Bouari v. United States of America

Opinion

1 UNITED STATES DISTRICT COURT

2 DISTRICT OF NEVADA

3 EMILE BOUARI, Case No. 2:21-cv-1974-APG-DJA

4 Plaintiff, ORDER DENYING MOTIONS FOR v. DEFAULT JUDGMENT 5 UNITED STATES OF AMERICA, et al., [ECF Nos. 26, 29]

6 Defendants.

7 8 9 Plaintiff Emile Bouari moves for entry of default judgment against defendants Troy Eid 10 and Carol Ann Chaney. ECF Nos. 26, 29. 11 Obtaining a default judgment under Federal Rule of Civil Procedure 55 is a two-step 12 process. See Eitel v. McCool, 782 F.2d 1470, 1471 (9th Cir. 1986). First, “[w]hen a party against 13 whom a judgment for affirmative relief is sought has failed to plead or otherwise defend, and that 14 failure is shown by affidavit or otherwise, the clerk must enter the party’s default.” Fed. R. Civ. 15 P. 55(a). After the clerk enters default, the party may seek entry of default judgment under Rule 16 55(b). 17 Here, there has been no entry of default against Eid or Chaney. Therefore, Bouari’s 18 motions for default judgment are premature and must be denied. 19 In addition, it does not appear that Bouari has properly served Eid or Chaney. Bouari 20 apparently attempted to serve Eid at the F.B.I.’s office in Las Vegas (ECF No. 9 at 4) and at the 21 Denver law firm where Eid now works (ECF No. 24). Neither of those locations is appropriate 22 for service under Federal Rule of Civil Procedure 4(e). To the extent Bouari asserts claims 23 against Eid in his individual or official capacity for actions he took as an Assistant United States 1}| Attorney, Bouari must also comply with Federal Rule of Civil Procedure 4(i), and Eid would be entitled to respond to the complaint within the deadline set in Federal Rule of Civil Procedure 12(a)(2) or (3). 4 As for Chaney, the Affidavit of Service on file is incomplete. ECF No. 21. Thus, it is unclear whether Chaney was properly served. 6 I THEREFORE ORDER that plaintiff Emile Bouari’s motions for entry of default 7|| judgment (ECF Nos. 26, 29) are denied without prejudice.! 8 DATED THIS 3rd day of October, 2022. 9 10 Andrew P. Gordon 1 UNITED STATES DISTRICT JUDGE

12 13 14 15 16 17 18 19 20 21 22 1 At the end of his reply brief, Bouari requests additional time to serve the defendants. ECF No. 3 31 at 5-6. That request must be filed as a separate motion. See Local Rule IC 2-2(b) (“For each type of relief requested or purpose of the document, a separate document must be filed and a separate event must be selected for that document.”).