Wilson v. Guardian Mgmt., LLC

383 F. Supp. 3d 1105
District Court, D. Oregon·Decided April 22, 2019·No. Case No. 3:17-cv-0768-YY·Published·Cited by 7 cases

Opinion

Michael H. Simon, United States District Judge.

Plaintiff Randi Wilson ("Plaintiff") brings this lawsuit against Guardian Management, LLC d/b/a Mountain Knoll ("Guardian"), Kristine Herb, and two John or Jane Does (collectively "Defendants"). Plaintiff alleges that Guardian negligently allowed its tenants to smoke on its property, which resulted in a fire damaging Plaintiff's property. Plaintiff also alleges housing discrimination under the federal Fair Housing Act ("FHA") and its state counterpart. Defendants move for summary judgment on all of Plaintiff's claims.

United States Magistrate Judge Youlee Yim You issued a Findings and Recommendation in this case on December 12, 2018. ECF 41. Judge You had previously issued a findings and recommendation recommending that summary judgment be granted against Plaintiff's discrimination claim and denied on Plaintiff's negligence claim. ECF 32. Judge You withdrew her findings and recommendation and construed Defendant's objections as a motion for reconsideration. ECF 35, 37. On reconsideration, Judge You recommended that Defendants' motion for summary judgment be granted on all claims and that the case be dismissed with prejudice. Plaintiff filed objections, ECF 43, to which Defendants responded. ECF 45. For the reasons discussed below, after a de novo review, the Court agrees with the recommendation to grant summary judgment on all claims, but does not adopt the reasoning related to Plaintiff's housing discrimination claims.

*1107Accordingly, the Court adopts in part the Findings and Recommendation.

STANDARDS

A. Federal Magistrates Act

Under the Federal Magistrates Act ("Act"), the Court may "accept, reject, or modify, in whole or in part, the findings or recommendations made by the magistrate." 28 U.S.C. § 636(b)(1). If a party files objections to a magistrate judge's findings and recommendations, "the court shall make a de novo determination of those portions of the report or specified proposed findings or recommendations to which objection is made." Id. ; Fed. R. Civ. P. 72(b)(3).

For those portions of a magistrate judge's findings and recommendations to which neither party has objected, the Act does not prescribe any standard of review. See Thomas v. Arn , 474 U.S. 140, 152, 106 S.Ct. 466, 88 L.Ed.2d 435 (1985) ("There is no indication that Congress, in enacting [the Act], intended to require a district judge to review a magistrate's report to which no objections are filed."); United States. v. Reyna-Tapia , 328 F.3d 1114, 1121 (9th Cir. 2003) (en banc) (holding that the court must review de novo magistrate judge's findings and recommendations if objection is made, "but not otherwise"). Although in the absence of objections no review is required, the Act "does not preclude further review by the district judge[ ] sua sponte ... under a de novo or any other standard." Thomas , 474 U.S. at 154, 106 S.Ct. 466. Indeed, the Advisory Committee Notes to Fed. R. Civ. P. 72(b) recommend that "[w]hen no timely objection is filed," the Court review the magistrate judge's recommendations for "clear error on the face of the record."

B. Summary Judgment

Free access — add to your briefcase to read the full text and ask questions with AI

Wilson v. Guardian Mgmt., LLC, 383 F. Supp. 3d 1105 (D. Or. 2019).

383 F. Supp. 3d 1105 (Wilson v. Guardian Mgmt., LLC) — published by Counsel Stack Legal Research, free access to 12M+ legal documents.

Related