Officer v. State of Washington

Opinion

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5 6 7 8 UNITED STATES DISTRICT COURT WESTERN DISTRICT OF WASHINGTON 10 11 VERNON W OFFICER, JR, CASE NO. 2:23-cv-00860-TL 12 Plaintiff, ORDER GRANTING EXTENSION v. OF DEADLINE TO AMEND 13 STATE OF WASHINGTON et al., COMPLAINT 14 Defendants. 15

16 17 This matter is before the Court on Plaintiff’s Second Motion for Continuance. Dkt. 18 No. 15. Plaintiff asks for an additional six-month extension of the Court-issued deadline to 19 amend his complaint to state a plausible claim for relief, which is currently due on March 1, 20 2024. Id. at 1. This is Plaintiff’s third request for more time to prepare his amended complaint. 21 See Dkt. No. 10 (Order of Dismissal with Leave to Amend setting original deadline); Dkt. No. 12 22 (Minute Order granting initial request for more time); Dkt. No. 14 (Order granting additional 23 extension on first motion to continue). Plaintiff again notes that he is receiving guidance from an 24 attorney who requires additional time due to the large volume of case-related materials and 1 because of financial barriers that have impeded his ability to secure additional relevant records. 2 Dkt. No. 15 at 1–3. 3 The Court has broad discretion to grant a time extension for good cause, especially when 4 sought in advance of the deadline. Fed. R. Civ. P. 6(b)(1). As with all civil procedural rules, the

5 Court is required to “liberally construe[ Rule 6(b)(1)] to effectuate the general purpose of seeing 6 that cases are tried on the merits.” Ahanchian v. Xenon Pictures, Inc., 624 F.3d 1253, 1259 (9th 7 Cir. 2010) (internal quotation marks omitted) (quoting Rodgers v. Watt, 722 F.2d 456, 459 (9th 8 Cir. 1983)). 9 As before, the Court FINDS good cause to exercise its discretion and GRANTS the 10 requested six-month extension. The Court therefore orders Plaintiff to file an Amended 11 Complaint that plausibly states a claim for relief and complies with this Court’s prior Order of 12 Dismissal (Dkt. No. 10) by no later than Friday, August 30, 2024. 13 However, with this extension, Plaintiff has now been granted a full year to prepare an 14 amended complaint to correct the deficiencies the Court identified in its Order of Dismissal. The

15 Court will therefore not consider any additional requests for extension, and Plaintiff’s failure to 16 file a sufficient pleading by the new deadline will result in the dismissal of this action without 17 prejudice. 18 Dated this 21st day of February 2024. 19 A 20 Tana Lin United States District Judge 21 22 23 24