Filed: Mar. 07, 2016
Latest Update: Mar. 07, 2016
Summary: ORDER KIMBERLY J. MUELLER , District Judge . The matter is before the court on the opposed ex parte request by defendants Gay Norris, Dennis O'Bryant, Curt Taras, and Steve Testa to continue the trial date and remaining pretrial dates. See Ex Parte App., ECF No. 274; Opp'n, ECF No. 275. A trial date is currently set for April 25, 2016, and a final pre-trial conference is set for March 31, 2016. ECF No. 196. The parties' pretrial statement is due March 10, 2016. Id. Earlier this year,
Summary: ORDER KIMBERLY J. MUELLER , District Judge . The matter is before the court on the opposed ex parte request by defendants Gay Norris, Dennis O'Bryant, Curt Taras, and Steve Testa to continue the trial date and remaining pretrial dates. See Ex Parte App., ECF No. 274; Opp'n, ECF No. 275. A trial date is currently set for April 25, 2016, and a final pre-trial conference is set for March 31, 2016. ECF No. 196. The parties' pretrial statement is due March 10, 2016. Id. Earlier this year, t..
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ORDER
KIMBERLY J. MUELLER, District Judge.
The matter is before the court on the opposed ex parte request by defendants Gay Norris, Dennis O'Bryant, Curt Taras, and Steve Testa to continue the trial date and remaining pretrial dates. See Ex Parte App., ECF No. 274; Opp'n, ECF No. 275. A trial date is currently set for April 25, 2016, and a final pre-trial conference is set for March 31, 2016. ECF No. 196. The parties' pretrial statement is due March 10, 2016. Id. Earlier this year, the court took the parties' cross motions for summary judgment under submission. See Minutes, ECF No. 263; Mots. Summ. J., ECF Nos. 217, 218, 219, 220, 222. As the court confirmed at hearing, these motions address the entirety of the plaintiffs' case, and their resolution has the potential to meaningfully alter the landscape of this litigation. The court has yet to issue an order, although it is working diligently to finalize a decision.
A party seeking to amend a pretrial scheduling order must satisfy Federal Rule of Civil Procedure 16(b)'s "good cause" standard. Johnson v. Mammoth Recreations, Inc., 975 F.2d 604, 608-09 (9th Cir. 1992). This standard focuses primarily on the diligence of the moving party, id. at 609, and that party's reasons for seeking modification, C.F. ex rel. Farnan v. Capistrano Unified Sch. Dist., 654 F.3d 975, 984 (9th Cir. 2011). Here, on the one hand, more diligent defendants would have addressed the need for a continuance earlier in this case. But "changes in the court's calendar sometimes will oblige the judge . . . to modify the scheduling order." Fed. R. Civ. P. 16(b), advisory comm. notes to 1983 amendments. And the defendants rightly point out the common practice of delaying trial preparation until motions for summary judgment are resolved. See, e.g., Emp'rs Ins. of Wausau v. Cal. Water Serv. Co., No. 06-03002, 2007 WL 2705222, at *1 (N.D. Cal. Sept. 14, 2007) (continuing pretrial dates given "the large number of summary judgment motions").
The ex parte application is GRANTED IN PART. The final pretrial conference is RESET for June 3, 2016. A joint pretrial statement shall be filed by May 20, 2016. The jury trial is RESET, for now, to July 11, 2016, with trial briefs due by June 27, 2016.
IT IS SO ORDERED.
