Collier v. Eagle Recovery Associates, Inc.

Opinion

1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 UNITED STATES DISTRICT COURT 9 SOUTHERN DISTRICT OF CALIFORNIA 10 11 ESPERANZA COLLIER, individually Case No.: 3:19-cv-1235-LAB-AHG and on behalf of all others similarly 12 situated, ORDER: 13 Plaintiff, (1) GRANTING IN PART JOINT 14 v. MOTION TO VACATE AND 15 EXTEND ENE; EAGLE RECOVERY ASSOCIATES, 16 INC., (2) CONTINUING EARLY 17 Defendant. NEUTRAL EVALUATION;

18 (3) DENYING CONTINUANCE OF 19 CASE MANAGEMENT CONFERENCE; and 20 21 (4) MODIFYING IN-PERSON CASE MANAGEMENT CONFERENCE TO 22 TELEPHONIC, COUNSEL-ONLY 23 CASE MANAGEMENT CONFERENCE 24 25 [ECF No. 17] 26 Before the Court is Plaintiff Esperanza Collier’s (“Plaintiff”) and Defendant Eagle 27 Recovery Associates, Inc.’s (“Defendant”) joint motion to vacate and extend the Early 28 Neutral Evaluation (“ENE”), currently set for October 2, 2019. ECF No. 17. 1 Parties seeking to continue an ENE must demonstrate good cause. ECF No. 12 at 3 2 (“An ENE may be rescheduled only upon a showing of good cause”); Chmb.R. at 2 (stating 3 that any request for continuance requires “[a] showing of good cause for the request”); see, 4 e.g., Fed. R. Civ. P 6(b) (“When an act may or must be done within a specified time, the 5 court may, for good cause, extend the time”); Fed. R. Civ. P 16(b)(4) (“A schedule may be 6 modified only for good cause and with the judge’s consent”). 7 “Good cause” is a non-rigorous standard that has been construed broadly across 8 procedural and statutory contexts. Ahanchian v. Xenon Pictures, Inc., 624 F.3d 1253, 1259 9 (9th Cir. 2010). The good cause standard focuses on the diligence of the party seeking to 10 amend the scheduling order and the reasons for seeking modification. Johnson v. Mammoth 11 Recreations, Inc., 975 F.2d 604, 609 (9th Cir. 1992) (“[T]he focus of the inquiry is upon 12 the moving party’s reasons for seeking modification. . . . If that party was not diligent, the 13 inquiry should end.”) (internal citation omitted). 14 Here, the parties have represented to the Court that they intend to exchange formal 15 and informal discovery to better assess threshold issues of liability. ECF No. 17 at 2–4. 16 The parties also represent that some necessary information is held by third parties, 17 requiring subpoenas to be issued and HIPAA releases to be obtained. Id. at 3–4. However, 18 by failing to provide a declaration from counsel, the parties failed to follow the Court’s 19 Order Setting ENE, as well as the Court’s Chambers Rules. ECF No. 12 at 4 (requiring that 20 the joint motion for continuance include a “declaration from counsel seeking the 21 continuance that describes the steps taken to comply with the existing deadlines, and the 22 specific reasons why the deadlines cannot be met”); Chmb.R. at 2 (same). The Court will 23 take the parties at their words without the required declaration, but will not do so again.1 24 25 26 1 “There can be no question that courts have inherent power to enforce compliance with 27 their lawful orders . . .” Shillitani v. United States, 384 U.S. 364, 370 (1966); see CivLR 83.1 (authorizing imposition of sanctions based on a party’s failure to comply with a court 28 1 Despite the joint motion’s shortcomings, the Court finds good cause to continue the 2 || ENE. However, the Court declines to vacate the Case Management Conference (“CMC”), 3 || which was scheduled to occur immediately after the original ENE. See ECF No. 12 at 3. 4 ||Thus, the Court GRANTS IN PART the motion and CONTINUES the ENE’ to 5 || November 18, 2019 at 9:30 a.m. in the chambers of Magistrate Judge Allison H. Goddard, 6 ||located at 221 West Broadway, Suite 3142, San Diego, California 92101. Parties shall 7 ||comply with the mandatory requirements set forth in the Court’s Order Setting ENE (ECF 8 12). The Court reiterates that personal appearances are required. 9 The CMC will REMAIN, as originally calendared, on October 2, 2019 at 9:30 a.m. 10 ||}before the Honorable Allison H. Goddard. However, instead of requiring personal 11 |} attendance, the Court will permit the CMC to occur telephonically, and with counsel only. 12 Counsel shall call the chambers teleconference line at 1-877-873-8018 and use 8367902 as 13 || the access code. 14 IT IS SO ORDERED. 15 Dated: September 26, 2019 _ArwiorwH. Xyolard Honorable Allison H. Goddard 17 United States Magistrate Judge 18 19 20 21 22 23 24 25 26 * Since the ENE has been continued, the Confidential ENE Statements must be lodged with the Court no later than November 13, 2019. The Confidential ENE Statements shall 27 ||comply with the mandatory requirements set forth in the Court’s Order Setting ENE (ECF 28 No. 12 at 2-3).