Nall v. Adamson

• Court: District Court, D. Nevada
• Decided: January 12, 2021
• Docket: 3:19-cv-00054
• Status: Unknown

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. ENLARGEMENT OF TIME TO FILE SUMMARY JUDGMENT 13 KIM ADAMSON, et al., (First Request)

14 Defendants.

15 16 17 Defendants Romeo Aranas, M.D. and Michael Minev, M.D. by and through counsel, 18 Aaron D. Ford, Attorney General of the State of Nevada, and Jeffrey A. Cogan, Deputy 19 Attorney General, moves this Court for an enlargement of time to move for summary 20 judgment. 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 suffered 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), Nall’s dosages of Neurontin was increased. (Id. at 6-7). He 2 Director Romeo Aranas dropped Neurontin from being used to treat neuropathy and 3 fibromyalgia. (Id. at 7.) 4 Alternative drugs were prescribed which did not work. (Id. at 7). On July 2, 2018, 5 the current NDOC Medical Director stated that Plaintiff’s denial of prescriptions was a 6 “decision made outside our facility.” (Id. at 12, 43). Plaintiff alleged that Defendants were 7 deliberately indifferent to his medical needs in violation of his Eighth Amendment rights. 8 (Id. at 5, 13-14). 9 On September 11, 2020, this Court entered its Scheduling Order for Civil Rights 10 Actions Filed by Incarcerated Pro Se Plaintiffs and set the date to file and serve motions 11 for summary judgment by January 11, 2021. (ECF 20.) 12 On November 9, 2020, Plaintiff propounded seven Requests for Production of 13 Documents (First Request) to Michael Minev and three Interrogatories (Second Request) 14 to Romeo Aranas. The Request for Production of Documents seeks Plaintiff’s medical 15 records from 2004 to the present. On December 11, 2020, the undersigned submitted a 16 motion to serve discovery responses. (ECF No. 23). Unbeknownst to the undersigned, 17 defendant Michael Minev’s administrative assistant came down with Covid-19 and Dr. 18 Minev was without support staff for most of December 2020. 19 On December 13, 2020, the undersigned suffered a vitvecus hemorrhage in his left 20 eye, making him unable to see out of that eye. On December 21, 2020, ophthalmologic 21 surgeon, Hardeep S. Dhindsa, M.D., was to perform laser surgery on the undersigned’s 22 left eye, but Dr. Dhinda determined that the better course of treatment was to wait until 23 February 3, 2021, to conduct the surgery. Dr. Dhinda execused the undersigned from 24 work until January 15, 2021, as it is very difficult to read and perform work on the 25 computer due to the temporary blindness of the left eye. See Exhibit A. 26 The undersigned spoke to Dr. Aranas today as to the status of the discovery 27 responses and counsel expects to get them served on Nall by January 19, 2021. The 28 undersigned also emailed Dr. Minev’s assistant, who is still working a limited schedule 2 General to also have those responses served by January 19, 2021. 3 II. LEGAL STANDARD 4 “For good cause, the court may extend the time prescribed by these rules or by its 5 order to perform any act, or may permit an act to be done after that time expires.” Fed. R. 6 Civ. P. 26(b). “The proper procedure, when additional time for any purpose is needed, is to 7 present to the Court a timely request for an extension before the time fixed has expired 8 (i.e., a request presented before the time fixed for the purpose in question has expired). 9 Michaud v. Baker, 3:17-cv-00718-MMD-CBC, 2019 WL 1292679, *1 (D. Nev. March 20, 10 2019) citing Canup v. Miss. Valley Barge Line Co., 31 F.R.D. 282, 283 (D. Pa. 1962). The 11 Canup Court explained that the “practicalities of life” (such as an attorney’s “conflicting 12 professional engagements” or personal commitments such as vacations, family activities, 13 illnesses, or death) often necessitate an enlargement of time to comply with a court 14 deadline. Id. Extensions of time “usually are granted upon a showing of good cause, if 15 timely made.” Id. citing Creedon v. Taubman, 8 F.R.D. 268, 269 (D. Ohio 1947). The good 16 cause standard considers a party’s diligence in seeking the continuance or extension. See 17 In re Western States Wholesale Natural Gas Antitrust Litigation, 715 F.3d 716, 737 (9th 18 Cir. 2013) citing Johnson v. Mammoth Recreations, Inc., 975 F.2d 604, 609 (9th Cir. 19 1992). 20 III. ARGUMENT 21 Defendants’ request is timely as the deadline to file a motion for summary 22 judgment is January 11, 2021. (ECF No. 20.) The Office of the Attorney General (OAG), 23 in accordance with Governor Sisolak’s Stay at Home 2.0 order, has required all 24 employees, including support staff, to return to a completely remote workplace. New 25 challenges have arisen regarding deadlines and the undersigned obtaining assistance in 26 filing for summary judgment. Neither Dr. Minev’s assistant contracting Covid-19 nor the 27 undersigned suffering a vitvecus hemorrahage were contemplated and the illness of both 28 have caused a small delay in this proceeding. Canup recognized illness as a valid reason 1 || for an extension of time to be granted. This Motion is timely as it is being filed on tl 2 || date that dispositive motions are due. 3 Had the summary judgment motion been filed on January 11, 2021, tl 4 || undersigned would have requested that Nall receive additional time of at least 17 da 5 || after service of the discovery responses. Defendants request an extension of seven (7) da 6 || to January 19, 2021 to allow Defendants to complete the motion and possibly include □□□ 7 || discovery responses in support of summary judgment. 8 Defendants propose that the undersigned file a notice with the Court stating th 9 || the outstanding discovery has been served to allow the Court to advise Nall when h 10 || responsive pleading to Defendants’ summary judgment is due. 11 || IW. CONCLUSION 12 Based on the foregoing, Defendants respectfully request that this Honorable Cou 13 || grant their Motion for Enlargement of Time (First Request) and allow them up to a1 14 || including Tuesday, January 19, 2021, to file their motion for summary judgment. 15 DATED this 11th day of January, 2021 I AARON D. FORD 6 Attorney General 17 13 By: /s/ Jeffrey A. Cogan JEFFREY A. COGAN, Bar No. 4569 19 Deputy Attorney General 20 Attorneys for Defendants 21 22 IT 1S SO ORDERED. 23 Dated: Ja y 12, 2021 * 24 25 UNITED STA ISTRATE JUDGE 26 27 28

1 CERTIFICATE OF SERVICE 2 I certify that I am an employee of the Office of the Attorney General, State of Nevada, and tt 3 this 11th day of January, 2021, I caused to be served a copy of the foregoing, DEFENDANT 4 || MOTION FOR ENLARGEMENT OF TIME TO FILE SUMMARY JUDGMENT (Fi 5 || Request) , by U.S. District Court CM/ECF Electronic Filing to: 6 7 8 Tyrone T.H. Nall #55462 9 Care of LCC Law Librarian Lovelock Correctional Center 10 1200 Prison Road Lovelock, Nevada 89419 ll Icclawlibrary @doc.nv.gov 12 13 4 employee ofthe Office of the Attorney General 15 16 17 18 19 20 21 22 23 24 25 26 27 28

EXHIBIT A

Dr. Note

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