McDonald v. Dzurenda

• Court: District Court, D. Nevada
• Decided: July 20, 2021
• Docket: 2:19-cv-01329
• Status: Unknown

Opinion

Attorney General 2 DOUGLAS R. RANDS, Bar No. 3572 Senior Deputy Attorney General 3 State of Nevada 100 N. Carson Street 4 Carson City, NV 89701-4717 Tel: (775) 684-1150 5 E-mail: drands@ag.nv.gov

6 CHRISTOPHER M. GUY, Bar No. 15239 Deputy Attorney General 7 State of Nevada 555 East Washington Ave., Suite 3900 8 Las Vegas, Nevada 89101 Tel: (702) 486-3326 9 Email: cguy@ag.nv.gov

10 Attorneys for Defendants

12 UNITED STATES DISTRICT COURT

13 DISTRICT OF NEVADA

14 KENNETH G. McDONALD, Case No. 2:19-cv-01329-JAD-CWH 15 Plaintiff,

16 vs. MOTION TO CONTINUE EARLY MEDIATION CONFERENCE SET 17 JAMES DZURENDA, N.D.O.C. FOR AUGUST 6, 2021, TO A DIRECTOR, et al. SUBSEQUENT DATE AND TIME 18 Defendants. 19 20 Specially Appearing Defendants, by and through counsel, Aaron D. Ford, Attorney 21 General of the State of Nevada, Douglas R. Rands, Senior Deputy Attorney General, and 22 Christopher M. Guy, Deputy Attorney General, hereby file this Motion To Continue 23 Early Mediation Conference Set For August 6, 2021, at 8:30 am One Week. 24 I. BACKGROUND AND INTRODUCTION 25 This is a civil-rights action under 42 U.S.C. § 1983. Plaintiff Kenneth McDonald filed 26 a Complaint on May 27, 2021. ECF No. 15. This Court issued its Screening Order of the 27 Complaint on May 27, 2021. ECF No. 14. The Office of the Attorney General entered a 28 limited notice of appearance for the purposes of settlement discussions on June 17, 2021. 2 18. The Order scheduled the mediation for August 6, 2021, at 8:30 AM. Id. Pursuant to the 3 Order, Defendants were ordered to make the necessary arrangements for Plaintiff to 4 appear by video conferencing. Id. at 2:17-20. 5 Defendants have been informed by Southern Desert Correctional Center that August 6 6, 2021, at 8:30 AM is not available. Defendants now move for the mediation to be continued 7 to a subsequent date and time. 8 II. LEGAL STANDARD 9 District Courts have inherent power to control their dockets. Hamilton Copper & 10 Steel Corp. v. Primary Steel, Inc., 898 F.2d 1428, 1429 (9th Cir. 1990); Oliva v. Sullivan, 11 958 F.2d 272, 273 (9th Cir. 1992). In addition to LR IA 6-1, Fed. R. Civ. P. 6(b)(1) governs 12 enlargements of time and provides as follows:

13 When an act may or must be done within a specified time, the court may, for good cause, extend the time: (A) with or without 14 motion or notice if the court acts, or if a request is made, before the original time or its extension expires; or (B) on motion made 15 after the time has expired if the party failed to act because of excusable neglect. 16 17 “The proper procedure, when additional time for any purpose is needed, is to present 18 to the Court a timely request for an extension before the time fixed has expired (i.e., a 19 request presented before the time then fixed for the purpose in question has 20 expired).” Canup v. Miss. Valley Barge Line Co., 31 F.R.D. 282, 283 (D. Pa. 21 1962). The Canup Court explained that “the practicalities of life” (such as an attorney's 22 “conflicting professional engagements” or personal commitments such as vacations, family 23 activities, illnesses, or death) often necessitate an enlargement of time to comply with a 24 court deadline. Pickett v. Valdez, No. 317CV00567MMDWGC, 2019 WL 2570524, at *1 (D. 25 Nev. June 21, 2019) citing Canup, 31 F.R.D. 282, 283 (D. Pa. 1962). Extensions of time 26 “usually are granted upon a showing of good cause, if timely made.” Creedon v. Taubman, 27 8 F.R.D. 268, 269 (D. Ohio 1947). The good cause standard considers a party's diligence in 28 1 || seeking the continuance or extension. See, e.g., Johnson v. Mammoth Recreations, Inc., 975 2 || F.2d 604, 609 (9th Cir. 1992). 3 ARGUMENT 4 Undersigned counsel has been informed that Southern Desert Correctional 5 || Center cannot accommodate the on August 6, 2021, 8:30 AM date and time scheduled by 6 Court’s Order, see ECF No. 18, due to a Second Judicial District Court case that is 7 scheduled at that time. 8 Counsel for Defendants has another mediation scheduled on Friday, August 13, 9 |} 2021, at 11:15 AM. 10 ||IV. CONCLUSION 11 Specially Appearing Defendants request that the mediation conference be moved 12 ||to a date and time after August 6, 2021, that works best for the mediator, other than 13 || Friday, August 13, 2021, at 11:15 AM.1 14 DATED this 16th day of July 2021. 15 AARON D. FORD Attorney General 16 17 By: /s/Christopher M. Guy CHRISTOPHER M. GUY, Bar No. 15239 18 Deputy Attorney General 19 Attorneys for Defendants 20 21 ORDER 99 || The Court finds good cause to GRANT the motion. IT IS HEREBY ORDERED that the Inmate Early Mediation scheduled for August 6, 2021 is VACATED. 23 || The Court will issue a separate order resetting the mediation. DATED: July 20, 2021. I <) 25 >A A Daniel J. Albregts, 26 United States Magistrate Judge 27 28 1 The mediator will be mailed a copy of this Motion in conjunction with its filing.

2 I certify that I am an employee of the State of Nevada, Office of the Attorney General, 3 and that on July 16, 2021, I electronically filed the foregoing MOTION TO CONTINUE 4 EARLY MEDIATION CONFERENCE SET FOR AUGUST 6, 2021, TO A 5 SUBSEQUENT DATE AND TIME, via this Court’s electronic filing system. Parties who 6 are registered with this Court’s electronic filing system will be served electronically. For 7 those parties not registered service was made by emailing a copy at the addressed to the 8 following: 9 Kenneth G. McDonald #50925 Southern Desert Correctional Center 10 P.O. Box 208 Indian Springs, Nevada 89070-0208 11 Email: sdcclawlibrary@doc.nv.gov Plaintiff, Pro Se 12

14 /s/Sheri Regalado Sheri Regalado, An employee of the 15 Office of the Attorney General

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