. 1 to Clarke 27 Decl., at 54:3-19.) Thereafter, Plaintiffs began working to confirm that Deputy Fausnett was one 28 of the officers alleged to use force. Plaintiffs took Deputy Fausnett’s deposition on July 27, 2023, 1 and confirmed for the first time that Dakotah Fausnett “is the officer who can be seen striking 2 plaintiff Brian Mendoza on the body-worn camera.” (Doc. 71-3, Dakotah Fausnett Depo., Ex. 2 3 to Clarke Decl., at 36:6-11) Deputy Fausnett also testified that he had written a report on his use 4 of force but had been unable to locate it. (Id. at 34:10-24). Plaintiffs now request modification of 5 the Scheduling Conference Order to allow for the filing of a Second Amended Complaint. 6 On August 30, 2023, Defendants Avalos and Rivera opposed the motion, arguing that 7 Plaintiffs unduly delayed in pursuing their clams for relief, the request is made in bad faith in 8 order to conduct discovery after the non-expert discovery deadline, and defendants will be 9 prejudiced if leave to amend is granted. (Doc. 73.) 10 On August 30, 2023, Kings County Defendants filed a statement of non-opposition to the 11 motion, asserting that amendment of the complaint will streamline the case and will not impact 12 any of the current dates. Kings County Defendants indicate that they were unaware of Deputy 13 Fausnett’s involvement in the subject incident until body-worn camera video in the possession of 14 the Corcoran Police Department was disclosed to counsel for the Kings County Defendants. 15 (Doc. 74 at p. 2.) 16 In addition to their non-opposition, Kings County Defendants note that the proposed 17 Second Amended Complaint mistakenly alleges that Defendants Avalos and Rivera were 18 employed by the County of Kings. Plaintiffs and the Kings County Defendants reportedly have 19 stipulated that Plaintiffs will modify those allegations in the proposed Second Amended 20 Complaint to clarify that Defendants Avalos and Rivera work for the City of Hanford. (Id. at p. 21 3.) 22 On September 8, 2023, Plaintiffs filed a reply, clarifying that they do not seek to re-open 23 discovery. Rather, they only seek to amend the scheduling order so that the amended complaint 24 can be filed. ( Doc. 75.) 25 LEGAL STANDARDS 26 A. Federal Rule of Civil Procedure 16 27 Plaintiffs’ request to amend comes after expiration of the relevant Scheduling Conference 28 Order deadline for amendment to the pleadings. The Court therefore must apply the standard for 1 amending a scheduling order under Federal Rule of Civil Procedure 16. Coleman v. Quaker Oats 2 Co., 232 F.3d 1271, 1294 (9th Cir. 2000) (finding district court correctly addressed motion for 3 leave to amend under Rule 16 because it had issued a pretrial scheduling order that established a 4 timetable for amending the pleadings and the motion was filed after the deadline had expired); 5 Jackson v. Laureate, Inc., 186 F.R.D. 605, 607 (E.D. Cal. June 16, 1999) (“[O]nce the district 6 court has filed a pretrial scheduling order pursuant to Rule 16 which establishes a timetable for 7 amending pleadings, a motion seeking to amend pleadings is governed first by Rule 16(b), and 8 only secondarily by Rule 15(a).”). 9 District courts enter scheduling orders in actions to “limit the time to join other parties, 10 amend the pleadings, complete discovery, and file motions.” Fed. R. Civ. P. 16(b)(3)(A). Once 11 entered, a scheduling order “controls the course of the action unless the court modifies it.” Fed. R. 12 Civ. P. 16(d). Scheduling orders are intended to alleviate case management problems, Johnson v. 13 Mammoth Recreations, Inc., 975 F.2d 604, 610 (9th Cir. 1992), and are “the heart of case 14 management,” Koplove v.

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Bluebook (online)
Blanca Mendoza v. County of Kings, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/blanca-mendoza-v-county-of-kings-caed-2023.