Johnson v. Willis

Opinion

Attorney General 2 MATTHEW P. FEELEY (Bar No. 13336) Deputy Attorney General 3 State of Nevada Office of the Attorney General 4 555 East Washington Ave., #3900 Las Vegas, Nevada 89101 5 (702) 486-3120 (phone) (702) 486-3773 (fax) 6 E-mail: mfeeley@ag.nv.gov

7 Attorneys for Defendants Rashonda Smith and 8 Douglas Thrasher

12 UNITED STATES DISTRICT COURT

13 DISTRICT OF NEVADA

14 LAUSTEVEION JOHNSON, Case No. 2:17-cv-01121-APG-DJA

15 Plaintiff,

16 vs. DEFENDANTS’ MOTION TO 17 DAVID WILLIS, et al., RESCHEDULE THE SETTLEMENT CONFERENCE (ECF NO. 67) 18 Defendants. 19 20 Defendants Rashonda Smith and Douglas Thrasher, by and through counsel, 21 Aaron D. Ford, Attorney General of the State of Nevada, and Matthew P. Feeley, Deputy 22 Attorney General, and Lausteveion Johnson, Pro Se, hereby submit the following request 23 to reschedule the Settlement Conference currently set for September 29, 2020. 24 I. INTRODUCTION 25 Defendants respectfully request this Court reschedule the September 29, 2020, 26 Settlement Conference. State Tort Claims Manager Nancy Katafias is unavailable as she 27 is already scheduled for two inmate early mediation conferences on that date. Accordingly, 28 Defendants respectfully request this Court reschedule the Settlement Conference. 2 Plaintiff Lausteveion Johnson (Johnson) is an inmate incarcerated in the Nevada 3 Department of Corrections. (NDOC). Johnson filed a first amended civil rights complaint 4 pursuant to §1983. ECF No. 7. 5 On August 5, 2020, the parties submitted their Proposed Joint Pre-Trial Order and 6 the Court approved said order that same day. The Court additionally set this matter for 7 trial on a stacked calendar on January 25, 2021. ECF No. 66. 8 On August 13, 2020, this Court issued an Order Scheduling Settlement Conference, 9 set for September 29, 2020. ECF No. 67. 10 Defendants hereby respectfully request that the Court reschedule the Settlement 11 Conference.

12 III. LEGAL ARGUMENT 13 District courts have inherent power to control their dockets. Hamilton Copper & Steel 14 Corp. v. Primary Steel, Inc., 898 F.2d 1428, 1429 (9th Cir. 1990); Olivia v. Sullivan, 958 F.2d 15 272, 273 (9th Cir. 1992). Under Fed. R. Civ. P. 16(b)(a) “schedule shall not be modified except 16 upon a showing of good cause and by leave of the district judge or, when authorized by local 17 rule, by a magistrate judge.” 18 This Court ordered that “any requests to reschedule the SC must be submitted at least 19 one (1) week in advance of the scheduled date and provide a detailed reason for the request.” 20 ECF No. 67 at 2:14. This request is being submitted more than one week in advance of the 21 scheduled date and provides the following detailed reason for the request. 22 This Court, in setting the Settlement Conference, ordered the required attendance 23 of “a representative with binding authority to settle this matter up to the full amount of 24 the claim…” ECF No. 67 at 1:25. Nevada State Tort Claims Manager Nancy Katafias is the 25 individual granted that authority. However, Ms. Katafias is not available on September 29, 26 2020 as she is already scheduled to appear at two inmate early mediation conferences in 27 Reno Federal Court. 28 / / / 1 However, Defendants respectfully suggest the following dates, as Ms. Katafias is 2 ||currently available on the following dates: 3 e Monday Oct 5, 2020 4 e Monday Oct 12, 2020 5 e Wednesday Oct 14, 2020 6 e Monday Oct 19, 2020 7 e Wednesday Oct 21, 2020 8 e Monday Oct 26, 2020 9 e Monday Nov 2, 2020 10 e Thursday Nov 5, 2020. 11 CONCLUSION 12 Defendants respectfully requests this Court reschedule the Settlement Conference 13 light of the State Tort Claim Manager’s unavailability. 14 DATED this 25th day of August, 2020. 15 Respectfully submitted, 16 AARON D. FORD Attorney General 17 18 By:_/s/ Matthew Feeley Matthew Feeley (Bar No. 13336) 19 Deputy Attorney General Attorneys for Defendants 20 21 ORDER 22 || The Court finds good cause to GRANT the motion. IT IS ORDERED that the 23 Settlement Conference currently scheduled for September 29, 2020 is vacated and rescheduled to Monday, November 2, 2020 at 10:00 a.m. The written settlement 24 statements are due by noon on Monday, October 26, 2020. All other provisions of on the Court's prior Order ECF No. 67 remain in effect.

26 DATED: August 31, 2020. 27 OOM Daniel J. Albtiegts 28 United States Magistrate Judge

2 I certify that I am an employee of the State of Nevada, Office of the Attorney General, 3 and that August 25, 2020, I electronically filed the foregoing DEFENDANTS’ MOTION 4 TO RESCHEDULE THE SETTLEMENT CONFERENCE (ECF NO. 67), via this 5 Court’s electronic filing system. Parties who are registered with this Court’s electronic 6 filing system will be served electronically. For those parties not registered, service was 7 made by depositing a copy for mailing in the United States Mail, first-class postage prepaid, 8 at Las Vegas, Nevada, addressed to the following:

9 Mr. Lausteveion Johnson, #82138 Lovelock Correctional Center 10 1200 Prison Road Lovelock, Nevada 89419 11 Plaintiff, Pro Se

13 /s/Yolonda Laster______________ An employee of the Office of the 14 Nevada Attorney General 15

17 18 19 20 21 22 23 24 25 26 27 28