Phillips v. Truby

• Court: District Court, D. Nevada
• Decided: July 1, 2021
• Docket: 2:21-cv-00358
• Status: Unknown

Opinion

1 UNITED STATES DISTRICT COURT

2 DISTRICT OF NEVADA

3 * * *

4 T. MATTHEW PHILLIPS, ALI Case No. 2:21-cv-00358-KJD-EJY SHAHROKHI, 5 Plaintiffs, ORDER 6 v. 7 SUZY TRUBY, Director of Clark County 8 District Attorney Family Support Division, JULIE BUTLER, Direct of Nevada 9 Department of Motor Vehicles, AARON FORD, Nevada Attorney General, and DOES 10 I-X,

11 Defendants.

12 13 Pending before the Court are Plaintiff Ali Shahrokhi’s Requests for Judicial Notice (ECF 14 Nos. 23, 24, and 25) and Defendants’ Joint Motion to Strike Plaintiff’s Requests for Judicial Notice 15 (ECF No. 28). To date, no response to Defendants’ Motion to Strike has been filed and the time to 16 do so has passed. Under LR 7-2(d), the failure of an opposing party to file points and authorities in 17 response to any motion, except a motion under Fed. R. Civ. P. 56 or a motion for attorney’s fees, 18 constitutes a consent to the granting of the motion. Defendants’ Motion to Strike may be granted on 19 this basis alone. 20 Further, none of Plaintiff’s requests are the proper subject of judicial notice. Federal Rule of 21 Evidence 201 provides for judicial notice of adjudicative facts. Adjudicative facts “are facts about 22 the parties and their activities, businesses, and properties, usually answering the questions of who 23 did what, where, when, how, why, with what motive or intent; adjudicative facts are roughly the 24 kind of facts that go to a jury in a jury case.” Marshall v. Sawyer, 365 F.2d 105, 111 (9th Cir. 1966); 25 see also Castillo-Villagra v. I.N.S., 972 F.2d 1017, 1026 (9th Cir. 1992) (explaining that adjudicative 26 facts are “those concerning the immediate parties”). “As a general rule, a court may not take judicial 27 notice of proceedings or records in another cause so as to supply, without formal introduction of 1 Diego Marine Const. Corp., 708 F.2d 1483, 1491 (9th Cir. 1983). The Court can use Rule 201 to 2 “take notice of another court’s order only for the limited purpose of recognizing the ‘judicial act’ 3 that the order represents or the subject matter of the litigation.” United States v. Jones, 29 F.3d 1549, 4 1553 (11th Cir. 1994). Further, “Rule 201 authorizes judicial notice only of facts, not statements of 5 law.” Tate v. Univ. Med. Ctr. of S. Nevada, No. 2:09-cv-017480JAD-NJK, 2016 WL 7045711, at 6 *7 (D. Nev. Dec. 2, 2016), aff’d sub nom. Tate v. Univ. Med. Ctr., 773 F. App’x 405 (9th Cir. 2019); 7 see also Blye v. California Supreme Ct., No. CV 11-5046-DWM, 2014 WL 295022, at *1 (N.D. Cal. 8 Jan. 21, 2014) (“A request for judicial notice is not a proper vehicle for legal argument.”). 9 Plaintiff requests that the following be judicially noticed: 10 • a March 19, 2019 letter from the New Jersey Attorney General’s Office to a state 11 judge indicating that the State of New Jersey will no longer automatically suspend 12 driver’s licenses for non-payment of child support obligations (ECF No. 23-2); 13 • a 187-page, unpublished court decision from the Superior Court of New Jersey 14 finding that New Jersey’s process for suspending driver’s licenses for non-payment 15 of child support violates due process guarantees under the New Jersey Constitution 16 (ECF No. 23-1); 17 • “A Guide to an Employer’s Role in the Child Support Program”—a manual given to 18 attendees of an unknown training course offered to employers about their obligations 19 under the child support programs (ECF Nos. 24-1 and 24-2); and 20 • an excerpt from an unknown book that purports to summarize the requirements of 21 unspecified federal child support obligations (ECF No. 25-1). 22 None of these documents are proper for judicial notice because none concern the adjudicative 23 facts of the case before the Court. Rather, Plaintiff appears to request that the Court take judicial 24 notice of legal arguments and statements of law from various courts, state officials, training courses, 25 and books. The Court cannot take judicial notice of these types of arguments. The arguments 26 Plaintiff raises in his requests for judicial notice may instead be properly raised in pleadings 27 advancing his claims in the normal course of this action. 1 Accordingly, 2 IT IS HEREBY ORDERED that Plaintiff's Requests for Judicial Notice (ECF Nos. 23, 2 3 || and 25) are DENIED. 4 IT IS FURTHER ORDERED that Defendant’s Joint Motion to Strike Plaintiffs’ 5 || Requests for Judicial Notice is (ECF No. 28) is GRANTED. 7 Dated this 1st day of July, 2021 9 10 ELAYNA/Y. YOU H 11 BAN aoe JUDGE 12 13 14 15 16 17 18 19 20 21 22 23 24 25 26 27 28