Tilden v. C R Bard Incorporated

• Court: District Court, D. Nevada
• Decided: October 1, 2019
• Docket: 2:19-cv-01571
• Status: Unknown

Opinion

1 ERIC W. SWANIS, ESQ. Nevada Bar No. 6840 2 GREENBERG TRAURIG, LLP 10845 Griffith Peak Drive, Suite 600 3 Las Vegas, Nevada 89135 4 Telephone: (702) 792-3773 Facsimile: (702) 792-9002 5 Email: swanise@gtlaw.com

6 Counsel for Defendants 7 8 IN THE UNITED STATES DISTRICT COURT 19 0

FOR THE DISTRI CT OF NEVADA 11 JENNIFER TILDEN, CASE NO. 2:19-cv-01571-JAD-DJA

12 Plaintiff, 13 STIPULATION AND [PROPOSED] v. ORDER TO STAY DISCOVERY AND 14 ALL PRETRIAL DEADLINES C. R. BARD, INC.; BARD PERIPHERAL

15 VASCULAR, INCORPORATED, (FIRST REQUEST)

16 Defendants. 1 17 8

19 The parties, Plaintiff Jennifer Tilden (“Plaintiff”) and Defendants C. R. Bard, Inc. and 20 Bard Peripheral Vascular, Inc. (“Bard”), respectfully request pursuant to Fed. R. Civ. P. 26(c) 21 and (d) that this Court temporarily stay discovery until November 15, 2019 while they pursue 22 on-going settlement discussions. In support thereof, the Parties state as follows: 23 1. This case was part of a Multi-District Litigation proceeding called In re: Bard 24 IVC Filter Litigation, pending before Senior Judge David Campbell of the District of Arizona. 25 2. After four years, the completion of general issue discovery, and completion of 26 three bellwether trials, Judge Campbell has ordered that cases, which have not settled or are 27 not close to settling, be transferred to the appropriate jurisdictions around the country for case- 28 specific discovery and trial. As a part of that process, Judge Campbell established a “track” 1 system, wherein certain cases were placed on tracks either to finalize settlement paperwork, 2 continue settlement negotiations, or be remanded or transferred. 3 3. Plaintiff’s counsel recently notified Defense counsel that this case was placed 4 on an incorrect “track” and thus inadvertently remanded and transferred even though 5 settlement discussions are ongoing. The parties have entered into an agreement that is 6 memorialized in correspondence dated September 17, 2019. The agreement includes a 7 requirement that the parties engage in good-faith settlement discussions in an attempt to 8 resolve all claims in this case. 9 4. A district court has broad discretion over pretrial discovery rulings. Crawford- 10 El v. Britton, 523 U.S. 574, 598 (1998); Miller v. Safeco Title Ins. Co., 758 F.2d 364, 369 (9th 11 Cir. 1985) (“[t]he district court is given broad discretion in supervising the pretrial phase of 12 litigation”); Johnston v. Gedney, 2019 U.S. Dist. LEXIS 127392, at *7 (D. Nev. July 30, 2019) 13 (same); RH Kids, LLC v. Lehman, 2018 U.S. Dist. LEXIS 17811, at *3 (D. Nev. Jan. 3, 2018) 14 (granting a stay of the proceedings) (“[f]ederal district courts have ‘wide discretion in 15 controlling discovery’”) (quoting, Little v. City of Seattle, 863 F.2d 681, 685 (9th Cir. 1988)); 16 Evanston Ins. Co. v. W. Cmty. Ins. Co., 2014 U.S. Dist. LEXIS 136129, at *5 (D. Nev. 17 Sept. 25, 2014) (“[t]he Court has inherent power to control its docket, including the discretion 18 to stay proceedings”) (citing, Landis v. N. Am. Co., 299 U.S. 248, 254-55, 57 S. Ct. 163, 81 19 L. Ed. 153 (1936)). 20 5. Under Federal Rules of Civil Procedure 26(c) and 26(d), a court may limit the 21 scope of discovery or control its sequence. Britton, 523 U.S. at 598. Although settlement 22 negotiations do not automatically excuse a party from its discovery obligations, the parties 23 can seek a stay of discovery prior to a deadline. Lair v. Bullock, 697 F.3d 1200, 1203 (9th 24 Cir. 2012) (discussing the court’s discretion in exercising a stay); Bacon v. Reyes, 2013 U.S. 25 Dist. LEXIS 143300, at *4 (D. Nev. Oct. 3, 2013) (“[w]hether to grant a stay is within the 26 discretion of the court”) (citing Munoz-Santana v. U.S. I.N.S., 742 F.2d 561, 562 (9th Cir. 27 1984)). 28 / / / 1 6. Thus, the Parties jointly move this Court for an order staying discovery until 2 November 15, 2019 to allow the parties to continue to engage in settlement discussions. This 3 will further facilitate settlement discussions and prevent unnecessary expenditures of the 4 parties and judicial resources. 5 7. The Parties agree that the relief sought herein is necessary to handle the case in 6 the most economical fashion, yet allow sufficient time to schedule and complete discovery if 7 necessary, consistent with the scheduling obligations of counsel. The relief sought in this 8 Motion is not purely for delay, but so that justice may be done. 9 / / / 10 / / / 11 / / / 12 13 14 15 16 17 18 19 20 21 22 23 24 25 26 27 28 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. 4 IT IS SO STIPULATED. 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 10 Orange, Virginia 22960 10845 Griffith Peak Drive, Suite 600 Telephone: (540) 672-4224 Las Vegas, Nevada 89135 11 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. 13 vice application to be submitted) and Bard Peripheral Vascular, Inc. 14 WOLF, RIFKIND, SHAPIRO, 15 SCHULMAN & RABKIN, LLP 6 7 By: _/s/ Don Springmeyer DON SPRINGMEYER, ESQ. 18 Nevada Bar No. 1021 3556 E. Russell Road 19 Second Floor 20 Las Vegas, Nevada 89120 Telephone: (702) 341-5200 21 Facsimile: (702) 341-5300 dspringmeyer@wrslawyers.com Co-Counsel for Plaintiff IT |S SO ORDERED. 23 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. 25 DATED: _ October 1. 2019 \ \ AA 26 Daniel J. ‘Albregts United States Magistrate Judge 27 28 ACTIVE 46003541v1

1 CERTIFICATE OF SERVICE 2 I hereby certify that on September 27, 2019, I caused the foregoing document to be 3 electronically filed with the Clerk of the Court using the CM/ECF system, which will send 4 notification of such filing to the CM/ECF participants registered to receive such service, and 5 I hereby certify that I have mailed by United States Postal Service the document to the 6 following non-ECF participants: 7 JEFF SELDOMRIDGE, ESQ. jseldomridge@millerfirmllc.com 8 MILLER LAW FIRM, LLC 9 108 Railroad Avenue, Orange, Virginia 22960 Telephone: (540) 672-4224; Facsimile: (540) 672-3055 10 DON SPRINGMEYER, ESQ. 11 dspringmeyer@wrslawyers.com 12 WOLF, RIFKIND, SHAPIRO, SCHULMAN & RABKIN, LLP Nevada Bar No. 1021 13 3556 E. Russell Road, Second Floor, Las Vegas, Nevada 89120 14 Telephone: (702) 341-5200; Facsimile: (702) 341-5300 Co-Counsel for Plaintiff 15 16 /s/ Evelyn Escobar-Gaddi 17 An employee of GREENBERG TRAURIG, LLP 18 19 20 21 22 23 24 25 26 27 28