Walters v. WideOrbit, Inc

• Court: District Court, W.D. Washington
• Decided: July 30, 2021
• Docket: 2:18-cv-01422
• Status: Unknown

Opinion

1 2 3 4 5 UNITED STATES DISTRICT COURT WESTERN DISTRICT OF WASHINGTON 6 AT SEATTLE 7 JON CROSSLAND, Cause No. C18-1422RSL 8 Plaintiff, 9 v. ORDER OF SUBSTITUTION 10 WIDEORBIT, INC., 11 Defendant. 12 13 This matter comes before the Court on plaintiff’s “Motion for Substitution of Party on 14 Behalf of the Estate of Plaintiff Jon Crossland.” Dkt. # 66. Federal Rule of Civil Procedure 15 25(a)(1) provides: 16 Substitution if the Claim Is Not Extinguished. If a party dies and the claim is not 17 extinguished, the court may order substitution of the proper party. A motion for 18 substitution may be made by any party or by the decedent’s successor or representative. If the motion is not made within 90 days after service of a statement 19 noting the death, the action by or against the decedent must be dismissed. 20 21 Plaintiff served a statement noting Mr. Crossland’s death on March 11, 2021, and filed this 22 motion for substitution on July 2, 2021. The 90-day deadline may be extended under Fed. R. Civ. 23 P. Rule 6(b), however, including after its expiration if the party failed to act due to “excusable 24 neglect.” Zanowick v. Baxter Healthcare Corp., 850 F.3d 1090, 1094 (9th Cir. 2017). The Court 25 finds excusable neglect in these circumstances, where there was a significant delay in the 26 27 appointment of a personal representative and the motion for substitution was filed promptly once 1 that person was identified. 2 3 The motion for substitution is GRANTED. The Clerk of Court is directed to substitute 4 “Karen Walters, Personal Representative of the Estate of Jon Crossland” in place of Jon 5 Crossland as plaintiff in this action. All future filings shall utilize the revised caption. 6 7 8 Dated this 30th day of July, 2021. 9 10 Robert S. Lasnik 11 United States District Judge 12 13 14 15 16 17 18 19 20 21 22 23 24 25 26 27