Cardenas v. County of Tehama ( 2019 )

1 BEN ROSENFELD (SBN 203845) ATTORNEY AT LAW 2 115 ½ Bartlett Street San Francisco, CA 94110 3 Tel: (415) 285-8091 4 Fax: (415) 285-8092 ben.rosenfeld@comast.net 5 et al., Attorney for Plaintiffs 6 7 JONZ NORINE (SBN 182220) KENNY & NORINE 8 1923 Court Street Redding, CA 96001 9 Tel: (530) 244-7777 Fax: (530) 246-2836 10 jnorine@lawnorcal.com 11 et al, Attorney for Tehama County Defendants 12 13 14 UNITED STATES DISTRICT COURT 15 EASTERN DISTRICT OF CALIFORNIA 16 17 18 FRANCISCO CARDENAS, ET AL. V. Case No. 2:18-cv-03021-TLN-KJN COUNTY OF TEHAMA, et al. 19 STIPULATION AND ORDER Plaintiffs, SUBSTITUTING TRUE NAME OF 20 DEFENDANT LESTER “BUCK” SQUIER 21 v. FOR FICTITIOUSLY NAMED DEFENDANT JOHN DOE #1 IN 22 COUNTY OF TEHAMA, et al., PLAINTIFFS’ COMPLAINT 23 Defendants. [Local Rule 143] 24 25 The parties, through their undersigned counsel, stipulate as follows: 26 1. WHEREAS, Plaintiff Francisco Cardenas was unaware, at the time he filed his 27 Complaint on November 20, 2018 (Dkt. #1), of the true name of the officer whom Mr. Cardenas 28 alleges shot at and struck him on November 14, 2017, during a shootout between law 1 enforcement and the rampaging gunman described in the Complaint, so that Mr. Cardenas sued 2 this office under a fictitious name (see Complaint, ¶¶ 17, 108-123); and 3 2. WHEREAS Plaintiff has since come to learn that this officer’s true name is Lester 4 “Buck” Squier, a Tehama County Sheriff’s Deputy; and 5 3. WHEREAS Federal Rule of Civil Procedure (“Rule”) 15(a) provides for 6 amendment of pleadings with the opposing party’s written consent, even without leave of Court, 7 and Rule15(c)(1)(C) provides for an “amendment to a pleading” which “changes… the naming 8 of the party against whom a claim is asserted …”, under circumstances which the undersigned 9 agree apply here; and 10 4. WHERERAS “[t]he policy of freely granting leave to amend should be applied 11 with ‘extreme liberality’” (ING Bank v. Fazah, 2010 U.S. Dist. LEXIS 59312, *4 (E.D.C.A. 12 2010), quoting DCD Programs, Ltd. v. Leighton, 833 F.2d 183, 186 (9th Cir. 1987)), and the 13 federal courts recognize a general principle favoring trial of cases on their merits, 14 5. The true name of Lester “Buck” Squier is hereby substituted for the fictitious 15 name “John Doe #1” in plaintiffs’ Complaint filed in this case on November 20, 2018 (Dkt. #1), 16 so that each allegation and claim pleaded against Defendant John Doe #1 applies to Defendant 17 Lester “Buck” Squier; 18 6. Defendants’ consent to this substitution is not, and shall not be construed as, an 19 admission of liability or of any allegation, claim, or cause of action asserted by plaintiffs; 20 7. Defendants’ undersigned counsel hereby accepts service of plaintiffs’ summons 21 and complaint on Defendant Squier; 22 8. Defendant Squier thereby joins and is made one of the moving parties to 23 defendants’ pending motion to dismiss plaintiffs’ complaint under Rule 12(b)(6) filed on April 1, 24 2019 (Dkt. #9), so that the Court’s ruling on defendants’ motion to dismiss shall apply to 25 Defendant Squier; 26 9. Defendants, and each of them, expressly reserve all other rights, defenses, 27 remedies, and arguments they have or may have in conjunction with this matter. 28 1 Respectfully Submitted, 2 Dated: September 12, 2019 By: /s/ Ben Rosenfeld 3 Ben Rosenfeld 4 Attorney for Plaintiffs 5 Dated: September 12, 2019 By: /s/ Jonz Norine 6 Jonz Norine 7 Attorney for Defendants County of Tehama, 8 9 IT IS SO ORDERED, 10 11 Dated: September 19, 2019 12 13 14 15 16 17 18 19 20 21 22 23 24 25 26 27 28