Nall v. Adamson

Opinion

Attorney General 2 JEFFERY A. COGAN, Bar No. 4569 Deputy Attorney General 3 State of Nevada Public Safety Division 4 100 N. Carson Street Carson City, Nevada 89701-4717 5 Tel: (775) 684-1261 E-mail: jcogan@ag.nv.gov 6 Attorneys for Defendants 7 Dr. Romeo Aranas and Dr. Michael Minev 8 UNITED STATES DISTRICT COURT

9 DISTRICT OF NEVADA

10 TYRONE T.H. NALL, Case No. 3:19-cv-00054-MMD-CLB 11 Plaintiff, DEFENDANTS’ MOTION FOR 12 vs. EXTENSION OF TIME TO SERVE DISCOVERY RESPONSES TO 13 KIM ADAMSON, et al., INTERROGATORIES SECOND SET AND REQUEST FOR PRODUCTION 14 Defendants. OF DOCUMENTS (SET ONE) 15 (FIRST REQUEST) 16 Defendants Romeo Aranas and Michael Minev, by and through counsel, Aaron D. 17 Ford, Attorney General of the State of Nevada, and Jeffrey A. Cogan, Deputy Attorney 18 General, submits this Motion for Extension of Time to Serve Discovery Responses to 19 Interrogatories to Romeo Aranas, (Second Set) and Request for Production of Documents 20 to Michael Minev, First Request (Set One). 21 POINTS AND AUTHORITIES 22 I. INTRODUCTION 23 This is a pro se prisoner civil rights action brought by inmate Plaintiff Tyrone T.H. 24 Nall (Plaintiff) concerning events that allegedly took place at the Lovelock Correctional 25 Center (LCC), asserting claims arising under 42 U.S.C. § 1983. Plaintiff alleged that he 26 he suffers from neuropathy and fibromyalgia and was being successfully treated for the 27 associated pain with doses of 300 mg. of Neurontin. (ECF No. 9 at 6). While at Lovelock 28 Correction Center (LCC) his dosages of Neurontin was increased. (Id. at 6-7). He alled 2 Romeo Aranas dropped Neurontin from being used to treat neuropathy and fibromyalgia. 3 Alternative drugs were prescribed which did not work. (Id. at 7). On July 2, 2018, the 4 current NDOC Medical Director stated that Plaintiff’s denial of prescriptions was a 5 “decision made outside our facility.” (Id. at 12, 43). Plaintiff alleged that Defendants 6 were deliberately indifferent to his medical needs in violation of his Eighth Amendment 7 rights. (Id. at 5, 13-14). 8 On November 9, 2020, Plaintiff propounded seven Requests for Production of 9 Documents (First Request) to Michael Minev and three Interrogatories (Second Request) 10 to Romeo Aranas. The Request for Production of Documents seeks Plaintiff’s medical 11 records from 2004 to the present. Defendants are seeking the documents required to 12 respond to the Interrogatories and the Requests for Productions but still have not 13 procured the complete file. Defendants also will object to some of the discovery. 14 The Court’s Scheduling Order states that discovery shall be completed by 15 December 10, 2020. (ECF No. 20 at 2, lines 8-9). 16 II. LEGAL STANDCARD 17 “For good cause, the court may extend the time prescribed by these rules or by its 18 order to perform any act, or may permit an act to be done after that time expires.” Fed. R. 19 Civ. P. 26(b). “The proper procedure, when additional time for any purpose is needed, is 20 to present to the Court a timely request for an extension before the time fixed has expired 21 (i.e., a request presented before the time fixed for the purpose in question has expired). 22 Michaud v. Baker, 3:17-cv-00718-MMD-CBC, 2019 WL 1292679, *1 (D. Nev. March 20, 23 2019) citing Canup v. Miss. Valley Barge Line Co., 31 F.R.D. 282, 283 (D. Pa. 1962). The 24 Canup Court explained that the “practicalities of life” (such as an attorney’s “conflicting 25 professional engagements” or personal commitments such as vacations, family activities, 26 ilnnesses, or death) often necessitate an enlargement of time to comply with a court 27 deadline. Id. Extensions of time “usually are granted upon a showing of good cause, if 28 timely made.” Id. citing Creedon v. Taubman, 8 F.R.D. 268, 269 (D. Ohio 1947). The good 1 || cause standard considers a party’s diligence in seeking the continuance or extension. S 2 || In re Western States Wholesale Natural Gas Antitrust Litigation, 715 F.3d 716, 737 □□ 3 || Cir. 2018) citing Johnson v. Mammoth Recreations, Inc., 975 F.2d 604, 609 (9 Cir. 1992 4 ||TI. ARGUMENT 5 Defendants’ request is timely as discovery was served on November 9, 2020 and 6 || not due until December 14, 2020. Since receiving the discovery, Defendants’ counsel h 7 || been preparing proposed responses for client review and had delays in completing t! 8 || answers. Due to the recent increase of COVID-19 cases within the NDOC institutions, mo 9 || of the support staff have been sent home for safety concerns. This has made obtaini 10 || necessary documents difficult across the board. Additionally, the Office of the Attorn 11 General (OAG), in accordance with Governor Sisolak’s Stay at Home 2.0 order, h 12 ||required all employees, including support staff to return to a completely remo 13 || workplace. This has created some new challenges with regards to deadlines and getti 14 || discovery out. However, the Office is working diligently to make certain that we can g 15 || all deadlines met and discovery out in a timely fashion. 16 Because discovery must be completed by December 10, 2020 pursuant to tl 17 || Court’s Scheduling Order (ECF No. 20), there is little prejudice to Plaintiff by t! 18 extension as he may not propound additional discovery. Plaintiffs case will not | 19 || hindered despite that motions for summary judgment are due by January 11, 2021. □□ 20 || additional time will allow for more thorough response to Plaintiff's discovery request 21 || Defendants’ request an extension of fourteen (14) days to December 22, 2020 to allc 22 Defendants to adequately research, obtain the needed documents and respond 23 || Plaintiff's extensive discovery requests. 24 DATED this 11th of December, 2020. 25 AARON D. FORD IT IS SO ORDERED. Attorney General Dated: December 11, 2020 By: /s/ Jeffrey A. Cogan 27 JEFFREY A. COGAN, Bar No. 4569 ‘ Deputy Attorney General 28 Attorneys for Defendants Sebhirciea \

1 CERTIFICATE OF SERVICE 2 I certify that I am an employee of the Office of the Attorney General, State 3 || Nevada, and that on this 11th day of December, 2020, I caused to be served, a true a 4 || correct copy of the foregoing, DEFENDANTS’ MOTION FOR EXTENSION OF TIM 5 || TO SERVE DISCOVERY RESPONSES TO INTERROGATORIES SECOND SE 6 || AND REQUEST FOR PRODUCTION OF DOCUMENTS (SET ONE) (FIRS 7 || REQUEST), by U.S. District Court CM/ECF Electronic Filing on: 8 Tyrone Nall #55462 9 || Care of LCC Law Librarian Lovelock Correctional Center 10 || 1200 Prison Road Lovelock, NV 89419 11 |! leclawlibrary@doc.nv.gov 12 13 An employee of the 14 Office of the Attorney General 15 16 17 18 19 20 21 22 23 24 25 26 27 28