Magee v. Christianson ( 2021 )

1 ROB BONTA, State Bar No. 202668 Attorney General of California 2 WILLIAM C. KWONG, State Bar No. 168010 Supervising Deputy Attorney General 3 JEFFREY T. FISHER, State Bar No. 303712 Supervising Deputy Attorney General 4 455 Golden Gate Avenue, Suite 11000 San Francisco, CA 94102-7004 5 Telephone: (415) 510-3568 Fax: (415) 703-5843 6 E-mail: Jeffrey.Fisher@doj.ca.gov Attorneys for Defendants H. Anglea, J. Lindsey, 7 T. McCarthy, and P. Quinn 8 IN THE UNITED STATES DISTRICT COURT 9 FOR THE EASTERN DISTRICT OF CALIFORNIA 10 FRESNO DIVISION 11 12 No. 1:21-cv-00670-DAD-SKO 13 HOPE MAGEE, et al., STIPULATION AND ORDER 14 Plaintiffs, EXTENDING TIME FOR DEFENDANTS ANGLEA, LINDSEY, McCARTHY, AND 15 v. QUINN TO RESPOND TO COMPLAINT 16 (Doc. 17) 17 A. CHRISTIANSON, et al., Judge: Hon. Sheila K. Oberto Trial Date: T.B.D. 18 Defendants. Action Filed: April 22, 2021 19 20 21 22 23 24 25 26 27 28 1 Under Civil Local Rule 143, Plaintiffs Hope Magee and Paul Shaw, and Defendants 2 Anglea, Lindsey, McCarthy, and Quinn (the State Defendants) stipulate and agree that the time 3 for the State Defendants to respond to the First Amended Complaint (ECF No. 7) is extended to 4 September 2, 2021. 5 Dated: August 9, 2021 Respectfully submitted, 6 7 By: /s/ Brian Dunn (as authorized on 8/6/21) Brian Dunn 8 The Cochran Firm Attorneys for Plaintiffs Hope Magee and Paul 9 Shaw 10 11 12 Dated: August 9, 2021 By: /s/ Jeffrey T. Fisher Jeffrey T. Fisher 13 Supervising Deputy Attorney General Attorney for Defendants H. Anglea, 14 J. Lindsey, T. McCarthy, and P. Quinn 15 16 17 18 19 20 21 22 23 24 25 26 27 28 1 ORDER 2 Plaintiffs filed their first amended complaint on June 28, 2021. (Doc. 7.) Defendant 3 Timothy McCarthy (“Mr. McCarthy”) was personally served on July 1, 2021. (Doc. 14.) Mr. 4 McCarthy’s responsive pleading was therefore due twenty-one (21) days after service, or July 22, 5 2021.1 Fed. R. Civ. P. 12(a)(1)(A)(i). No proofs of service have been filed for Defendants Hunter 6 Anglea2, Jerry Lindsey, and Patricia Quinn. (See Docket.) 7 On August 9, 2021, Jeffrey T. Fisher, Esq., filed a notice of appearance on behalf of 8 Defendants McCarthy, Anglea, Lindsey, and Quinn (collectively, the “State Defendants”). (Doc. 9 16.) On that same date—eighteen days after Mr. McCarthy’s responsive pleading deadline— 10 Plaintiffs and the State Defendants (collectively, the “Parties”) filed the above “Stipulation 11 Extending Time for Defendants Anglea, Lindsey, McCarthy, and Quinn to Respond to Complaint.” 12 (Doc. 17.) 13 Although the Court may extend time to file a responsive pleading after the deadline has 14 expired because of “excusable neglect,” Fed. R. Civ. P. 6(b)(1)(B), no such excusable neglect has 15 been articulated—much less shown—here. Notwithstanding this deficiency, given the absence of 16 bad faith or prejudice to Plaintiffs (as evidenced by the Parties’ agreement to the extension of time), 17 and in view of the liberal construction of Fed. R. Civ. 6(b)(1) to effectuate the general purpose of 18 seeing that cases are tried on the merits, see Ahanchian v. Xenon Pictures, Inc., 624 F.3d 1253, 19 1258–59 (9th Cir. 2010), the Court GRANTS the Parties’ stipulated request. The Parties are 20 cautioned that future post hoc request for extensions of time will be viewed with disfavor. 21 Accordingly, IT IS HEREBY ORDERED that Defendants Timothy McCarthy, Hunter 22 Anglea, Jerry Lindsey, and Patricia Quinn shall have to and including September 2, 2021, within 23 which to file a responsive pleading. 24 IT IS SO ORDERED. 25 26 Dated: August 10, 2021 /s/ Sheila K. Oberto . 27 1 The docket does not reflect that any of the defendants was served with the initial complaint. 2 Defendant Anglea’s name appears to have been misspelled as “Angela” in both the initial and 28 amended complaints. (See Docs. 1, 7.) 1 UNITED STATES MAGISTRATE JUDGE 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 15 16 17 18 19 20 21 22 23 24 25 26 27 28