Davis v. Symetra Life Insurance Company

Opinion

1 The Honorable Kymberly K. Evanson 2 3

7 UNITED STATES DISTRICT COURT FOR THE WESTERN DISTRICT OF WASHINGTON 8 AT SEATTLE 9 DENNIS E. DAVIS, individually and on behalf of 10 all others similarly situated, 11 Plaintiff, NO. 2:21-cv-00533-KKE 12 v. STIPULATED MOTION AND 13 ORDER TO STAY PROCEEDINGS SYMETRA LIFE INSURANCE COMPANY, 14 Defendant. 15 16 17 18 19 20 21 22 23 24 25 26 1 Pursuant to Local Civil Rule 7(d)(1), Plaintiff Dennis E. Davis (“Plaintiff”) and 2 Defendant Symetra Life Insurance Company (“Symetra”) (collectively, the “Parties”) hereby 3 stipulate and respectfully request the Court stay proceedings through and including November 4 4, 2024, so that they may conduct a mediation scheduled for October 15, 2024 in New York, 5 New York before the Honorable Layn Phillips. Specifically, the Parties stipulate and 6 respectfully request that the Court hold the following motions in abeyance until November 4, 7 2024: (1) Plaintiff’s Motion for Class Certification (Doc. 61); (2) Symetra’s Motion to Exclude 8 Opinion of Expert Scott J. Witt (Doc. 81) and (3) Symetra’s Motion for Summary Judgment 9 (Doc. 94). 10 Courts have “broad discretion” to stay proceedings. Xirsi v. United States Dep’t of 11 State, No. 2:23-CV-00699-KKE, 2024 WL 756016, at *1 (W.D. Wash. Feb. 23, 2024) (quoting 12 Clinton v. Jones, 520 U.S. 681, 706 (1997)). “[T]he power to stay proceedings is incidental to 13 the power inherent in every court to control the disposition of the causes on its docket with 14 economy of time and effort for itself, for counsel, and for litigants.” Id. (quoting Landis v. N. 15 Am. Co., 299 U.S. 248, 254 (1936)); see also Fed. R. Civ. P. 1. 16 With additional time, this case may be resolved without the need of further judicial 17 intervention, which would conserve the resources of the Parties and the Court by allowing the 18 Parties to focus on potential settlement discussions. In light of the upcoming scheduled 19 mediation, the Parties therefore respectfully request that this Court stay the case and hold the 20 following motions in abeyance until November 4, 2024: (1) Plaintiff’s Motion for Class 21 Certification (Doc. 61); (2) Symetra’s Motion to Exclude Opinion of Expert Scott J. Witt (Doc. 22 81) and (3) Symetra’s Motion for Summary Judgment (Doc. 94). 23 24 25 26 1 DATED September 17, 2024 Respectfully submitted,

2 TOUSLEY BRAIN STEPHENS PLLC WILLKIE FARR & GALLAHER LLP 3 By: /s/ Kim D. Stephens, P.S. By: /s/ Laura Geist 4 Kim D. Stephens, P.S., WSBA #11984 Laura Geist, pro hac vice Rebecca L. Solomon, WSBA #51520 Yuhan Chi, pro hac vice 5 1200 Fifth Avenue, Suite 1700 Joshua Anderson, pro hac vice Seattle, Washington 98101 Naiara Toker, pro hac vice 6 Tel: (206) 682-5600 One Front Street Fax: (206) 682-2992 San Francisco, CA 94111 7 kstephens@tousley.com Tel: (415) 858-7400 rsolomon@tousley.com Fax: (415) 858-7599 8 lgeist@willkie.com STUEVE SIEGEL HANSON LLP ychi@willkie.com 9 Patrick J. Stueve (admitted pro hac vice) jdanderson@willkie.com Lindsay Todd Perkins (admitted pro hac vice) schen2@willkie.com 10 Ethan M. Lange (admitted pro hac vice) ntoker@willkie.com David A. Hickey (admitted pro hac vice) 11 460 Nichols Road, Suite 200 KARR TUTTLE CAMPBELL Kansas City, MO 64112 Medora A. Marisseau, WSBA #23114 12 Tel: (816) 714-7100 701 Fifth Avenue, Suite 3300 Fax: (816) 714-7101 Seattle, WA 98104 13 stueve@stuevesiegel.com Tel: (206) 223-1313 perkins@stuevesiegel.com Fax: (206) 682-7100 14 lange@stuevesiegel.com mmarisseau@karrtuttle.com hickey@stuevesiegel.com 15 Counsel for Defendant, Symetra Life SCHIRGER FEIERABEND, LLC Insurance Company 16 John J. Schirger (admitted pro hac vice) Joseph M. Feierabend (admitted pro hac vice) 17 4520 Main Street, Suite 1570 Kansas City, MO 64111 18 Tel: (816) 561-6500 Fax: (816) 561-6501 19 jschirger@millerschirger.com jfeierabend@millerschirger.com 20 Counsel for Plaintiff, Dennis E. Davis 21

22 23 24 25 26 1 ORDER 2 The Court GRANTS the parties’ stipulated motion (Dkt. No. 128) and STAYS this 3 matter until November 4, 2024. 4 The clerk is directed to TERMINATE (1) Plaintiff’s motion for class certification (Dkt. 5 No. 67), (2) Symetra’s motion to exclude opinion of expert Scott J. Witt (Dkt. No. 81), and (3) 6 Symetra’s motion for summary judgment (Dkt. No. 94). Upon the moving party’s filing of a 7 notice of intent to reactivate any motion, on or after November 4, 2024, the clerk shall 8 reactivate that motion. 9 Dated this 17th day of September, 2024. 10 11 A 12 Kymberly K. Evanson 13 United States District Judge

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