Freitag v. ROJ, LLC
- Proceeding
- district
- Area
- civil
- Panel
- Allison H. Goddard (author)
Analysis
The court continued the second Early Neutral Evaluation (ENE) and Case Management Conference (CMC) from October 17, 2022, to October 26, 2022, due to a calendar conflict. The order also reiterated requirements for settlement authority and set a deadline for the defendant to provide financial information.
| What the court decided | The model |
|---|---|
Continuation of the second Early Neutral Evaluation Conference and Case Management Conference“the second Early Neutral Evaluation Conference (“ENE”) and the Case Management Conference (“CMC”) in this matter are hereby CONTINUED from October 17, 2022 to October 26, 2022 at 3:00 p.m. before Magistrate [JUSTICE].” | agree with court The decision to continue a conference due to a court calendar conflict is a routine procedural matter within the court's discretion. The order states the reason (conflict) and notes consultation with counsel, making the decision procedurally sound. |
Ordering Defendant to provide financial information“Defendant must provide the financial information regarding the transferred funds at issue to Plaintiff.” | agree with court The court is directing the production of specific information relevant to the ENE. While the order does not cite a specific discovery rule (like Rule 26 or 37), it is a standard case management directive to ensure the ENE is productive. The deadline is set for October 17, 2022. |
The order itself: sound — The order is a standard procedural scheduling order. It correctly identifies the need for settlement authority and cites appropriate (though out-of-circuit) persuasive authority to define that standard. It does not resolve any substantive legal issues, so the 'soundness' of the legal reasoning is minimal but appropriate for the context.
Opinion
1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 UNITED STATES DISTRICT COURT 10 SOUTHERN DISTRICT OF CALIFORNIA 11 12 KRISTA FREITAG, Court-appointed Case No.: 3:21-cv-01732-LAB-AHG permanent receiver for ANI Development 13 ORDER CONTINUING EARLY LLC, American National Investments, NEUTRAL EVALUATION AND 14 Inc., and their subsidiaries and affiliates, CASE MANAGEMENT 15 Plaintiff, CONFERENCE 16 v. 17 ROJ, LLC and DOES 1-10, 18 Defendants. 19 20 Due to a conflict on the Court’s calendar, and upon consultation counsel for both 21 sides, the second Early Neutral Evaluation Conference (“ENE”) and the Case Management 22 Conference (“CMC”) in this matter are hereby CONTINUED from October 17, 2022 to 23 October 26, 2022 at 3:00 p.m. before Magistrate Judge Allison H. Goddard. 24 As before, the conference will take place via Zoom. Chambers staff will circulate a 25 Zoom invitation to all participants who attended the first ENE in this matter on 26 June 8, 2022. Counsel must notify the Court of any changes to their side’s participant list 27 no later than October 21, 2022. 28 A party or party representative with full and complete authority to enter into a | binding settlement must be present via videoconference or immediately available to join. 2 || Full authority to settle means that a person must be authorized to fully explore settlement 3 || options and to agree at that time to any settlement terms acceptable to the parties. Heileman 4 || Brewing Co., Inc. v. Joseph Oat Corp., 871 F.2d 648, 653 (7th Cir. 1989). The person 5 ||needs to have “unfettered discretion and authority” to change the settlement position of a 6 || party. Pitman v. Brinker Int'l, Inc., 216 F.R.D. 481, 485-86 (D. Ariz. 2003). Limited or 7 ||sum certain authority is not adequate. Nick v. Morgan’s Foods, Inc., 270 F.3d 590, 595- 8 ||97 (8th Cir. 2001). A person who needs to call another person who is not present on 9 || the videoconference before agreeing to any settlement does not have full authority. 10 In preparation for the second ENE, no later than October 17, 2022, if it has not done 11 already, Defendant must provide the financial information regarding the transferred 12 || funds at issue to Plaintiff. 13 The Court will not require the parties to provide updated ENE statements or an 14 || updated Joint Case Management Statement before the continued conference. However, if 15 parties wish to submit such materials, any updated ENE statements should be emailed 16 the Court at efile_goddard@casd.uscourts.gov no later than October 21, 2022, and any 17 ||updated Joint Case Management Statement should be filed by the same deadline. 18 || Otherwise, the Court will rely on the parties’ existing Joint Case Management Statement 19 || for the CMC. 20 IT IS SO ORDERED. 21 22 ||Dated: October 12, 2022 23 _Abiomt. Xl Honorable Allison H. Goddard 24 United States Magistrate Judge 25 26 27 28