ORDER REASSIGNING ACTION

JACQUELINE SCOTT CORLEY, Magistrate Judge.

This case was originally assigned to Magistrate Judge Paul Grewal. Following the initial case management conference, the parties each filed a written consent to have "a United States Magistrate Judge conduct any and all further proceedings in this case, including trial, and order the entry of a final judgment." (Dkt. Nos. 25, 41.) The case was recently reassigned to the undersigned magistrate judge following Magistrate Judge Grewal's departure from the bench. The parties' previously written consent was not revocable merely because it was assigned to another magistrate judge. Accordingly, upon reassignment, consent was not sought. Defendants nonetheless filed a declination to proceed before a magistrate judge and seek reassignment to a district court judge. (Dkt. Nos. 404, 406.) Plaintiff objects to a further reassignment. (Dkt. No. 403.)

In the unique circumstances of this case, reassignment is appropriate. By the time of the initial case management conference no party had filed a written consent to proceed before a magistrate judge. Accordingly, at the conference, Magistrate Judge Grewal specifically asked the parties: "Are you consenting to my jurisdiction or not?" (Dkt. No. 309 at 3 (emphasis added).) The parties responded in the affirmative. Judge Grewal then asked the parties to file "an appropriate consent form on the docket so there is no mystery about this." (Id. at 4.) Defendants subsequently filed the generic consent to a magistrate judge form. (Dkt. No. 25.) The sequence of events, however, suggests that Defendants intended to consent specifically to the jurisdiction of Magistrate Judge Grewal as they now insist. While Defendants should have made that clear on their written consent form, the Court will order the case reassigned given that at the case management conference the parties were asked to consent specifically to Magistrate Judge Grewal's jurisdiction.

Accordingly, the Court directs the parties to meet and confer on whether they consent to the jurisdiction of a different magistrate judge in this District. If no such stipulation is filed within seven days, this action will be reassigned to a district court judge.

IT IS SO ORDERED.