Mosley v. Del Toro

Opinion

1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 UNITED STATES DISTRICT COURT 9 SOUTHERN DISTRICT OF CALIFORNIA 10 11 IVAN MOSLEY, an individual, Case No.: 21-CV-1129 TWR (JLB)

12 Plaintiff, ORDER DENYING WITHOUT 13 v. PREJUDICE DONALD R. HOLBEN & ASSOCIATES, APC’S MOTION 14 CARLOS DEL TORO, Secretary TO BE RELIEVED AS COUNSEL of the Navy, Department of the Navy, 15 FOR PLAINTIFF IVAN MOSLEY a governmental entity; and DOES 1

16 through 25, inclusive, (ECF No. 27) 17 Defendants. 18 19 20 Presently before the Court is Donald R. Holben & Associates, APC’s Motion to Be 21 Relieved as Counsel for Plaintiff Ivan Mosley (“Mot.,” ECF No. 27), which is noticed for 22 a hearing on November 17, 2022. The Motion is predicated—without further 23 elaboration—on a “breakdown in the attorney-client relationship[] and . . . . irreconcilable 24 differences.” (See ECF No. 27-1 (“Mem.”) at 2; see also id. at 3–4; ECF No. 27-2 (“Holben 25 Decl.”) ¶ 5.) Further, although no Early Neutral Evaluation conference (“ENE”) had been 26 scheduled when the Motion was filed on October 12, 2022, (see Mem. at 3; Holben Decl. 27 ¶ 4), on October 17, 2022, the Honorable Jill L. Burkhardt set an ENE for November 30, 28 2022. (See ECF No. 30.) 1 Not only does the Court have insufficient information about the reason withdrawal 2 ||is sought, see, e.g., Constr. Laborers Tr. Funds for S. Cal. Admin. v. W. Coast Structures, 3 || Inc., No. EDCV18490JGBSPX, 2019 WL 7905891, at *2 (C.D. Cal. Oct. 24, 2019), but 4 || allowing counsel to withdraw before the scheduled ENE might work an injustice or cause 5 || undue delay in the proceedings. (Cf Mem. at 34 (citing Manfredi & Levine v. Super. □□□ 6 ||66 Cal. App. 4th 1128, 1133-36 (1998)).) The Court therefore DENIES WITHOUT 7 || PREJUDICE Donald R. Holben & Associates, APC’s Motion. Counsel may renew its 8 || request—with proper support—following the ENE. 9 IT IS SO ORDERED. 10 || Dated: October 20, 2022 — [59 14 bre Honorable Todd W. Robinson United States District Judge 13 14 15 16 17 18 19 20 21 22 23 24 25 26 27 28