Jenkins v. James River Insurance Company

Opinion

1 2 3 4 5 UNITED STATES DISTRICT COURT 6 DISTRICT OF NEVADA 7

8 RUSSELL JENKINS, Case No. 2:21-cv-01969-JCM-NJK

9 Plaintiff(s), Order

10 v. [Docket No. 17]

11 JAMES RIVER INSURANCE COMPANY,

12 Defendant(s). 13 Pending before the Court is Defendant’s motion to stay discovery pending resolution of its 14 motion for summary judgment. Docket No. 17.1 Plaintiff filed a response. Docket No. 22. 15 Defendant filed a reply. Docket No. 25. The motion is properly resolved without a hearing. See 16 Local Rule 78-1. 17 The Court has broad discretionary power to control discovery. See, e.g., Little v. City of 18 Seattle, 863 F.2d 681, 685 (9th Cir. 1988). “The Federal Rules of Civil Procedure do not provide 19 for automatic or blanket stays of discovery when a potentially dispositive motion is pending.” 20 Tradebay, LLC v. eBay, Inc., 278 F.R.D. 597, 601 (D. Nev. 2011). Discovery should proceed 21 absent a “strong showing” to the contrary. Turner Broadcasting Sys., Inc. v. Tracinda Corp., 175 22 F.R.D. 554, 556 (D. Nev. 1997). Requests to stay discovery may be granted when: (1) the 23 underlying motion is potentially dispositive in scope and effect; (2) the underlying motion can be 24 decided without additional discovery; and (3) the Court has taken a “preliminary peek” at the 25 merits of the underlying motion and is convinced that the plaintiff will be unable to prevail. Kor 26 Media Group, LLC v. Green, 294 F.R.D. 579, 581 (D. Nev. 2013). The Court is guided in its 27 1 The motion for summary judgment is fully briefed. Docket No. 16 (motion); Docket No. 28 26 (response); Docket No. 27 (reply). 1} analysis by the objectives in Rule 1 to secure a just, speedy, and inexpensive determination of 2|| cases. Tradebay, 278 F.R.D. at 602. 3 A stay of discovery is appropriate here. Plaintiff admits that the motion for summary 4] judgment is potentially dispositive and that it can be decided without additional discovery. Docket No. 22 at 6. Moreover, the undersigned’s evaluation of the motion for summary Judgment reveals 6]| that it is sufficiently meritorious to justify a stay of discovery.” 7 Accordingly, the motion to stay discovery is GRANTED. In the event resolution of the motion for summary judgment does not result in the termination of this case, a discovery plan or 9] joint status report must be filed within 14 days of the issuance of such order. 10 IT IS SO ORDERED. 1] Dated: March 28, 2022 UA. 12 7 A — ~ 13 □□□ Stated Ye istrate Judge ag g 14 15 16 17 18 19 20 21 22 23 24 ——__________ ? Conducting the preliminary peek puts the undersigned in an awkward position because 26] the assigned district judge who will decide the underlying motion may have a different view of its merits. See Tradebay, 278 F.R.D. at 603. This “preliminary peek” at the merits of the underlying motion is not intended to prejudice its outcome. See id. As a result, the undersigned will not provide a lengthy discussion of the merits of the underlying motion. Nonetheless, the undersigned 28] has carefully reviewed the arguments presented in the underlying motion and subsequent briefing.