Collins v. Nevada Department of Corrections

Opinion

A AAtRtoOrNne Dy .G FeOneRrDal 2 SAMUEL L. PEZONE JR. (Bar No. 15978) Deputy Attorney General 3 State of Nevada Office of the Attorney General 4 555 E. Washington Ave., Ste. 3900 Las Vegas, Nevada 89101 5 (702) 486-4070 (phone) (702) 486-3773 (fax) 6 Email: spezone@ag.nv.gov

7 Attorneys for Defendants Julie Williams and Joseph Swartz 8

9 UNITED STATES DISTRICT COURT

10 DISTRICT OF NEVADA 11 RONALD W. COLLINS, Case No. 2:22-cv-01795-CDS-BNW

12 Plaintiff, DEFENDANTS’ MOTION FOR EXTENSION OF TIME TO ANSWER 13 v. THE FIRST AMENDED COMPLAINT 14 NDOC, et al., AND RESPOND TO ECF NO. 35 (FIRST REQUEST) 15 Defendants. 16 Defendants, Julie Williams and Joseph Swartz (Defendants), by and through 17 counsel, Aaron D. Ford, Attorney General of the State of Nevada, and Samuel L. Pezone 18 Jr., Deputy Attorney General, hereby request an extension of time to answer the First 19 Amended Complaint (FAC) (ECF No. 29) and respond to Plaintiff, Ronald Collins’ (Collins) 20 “Motion Requesting Court to Retain Jurisdiction of This Case Regarding Breach of Contract 21 Settlement Agreement Violation Claim” (ECF No. 35). 22 MEMORANDUM OF POINTS AND AUTHORITY 23 Pursuant to Fed. R. Civ. P. 6(b), the “court may, for good cause, extend the time . . . 24 with or without motion or notice . . . if a request is made, before the original time or its 25 extension expires.” Defendants seek a first extension of time to answer the FAC and 26 respond to Plaintiff’s Motion, ECF No. 35. Good cause is present to extend the deadline to 27 answer the FAC and respond to ECF No. 35. 28 2 9) within 60 days, or by July 17, 2023, and for counsel to accept service and file any last 3 known addresses within 21 days, or by June 7, 2023. ECF No. 17 4 On May 19, 2023, Collins filed a motion seeking leave to file an amended complaint. 5 ECF No. 18. On June 7, 2023, this Court granted Collins’ motion, ECF No. 28, and the First 6 Amended Complaint was filed, ECF No. 29. This Court construed Defendants’ Motion to 7 Stay ECF No. 17 regarding acceptance of service as motion for extension of time and 8 allowed an additional 21 days for acceptance of service. ECF No. 28. 9 On June 20, 2023, Collins filed this “Motion Requesting Court to Retain Jurisdiction 10 of This Case Regarding Breach of Contract Settlement Agreement Violation Claim.” ECF 11 No. 35. Collins appears to request an order finding that this court has subject matter 12 jurisdiction to hear his breach of contract claim. See Id. 13 However, not all Defendants named in the FAC have yet appeared in this case, nor 14 have the appearing Defendants had the opportunity to challenge this Court’s subject 15 matter jurisdiction in a motion to dismiss. Furthermore, counsel is still at work attempting 16 to parse the amended complaint and to prepare a motion to dismiss for lack of subject 17 matter jurisdiction, among other grounds. 18 While this Court granted an extension of the deadline to accept service in light of 19 the FAC, this Court did not extend the deadline to answer the FAC. ECF No. 28. The Office 20 of the Attorney General has until June 27, 2023, to accept service or file the last known 21 address of the remaining Defendants, Id., but Defendants still have until July 17, 2023, to 22 file an answer or a motion to dismiss in response to the FAC. ECF No. 17. 23 The extension requested by Defendants will allow counsel sufficient time to comply 24 with ECF No. 17 and to prepare and file a joint motion to dismiss and response to ECF No. 25 35 based upon lack of subject matter jurisdiction. Accordingly, Defendants respectfully 26 request that the extension be granted for good cause shown. See Ahanchian v. Xenon 27 Pictures, Inc., 624 F.3d 1253, 1260, (9th Cir. 2010) (holding that the “district court abused 28 its discretion in denying party’s timely motion” to extend time because the party 1 “demonstrated the ‘good cause’ required by Rule 6, and because there was no reason to 2 believe that [the party] was acting in bad faith or was misrepresenting his reasons for 3 || asking for the extension”). 4 Defendants request an extension of time until July 31, 2023, to answer the FAC and 5 ||respond to Plaintiff's Motion, ECF No. 35. 6 DATED this 21st day of June, 2023. 7 AARON D. FORD 3 Attorney General By: /s/ Samuel L. Pezone Jr. 9 SAMUEL L. PEZONE JR. (Bar No. 15978) 10 Deputy Attorney General

u Attorneys for Defendants 12 13 ORDER 14 IT |S ORDERED that ECF Nos. 37 and 38 are GRANTED. 15 DATED. 756 e223 16 tewer UNITED STATES MAGISTRATE JUDGE

18 19 20 21 22 23 24 25 26 27 28

2 I certify that I am an employee of the State of Nevada, Office of the Attorney General, 3 and that on June 21, 2023, I electronically filed the foregoing DEFENDANTS’ MOTION 4 FOR EXTENSION TO ANSWER THE FIRST AMENDED COMPLAINT AND 5 RESPONSE TO ECF NO. 35 (FIRST REQUEST), via this Court’s electronic filing 6 system. Parties that are registered with this Court’s electronic filing system will be served 7 electronically.

8 /s/ Diane Resch An employee of the Office of the 9 Nevada Attorney General 10 11 12 13 14 15 16 17 18 19 20 21 22 23 24 25 26 27 28