Mohamed Abdalla Mahmoud v. Jose Navarrete, et al.

Opinion

Attorney General 2 SAMUEL L. PEZONE JR. (Bar No. 15978) Deputy Attorney General 3 State of Nevada Office of the Attorney General 4 1 State of Nevada Way, Suite 100 Las Vegas, Nevada 89119 5 (702) 486-4070 (phone) (702) 486-3768 (fax) 6 Email: spezone@ag.nv.gov 7 Attorneys for Interested Party, Nevada Department of Corrections 8 UNITED STATES DISTRICT COURT 9 DISTRICT OF NEVADA 10 MOHAMED ABDALLA MAHMOUD, Case No. 3:24-cv-00604-MMD-CSD 11 Plaintiff, ORDER APPROVING INTERESTED 12 v. PARTY’S MOTION TO EXTEND TIME AND CONTINUE THE INMATE 13 JOSE NAVARRETE, et al., EARLY MEDIATION CONFERENCE (ECF NO. 17) 14 Defendants. (FIRST REQUEST) 15 Interested Party, the Nevada Department of Corrections (NDOC), hereby move to 16 extend the time to extend the time to file their Early Mediation Conference brief and to 17 continue the Inmate Early Mediation Conference currently scheduled for Tuesday, March 18 17, 2026, at 1:00 p.m. This is Interested Party’s first request for an extension of these 19 deadlines. There is good cause and excusable neglect for this Court to grant an extension. 20 MEMORANDUM OF POINTS AND AUTHORITIES 21 I. LEGAL STANDARD 22 Pursuant to Fed. R. Civ. P. 6(b), the “court may, for good cause, extend the time [set 23 to file or to hear a motion, opposition, or reply] . . . with or without motion or notice . . . if a 24 request is made, before the original time or its extension expires,” or “on motion made after 25 the time has expired if the party failed to act because of excusable neglect.” See also LR IA 26 6-1(a) 27 28 2 the exercise of due diligence, [the party was] unable to meet the” subject deadline. Cruz v. 3 City of Anaheim, CV-1003997-MMM-JEMX, 2011 WL 13214312, at *2 (C.D. Cal. Dec. 19, 4 2011) (citing Zivkovic v. Southern California Edison Co., 302 F.3d 1080, 1087 (9th Cir. 5 2002); Johnson v. Mammoth Recreations, Inc., 975 F.2d 604, 609 (9th Cir. 1992)). Prejudice 6 to the opposing party is a factor in determining good cause, though lack of prejudice is “not 7 a prerequisite.” Id. 8 In determining whether any parties’ neglect is excusable, courts of this circuit weigh 9 four factors: “(1) the danger of prejudice to the non-moving party, (2) the length of delay 10 and its potential impact on judicial proceedings, (3) the reason for the delay, including 11 whether it was within the reasonable control of the movant, and (4) whether the moving 12 party's conduct was in good faith.” Pincay v. Andrews, 389 F.3d 853, 855 (9th Cir. 2004); 13 Pioneer Investment Services Co. v. Brunswick Associates Ltd. Partnership, 507 U.S. 380, 14 395 (1993). 15 II. ARGUMENT 16 The Interested Party’s requests an extension of the time set to submit its Early 17 Mediation Statement and a continuance of the Early Mediation Conference pursuant to the 18 Order Setting Inmate Early Mediation Conference, ECF No. 17. The deadline to submit the 19 mediation statement was March 3, 2026, and the mediation itself is currently set for March 20 17, 2026. Id. Based upon the foregoing, there is good cause and excusable neglect to extend 21 the time to submit Interested Party’s mediation statement and continue the mediation 22 conference by no less than fourteen (14) days 23 Due to the recent departure of several of counsel’s colleagues and a resulting influx 24 of reassigned matters, as well as several deadlines in existing matters, undersigned counsel 25 has been unable to begin a draft of Interested Party’s mediation statement. Counsel was 26 only recently assigned to this case on February 12, 2026, and has had barely any time at 27 all to familiarize himself with Plaintiff’s cases or any of Plaintiff’s allegations. Given 28 2 mediation brief within the next week. 3 On or about December 8, 2025, previous assigned counsel obtained and placed copies 4 of relevant incident reports in the case file. Previous assigned counsel reviewed said reports 5 on December 31, 2025, but did not request copies of incident video footage mentioned within 6 those reports, despite the court’s order requiring NDOC to provide a copy of this footage 7 with its mediation statement. ECF No. 17 at 5 n. 3. Counsel received a copy of this video 8 today but has not had any time to review it. Counsel has yet to receive records pertinent to 9 Plaintiff’s claims regarding his religious exercise in the two other cases due to be discussed 10 at the mediation conference. 11 An extension should not substantially delay this case and should allow counsel 12 adequate time to draft and finalize Interest Party’s mediation brief. Plaintiff will not be 13 significantly prejudiced by this extension. Accordingly, the parties respectfully request that 14 this extension be granted for good cause and excusable neglect shown. See Ahanchian v. 15 Xenon Pictures, Inc., 624 F.3d 1253, 1260 (9th Cir. 2010) (holding that the “district court 16 abused its discretion in denying party’s timely motion” to extend time because the party 17 “demonstrated the ‘good cause’ required by Rule 6, and because there was no reason to 18 believe that [the party] was acting in bad faith or was misrepresenting his reasons for 19 asking for the extension”). 20 III. CONCLUSION 21 Based on the foregoing, there is good cause and excusable neglect to extend the time 22 to submit the Interested Party’s mediation brief and to continue the early mediation 23 conference. Interested Party respectfully requests that this Court extend these dates by no 24 less than fourteen (14) days. 25 DATED this 5th day of March, 2026. 26 AARON D. FORD Attorney General 27 By: /s/ Samuel L. Pezone Jr. 28 SAMUEL L. PEZONE JR. (Bar No. 15978) Deputy Attorney General 1 Attorneys for Interested Party NDOC 2 3 IT ISSO ORDERED. DATED: March 6, 2026. oc Ss

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2 I certify that I am an employee of the State of Nevada, Office of the Attorney General, 3 and that on March 5, 2026, I electronically filed the foregoing, INTERESTED PARTY’S 4 MOTION TO EXTEND TIME AND TO CONTINUE THE INMATE EARLY 5 MEDIATION CONFERENCE (ECF NO. 17), via this Court’s electronic filing system. 6 Parties that are registered with this Court’s electronic filing system will be served 7 electronically. 8 /s/ Samuel L. Pezone Jr. 9 SAMUEL L. PEZONE JR., An employee of the Office of the Nevada Attorney General 10 11 12 13 14 15 16 17 18 19 20 21 22 23 24 25 26 27 28