Rajaee v. Davis
- Proceeding
- district
- Area
- civil
- Panel
- Robert Steven Huie (author)
Analysis
The Trustee in the plaintiff's Chapter 7 bankruptcy filed an ex parte motion to stay the civil action for 90 days to evaluate the estate's claims. The court granted the motion, finding good cause to stay the proceedings to conserve judicial resources.
| What the court decided | The model |
|---|---|
Motion to stay case for 90 days granted“The Court GRANTS Trustee’s motion, ECF No. 22.” | agree with court The court correctly identified that the Chapter 7 trustee has exclusive standing to prosecute estate claims and that the court has broad discretion to manage its docket. The 90-day stay is a reasonable, temporary measure to allow the trustee to assess the merits of the related actions, and the finding of 'good cause' is supported by the trustee's recent appearance and the existence of multiple related cases. |
The order itself: sound — The order is procedurally sound and relies on the correct legal standards for both the court's inherent authority to stay cases and the bankruptcy trustee's standing. It concisely connects the trustee's need for time to the judicial interest in efficiency.
Opinion
1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 UNITED STATES DISTRICT COURT 9 SOUTHERN DISTRICT OF CALIFORNIA 10 11 ASHKAN RAJAEE, Case No.: 24-cv-549-RSH-KSC 12 Plaintiff, ORDER GRANTING EX PARTE 13 v. MOTION TO STAY CASE FOR 90 DAYS 14 TYLER BRANDON DAVIS, et al., 15 Defendants. [ECF No. 22] 16 17 18 Ashkan Rajaee is a Plaintiff in three related cases pending before the Court. See 19 Rajaee v. Davis, et al., Case Nos. 24-cv-1-RSH-KSC; 24-cv-549-RSH-KSC; 24-cv-550- 20 RSH-KSC. On February 26, 2024, Plaintiff filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy in the United 21 States Bankruptcy Court for the Southern District of California. See In re Rajaee, U.S.B.C. 22 Case No. 24-00617-CL7 (Bankr. S.D. Cal.) at ECF No. 1. On May 9, 2024, the bankruptcy 23 court entered an order converting the bankruptcy from Chapter 11 to Chapter 7 and 24 appointed a Trustee pursuant to 11 U.S.C. § 704. Id. at ECF No. 37. The Trustee has now 25 appeared in this action and filed a motion to stay proceedings for 90 days. ECF No. 22. 26 The Court has “broad discretion to stay proceedings as an incident to its power to 27 control its own docket.” Clinton v. Jones, 520 U.S. 681, 706 (1997). Here, the Trustee has 1 || exercised its power to prosecute the claims of Plaintiffs estate. See In re DiSalvo, 219 F.3d 2 || 1035, 1039 (9th Cir. 2000) (“In Chapter 7 liquidation proceedings, only the trustee has 3 || standing to prosecute or defend a claim belonging to the estate.”). The Trustee states that a 4 ||90-day stay “is necessary to give the Trustee time to address the merits of the Related 5 || Actions and potentially resolve and/or streamline the Related Actions” and represents that 6 || the Trustee and estate will be prejudiced if the stay is not granted. ECF No. 22 at 4. Given 7 ||the Trustee’s recent appearance in the case and the numerous pending motions, the Court 8 || finds good cause exists to stay this proceeding for 90 days to save the Parties and the Court 9 || from spending unnecessary time and judicial resources on this matter. The Court GRANTS 10 Trustee’s motion, ECF No. 22. The Trustee is ORDERED to file a status report 90 11 || days from the date of this Order. 12 IT IS SO ORDERED. . 13 Dated: June 10, 2024 [hut pee 14 Hon. Robert S. Huie United States District Judge 15 16 17 18 19 20 21 22 23 24 25 26 27 28