Frias v. County of San Diego

Opinion

1 2 3 4 5 6 7 10 11 JOSEPH FRIAS, Case No.: 3:22-cv-00675-JO-AHG

12 Plaintiff, ORDER GRANTING JOINT 13 v. MOTION TO EXTEND DEADLINE TO CONTACT THE COURT 14 COUNTY OF SAN DIEGO, et al., REGARDING DISCOVERY 15 Defendants. DISPUTE

16 [ECF No. 73] 17 18 19 Before the Court is the parties’ joint motion to extend the deadline to raise discovery 20 disputes with the Court. ECF No. 73. Under the Court’s 45-Day Rule (see AHG.Chmb.R. 21 at 2–3), the parties would have been required to bring any discovery dispute regarding 22 Defendant’s responses1 to the Court’s attention by February 19, 2024. The parties seek an 23 order from the Court extending the deadline slightly. ECF No. 73 at 2. 24 Parties seeking to continue deadlines must demonstrate good cause. Chmb.R. at 2 25 (stating that any request for continuance requires “[a] showing of good cause for the 26 27 1 Defendant’s responses at issue here regard Plaintiff’s sixth set of special interrogatories, which Plaintiff propounded on November 17, 2023, and Defendant responded to on 28 1 request’); see also FED. R. Civ. P. 6(b) (“When an act may or must be done within a 2 || specified time, the court may, for good cause, extend the time’’). 3 “Good cause” is a non-rigorous standard that has been construed broadly across 4 || procedural and statutory contexts. Ahanchian v. Xenon Pictures, Inc., 624 F.3d 1253, 1259 5 || (9th Cir. 2010). The good cause standard focuses on the diligence of the party seeking to 6 ||amend the scheduling order and the reasons for seeking modification. Johnson v. Mammoth 7 || Recreations, Inc., 975 F.2d 604, 609 (9th Cir. 1992) (“[T]he focus of the inquiry is upon 8 moving party’s reasons for seeking modification. . . . If that party was not diligent, the 9 || inquiry should end.”) (internal citation omitted). 10 Here, the parties have represented to the Court that they are actively meeting and 11 ||}conferring on regarding Defendant’s discovery responses, and have “reached a 12 ||compromise whereby County agreed [to] supplement its response.” ECF No. 73 at 2. 13 ||“Counsel for Defendants was recently sick with COVID-19 and anticipates supplementing 14 || the response by February 16, 2024[.]” Jd. Hence, the parties seek an order from the Court 15 || extending the deadline raise their dispute to February 23, 2024, to facilitate a cooperative 16 |/resolution. Id. 17 The Court appreciates that the parties have been working together to resolve their 18 || disputes without judicial intervention. Good cause appearing, the Court GRANTS the 19 |/motion. Thus, the parties must bring any discovery dispute regarding Defendant’s 20 |/responses to Plaintiff's sixth set of special interrogatories to the Court’s attention in the 21 ||manner described in ECF No. 69 at 2 n.1 no later than February 23, 2024. 23 Dated: February 15, 2024 24 _ Apion. Honorable Allison H. Goddard 25 United States Magistrate Judge 26 27 28