Nguyen v. Mercer Island Boys Basketball Booster Club

• Court: District Court, W.D. Washington
• Decided: March 28, 2024
• Docket: 2:23-cv-00855
• Status: Unknown

Opinion

5 UNITED STATES DISTRICT COURT 6 FOR THE WESTERN DISTRICT OF WASHINGTON AT SEATTLE 7

8 ELLE NGUYEN, et al., CASE NO. 2:23-cv-00855-RSL 9 Plaintiffs, v. 10

11 MERCER ISLAND BOYS BASKETBALL ORDER

BOOSTER CLUB, et al., 12 Defendants. 13

15 This matter comes before the Court on “Defendants MIBBBC, Rebecca Robinson, 16 Karen Friedman, and Kelly Coochise’s Motion for Rule 11 Sanctions.” Dkt. # 34. The 17 parties have submitted declarations of counsel that contradict each other regarding the date 18 on which the motion for sanctions was served on plaintiffs. Ms. Ashbaugh declares that 19 plaintiffs were served via email on September 20, 2023. Dkt. # 35 at ¶ 5. Ms. Cochrane 20 states that plaintiffs were not served with the motion until it was filed with the Court on 21 October 13, 2023. Dkt. # 43-1 at 2. 22 Pursuant to Rule 11(c)(2), a motion for sanctions must be served at least 21 days 23 before it is filed with the Court. Sanctions under the rule cannot be awarded if the 24 opposing party is not given the benefits of the safe harbor provision, including a full and 25 fair opportunity to withdraw the offending claims or allegations before the sanctions 26 motion is filed. See Barber v. Miller, 146 F.3d 707, 709 (9th Cir. 1998). Because this issue ORDER - 1 1 is dispositive in this case, the parties are directed to provide, on or before April 4, 2024, 2 any and all evidence they have regarding service of the sanctions motion (or the lack 3 thereof). 4

5 Dated this 28th day of March, 2024.

6 7 Robert S. Lasnik 8 United States District Judge 9 10 11 12 13 14 15 16 17 18 19 20 21 22 23 24 25 26 ORDER - 2