STIPULATION AND ORDER TO STAY THE CASE AS TO CACHET FINANCIAL SERVICES AND FINANCIAL BUSINESS GROUP HOLDINGS AND FOR RELATED RELIEF
GLORIA M. NAVARRO, District Judge.
This Stipulation to Stay the Case as to Cachet Financial Services and Financial Business Group Holdings and for Related Relief ("Stipulation") is entered into by and between Sarah Simmons, an individual, Aaron McAllister, an individual, and ROI-IT, LLC, a Nevada limited liability company on behalf of themselves and all others similarly situated (collectively, "Plaintiffs"), on the one hand, and Cachet Financial Services ("Cachet") and Financial Business Group Holdings ("FBGH"), on the other hand (Plaintiffs, Cachet, and FBGH are collectively, the "Parties"), by and through their respective counsel, with regard to the following:
I. RECITALS
On September 16, 2019, Plaintiffs commenced the instant action, Case No. 2:19-cv-01624-GMN-VCF (the "Action") by filing a complaint against Cachet, FBGH, and others for, inter alia, various alleged RICO violations, misrepresentation, conversion and unjust enrichment.
Pursuant to the Stipulated Discovery Plan and Scheduling Order ("Scheduling Order") entered by this court on January 13, 2020, the following deadlines were set: initial disclosures are due on May 22, 2020, the discovery cutoff date is November 4, 2020, pleadings must be amended by no later than August 6, 2020, experts shall be disclosed by August 6, 2020, rebuttal experts shall be disclosed by September 21, 2020, an interim status report is due on September 4, 2020, dispositive motions must be filed by January 4, 2021, and a joint pretrial order must be filed no later than February 2, 2021.
On January 21, 2020, Cachet filed a voluntary Chapter 11 bankruptcy petition in the United States Bankruptcy Court for the Central District of California, Los Angeles Division, commencing Bankruptcy Case No. 2:20-bk-10654-VZ (the "Bankruptcy Case").
The filing of the Bankruptcy Case invoked an immediate and automatic stay of the Action as against Cachet pursuant to 11 U.S.C. §362(a) (the "Automatic Stay").
FBGH is a holding company and is the 100% owner of Cachet.
Cachet asserts it intends to seek to obtain a court order to extend the Automatic Stay to FBGH, which Cachet believes has strong factual and legal support. Instead of Cachet filing a motion seeking such relief, the Parties have agreed to stay the Action for a period of 180 days to allow the claims made in the Action to be addressed in the Bankruptcy Case, on the terms set forth below.
II. STIPULATION
Accordingly, the Parties agree and stipulate to the following:
1. The Action shall be stayed as to Cachet and FBGH for a period of approximately 180 days, through July 31, 2020. The stay shall include the briefing of Cachet and FBGH's Motion to Dismiss, or, in the Alternative, to Change Venue filed on January 8, 2020. For the avoidance of doubt, the stay of the Action shall not apply to Defendants MyPayrollHR, LLC, Cloud Payroll, LLC, ValueWise Corp., Michael Mann, or National Payment Corporation (collectively, the "Mann Defendants").
2. Plaintiffs reserve their rights to terminate the agreed upon stay discussed in Paragraph 1 above on twenty-one (21) days' notice to Cachet and FBGH and their counsel.
3. Plaintiffs are free to seek entry of default, or take any other actions, as to the Mann Defendants.
4. The Scheduling Order shall be modified as follows:
i. Initial disclosures shall be due by November 20, 2020.
ii. The discovery cutoff date shall be May 4, 2021.
iii. Pleadings shall be amended and/or parties shall be added to the pleadings by no later than February 5, 2021.
iv. Experts shall be disclosed by February 5, 2021.
v. Rebuttal experts shall be disclosed by March 22, 2021.
vi. An interim status report shall be filed by March 4, 2021.
vii. Dispositive motions shall be filed by July 2, 2021.
viii. A joint pretrial order shall be filed no later than August 2, 2021.
All other terms of the Scheduling Order shall remain the same.
5. The Parties request the Court set a status conference in the Action in approximately 180 days, in July, 2020.
IT IS SO STIPULATED AND AGREED.
DATED January 28, 2020. DATED January 28, 2020.
MCNUTT LAW FIRM, P.C. SEMENZA KIRCHER RICKARD
/s/Dan McNutt /s/Lawrence J. Semenza, III
Daniel R. McNutt, Esq. (SBN 7815) Lawrence J. Semenza, III, Esq. (SBN 7174)
Matthew C. Wolf, Esq. (SBN 10801) Christopher D. Kircher, Esq. (SBN 11176)
625 South Eighth Street Jarrod L. Rickard, Esq. (SBN 10203)
Las Vegas, Nevada 89101 Katie L. Cannata, Esq. (SBN 14848)
10161 Park Run Drive, Suite 150
Counsel for Defendants Cachet Financial Las Vegas, Nevada 89145
Services and Financial Business Group Counsel for Plaintiffs
Holdings
IT IS SO ORDERED.
IT IS FURTHER ORDERED that Plaintiffs, Cachet, and FBGH shall file a joint status report every sixty days, beginning on March 30, 2020, addressing the status of bankruptcy proceedings and the continued need for the stay.
