Gutierrez v. Costco Wholesale Corporation

Opinion

1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 UNITED STATES DISTRICT COURT 9 SOUTHERN DISTRICT OF CALIFORNIA 10 11 MARIA GUADALUPE GUTIERREZ, Case No.: 21cv603-GPC(KSC)

12 Plaintiff, ORDER GRANTING IN PART THE 13 v. PARTIES’ JOINT MOTION FOR CONTINUANCE OF DISCOVERY 14 COSTCO WHOLESALE AND OTHER DEADLINES CORPORATION, 15 Defendant. [Doc. No. 21.] 16

17 18 Before the Court is the parties’ Joint Motion for Continuance of Discovery 19 Deadlines. [Doc. No. 21.] In the Joint Motion, the parties seek a 90-day extension of the 20 deadlines for completing fact and expert discovery, as well as the deadline for filing 21 dispositive motions. The reason for the request is that defendant has not yet obtained 22 plaintiff’s medical records. The parties have not explained why defendant was not able 23 to obtain these records in a timely manner. [Doc. No. 21, at p. 2.] 24 “A schedule may be modified only for good cause and with the judge’s consent.” 25 Fed.R.Civ.P. 16(b)(4). “Good cause” means that the party seeking an extension must 26 make a showing that they are unable to meet the deadlines in the scheduling order despite 27 diligence. Johnson v. Mammoth, 975 F.2d 604, 610-611 (9th Cir. 1992), Based on the 28 information presented, the Court finds that the parties have not established good cause for | lengthy 90-day extension of the deadlines in the Scheduling Order for completing 2 || discovery and for filing dispositive motions. Although the Court will extend the deadline 3 || for completing fact discovery to allow defendant time to obtain plaintiff's medical 4 || records, all other dates and deadlines in the operative Scheduling Order will remain the 5 |}same. The Court notes that the parties indicate in their Joint Motion that a 90-day 6 || extension of the discovery and dispositive motion deadlines would not impact other 7 || deadlines in the Scheduling Order. However, a 90-day extension of the deadline for 8 || filing dispositive motions would require a continuance of the final Pre-Trial Conference 9 || and related deadlines. Otherwise, the District Court would not have sufficient time to 10 || consider fully briefed summary judgment or other dispositive motions prior to the final 11 || Pre-Trial Conference. Accordingly, 12 IT IS HEREBY ORDERED that the parties’ request to continue the fact discovery 13 deadline until February 17, 2022 is GRANTED. The parties’ request to continue other 14 || deadlines in the Scheduling Order is DENIED. [Doc. No. 21.] 15 IT IS SO ORDERED. 16 ||Dated: November 5, 2021 Mh y i; ) 17 WU LA _———_ 18 Hori. Karen S. Crawford United States Magistrate Judge 19 20 21 22 23 24 25 26 27 28