FOURTH STIPULATION AND ORDER TO MODIFY SCHEDULING ORDER

SHEILA K. OBERTO, Magistrate Judge.

Pursuant to the United States District Court, Eastern District of California Local Rules, Rule 143, Lester J. Marston and David B. Dehnert, attorneys for plaintiffs Chicken Ranch Rancheria of Me-Wuk Indians, Blue Lake Rancheria, Chemehuevi Indian Tribe, and Hopland Band of Pomo Indians (collectively, Plaintiffs), on the one hand, and Timothy M. Muscat and William P. Torngren, Deputy Attorneys General, attorneys for defendant Gavin Newsom, in his official capacity as Governor of the State of California, and defendant State of California (collectively, Defendants), on the other hand, stipulate as follows:

On March 26, 2019, the Court filed the Scheduling Order in this case that established several due dates, including the filing of a Joint Record of Negotiations (Joint Record) on or before May 6, 2019. Pursuant to stipulations by the parties, the Court extended this deadline three times and the current deadline is July 26, 2019. During these extensions, counsel for Plaintiffs and Defendants have continued to work diligently and cooperatively in preparing a single Joint Record. Counsel for Plaintiffs prepared an initial Joint Record, and counsel for Defendants reviewed the initial Joint Record and requested the addition of numerous documents. Counsel for Plaintiffs have reviewed these additional materials, and have now provided counsel for Defendants with their responses. Counsel for Defendants have reviewed these responses, and have made numerous suggestions on how to resolve the remaining disagreements regarding the Joint Record.

Over the next several weeks, counsel for Plaintiffs will now finalize the Joint Record, create an index for the Joint Record for the convenience of the Court and the parties, and prepare a motion to file the Joint Record under seal. Given the anticipated length of this final version of the Joint Record, which is expected to consist of 9,000 to 10,000 pages, as well as the time required to resolve disputes regarding certain documents, the Joint Record preparation has taken considerably longer than counsel for Plaintiffs and Defendants originally anticipated. Counsel for Plaintiffs now estimate that the anticipated final draft version of the Joint Record and motion to file under seal will be completed and provided to counsel for Defendants on September 6, 2019. However, at that time lead counsel for Defendants, Timothy Muscat, will be on a medical leave recuperating from a scheduled surgery. Because it is currently anticipated that following his surgery Mr. Muscat will return to work no later than September 20, 2019, the parties request the Court to modify the Scheduling Order to extend the time for filing the Joint Record to September 30, 2019.

Granting this stipulation will not impact any other Scheduling Order due date. Under the Scheduling Order, the parties are required to file all dispositive pretrial motions no later than November 12, 2019. Filing the Joint Record on September 30, 2019, will provide the parties with sufficient time to comply with this November 12, 2019 deadline.

ORDER

The Court is in receipt of the parties' above fourth "Stipulation to Modify Scheduling Order." (Doc. 21.) Pursuant the parties' prior stipulation and order (Doc. 20), the parties were to file the Joint Record of Negotiations ("Joint Record") on or before July 26, 2019, the same day on which it filed the present, fourth request for extension.

Requests for extension are governed by Rule 144 of the Local Rules of the United States District Court, Eastern District of California ("Local Rules"). Local Rule 144(d) explains that "[r]equests for Court-approved extensions brought on the required filing date for the pleading or other document are looked upon with disfavor." The parties are hereby ADMONISHED that any future requests for extensions of time shall be brought in advance of the required filing date. However, in view of the good cause shown under Fed. R. Civ. P. 16(b)(4), the Court GRANTS the parties' request for an extension and modification of the Scheduling Order.

Based on the foregoing, the Court hereby EXTENDS the deadline for the parties to file the "Joint Record of Negotiations" to September 30, 2019. All other deadlines in the Scheduling Order (Doc. 14) shall remain unchanged.

IT IS SO ORDERED.