Tilden v. C R Bard Incorporated

Opinion

Nevada Bar No. 6840 10845 Griffith Peak Drive, Suite 600 Las Vegas, Nevada 89135 Telephone: (702) 792-3773 Facsimile: (702) 792-9002 Email: swanise@gtlaw.com

Counsel for Defendants 0

FOR THE DISTRI CT OF NEVADA JENNIFER TILDEN, CASE NO. 2:19-cv-01571-JAD-DJA

Plaintiff, STIPULATION AND [PROPOSED] v. ORDER TO STAY DISCOVERY AND ALL PRETRIAL DEADLINES C. R. BARD, INC.; BARD PERIPHERAL

(FIRST REQUEST)

Defendants. 17 8

The parties, Plaintiff Jennifer Tilden (“Plaintiff”) and Defendants C. R. Bard, Inc. and Bard Peripheral Vascular, Inc. (“Bard”), respectfully request pursuant to Fed. R. Civ. P. 26(c) and (d) that this Court temporarily stay discovery until November 15, 2019 while they pursue on-going settlement discussions. In support thereof, the Parties state as follows: 1. This case was part of a Multi-District Litigation proceeding called In re: Bard IVC Filter Litigation, pending before Senior Judge David Campbell of the District of Arizona. 2. After four years, the completion of general issue discovery, and completion of three bellwether trials, Judge Campbell has ordered that cases, which have not settled or are not close to settling, be transferred to the appropriate jurisdictions around the country for case- specific discovery and trial. As a part of that process, Judge Campbell established a “track” system, wherein certain cases were placed on tracks either to finalize settlement paperwork, continue settlement negotiations, or be remanded or transferred. 3. Plaintiff’s counsel recently notified Defense counsel that this case was placed on an incorrect “track” and thus inadvertently remanded and transferred even though settlement discussions are ongoing. The parties have entered into an agreement that is memorialized in correspondence dated September 17, 2019. The agreement includes a requirement that the parties engage in good-faith settlement discussions in an attempt to resolve all claims in this case. 4. A district court has broad discretion over pretrial discovery rulings. Crawford- El v. Britton, 523 U.S. 574, 598 (1998); Miller v. Safeco Title Ins. Co., 758 F.2d 364, 369 (9th Cir. 1985) (“[t]he district court is given broad discretion in supervising the pretrial phase of litigation”); Johnston v. Gedney, 2019 U.S. Dist. LEXIS 127392, at *7 (D. Nev. July 30, 2019) (same); RH Kids, LLC v. Lehman, 2018 U.S. Dist. LEXIS 17811, at *3 (D. Nev. Jan. 3, 2018) (granting a stay of the proceedings) (“[f]ederal district courts have ‘wide discretion in controlling discovery’”) (quoting, Little v. City of Seattle, 863 F.2d 681, 685 (9th Cir. 1988)); Evanston Ins. Co. v. W. Cmty. Ins. Co., 2014 U.S. Dist. LEXIS 136129, at *5 (D. Nev. Sept. 25, 2014) (“[t]he Court has inherent power to control its docket, including the discretion to stay proceedings”) (citing, Landis v. N. Am. Co., 299 U.S. 248, 254-55, 57 S. Ct. 163, 81 L. Ed. 153 (1936)). 5. Under Federal Rules of Civil Procedure 26(c) and 26(d), a court may limit the scope of discovery or control its sequence. Britton, 523 U.S. at 598. Although settlement negotiations do not automatically excuse a party from its discovery obligations, the parties can seek a stay of discovery prior to a deadline. Lair v. Bullock, 697 F.3d 1200, 1203 (9th Cir. 2012) (discussing the court’s discretion in exercising a stay); Bacon v. Reyes, 2013 U.S. Dist. LEXIS 143300, at *4 (D. Nev. Oct. 3, 2013) (“[w]hether to grant a stay is within the discretion of the court”) (citing Munoz-Santana v. U.S. I.N.S., 742 F.2d 561, 562 (9th Cir. 1984)). / / / 6. Thus, the Parties jointly move this Court for an order staying discovery until November 15, 2019 to allow the parties to continue to engage in settlement discussions. This will further facilitate settlement discussions and prevent unnecessary expenditures of the parties and judicial resources. 7. The Parties agree that the relief sought herein is necessary to handle the case in the most economical fashion, yet allow sufficient time to schedule and complete discovery if necessary, consistent with the scheduling obligations of counsel. The relief sought in this Motion is not purely for delay, but so that justice may be done. / / / / / / / / / 1 WHEREFORE, the Parties stipulate that discovery and all pre-trial deadlines bt 2 stayed until November 15, 2019 to allow the parties to conduct ongoing settlemer 3 negotiations. 5 DATED this 27!!! day of September, 2019. 6 THE MILLER LAW FIRM, LLC GREENBERG TRAURIG, LLP 7 8 By: /s/ Jeff Seldomridge By: /s/ Eric W. Swanis JEFF SELDOMRIDGE ERIC W. SWANIS, ESQ. 9 108 Railroad Avenue Nevada Bar No. 6840 Orange, Virginia 22960 10845 Griffith Peak Drive, Suite 600 Telephone: (540) 672-4224 Las Vegas, Nevada 89135 Facsimile: (540) 672-3055 Telephone: (702) 792,3773 D jseldomridge@millerfirmllc.com Facsimile: (702) 792-9002 Counsel for Plaintiff (pro hac Counsel for Defendants, C. R. Bard, Inc. vice application to be submitted) and Bard Peripheral Vascular, Inc. By: _/s/ Don Springmeyer DON SPRINGMEYER, ESQ. Nevada Bar No. 1021 3556 E. Russell Road Second Floor Las Vegas, Nevada 89120 Telephone: (702) 341-5200 Facsimile: (702) 341-5300 dspringmeyer@wrslawyers.com Co-Counsel for Plaintiff IT |S SO ORDERED. IT IS FURTHER ORDERED that the parties sha file a joint status report updating the Court on the status of the case by November 16, 2019. DATED: _ October 1. 2019 \ \ AA Daniel J. ‘Albregts United States Magistrate Judge ACTIVE 46003541v1

I hereby certify that on September 27, 2019, I caused the foregoing document to be electronically filed with the Clerk of the Court using the CM/ECF system, which will send notification of such filing to the CM/ECF participants registered to receive such service, and I hereby certify that I have mailed by United States Postal Service the document to the following non-ECF participants: jseldomridge@millerfirmllc.com MILLER LAW FIRM, LLC 108 Railroad Avenue, Orange, Virginia 22960 Telephone: (540) 672-4224; Facsimile: (540) 672-3055 DON SPRINGMEYER, ESQ. dspringmeyer@wrslawyers.com Nevada Bar No. 1021 3556 E. Russell Road, Second Floor, Las Vegas, Nevada 89120 Telephone: (702) 341-5200; Facsimile: (702) 341-5300 Co-Counsel for Plaintiff /s/ Evelyn Escobar-Gaddi An employee of GREENBERG TRAURIG, LLP