Finfrock v. Yuma Regional Medical Center

• Court: District Court, D. Arizona
• Decided: October 1, 2024
• Docket: 2:23-cv-00998
• Status: Unknown

Opinion

1 WO 2 3 4 5 6 IN THE UNITED STATES DISTRICT COURT 7 FOR THE DISTRICT OF ARIZONA

9 Mariah Finfrock, No. CV-23-00998-PHX-KML

10 Plaintiff, ORDER

11 v.

12 Yuma Regional Medical Center,

13 Defendant. 14 15 The current deadline for filing dispositive motions is October 6, 2024. Defendant 16 Yuma Regional Medical Center seeks an extension of that deadline to 60 days after the 17 court resolves Yuma Regional’s motion to dismiss and request for monetary sanctions. 18 (Doc. 26.) An indefinite extension of the dispositive motion deadline is not appropriate. 19 Instead, the court will extend the deadline by 60 days and require the parties complete all 20 discovery in the next 30 days. 21 According to Yuma Regional, Plaintiff Mariah Finfrock has failed to prosecute her 22 claims and failed to participate in discovery. In particular, Yuma Regional argues Finfrock 23 has not responded to the First Set of Interrogatories and First Set of Requests for 24 Production. In addition, Finfrock’s responses to the Second Set of Requests for Production 25 and Second Set of Interrogatories were “skeletal” and “incomplete.” (Doc. 26 at 2.) 26 Finfrock does not explain why she has not participated in discovery and, having reviewed 27 some of Finfrock’s responses, her very limited answers do appear inadequate. 28 Dismissal is an available sanction when a plaintiff fails to prosecute her case or fails 1 || to participate in discovery. But dismissal “is so harsh a penalty it should be imposed as a sanction only in extreme circumstances.” Thompson vy. Hous. Auth. of City of Los Angeles, || 782 F.2d 829, 831 (9th Cir. 1986) (discussing dismissal for failure to comply with court 4|| orders); see also In re Exxon Valdez, 102 F.3d 429, 432 (9th Cir. 1996) (dismissal for 5 || failure to respond to discovery requests is appropriately only in “extreme circumstances”). || Based on the current record, it is unlikely dismissal would be appropriate. But the court will not resolve the motion to dismiss and request for sanctions at this time. Instead, 8 || Finfrock will be given a limited time to establish she wishes to pursue her claims. 9 The dispositive motion deadline will be moved from October 6, 2024, to December 6, 2024. To allow Yuma Regional to prepare its motion, Finfrock must provide complete 11 |} discovery responses within two weeks of this order and sit for her deposition no later than 12 || November 8, 2024. Failure to do so will result in sanctions and, given her past behavior, 13 || the sanction of dismissal may be appropriate at that time. 14 Accordingly, 15 IT IS ORDERED the Motion to Amend (Doc. 26) is GRANTED IN PART. The 16 || deadline for dispositive motions is December 6, 2024. 17 IT IS FURTHER ORDERED within fourteen days of this order plaintiff must 18 || provide complete responses to all discovery requests. The deadline for □□□□□□□□□□□ 19 || deposition is November 8, 2024. 20 Dated this Ist day of October, 2024. 21

23 LAA ALALLA se □□□ Honorable Krissa M. Lanham 24 United States District Judge 25 26 27 28

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