Dunn v. County of Sacramento ( 2019 )

1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 UNITED STATES DISTRICT COURT 9 FOR THE EASTERN DISTRICT OF CALIFORNIA 10 11 VANESSA DUNN, No. 2:18-cv-2425 JAM CKD 12 Plaintiff, 13 v. ORDER SETTING SETTLEMENT CONFERENCE 14 COUNTY OF SACRAMENTO, et al., 15 Defendants. 16 17 Plaintiff is proceeding through counsel with this civil rights action filed pursuant to 42 18 U.S.C. § 1983. The Court has determined that this case will benefit from a settlement conference. 19 Therefore, this case will be referred to Magistrate Judge Kendall J. Newman to conduct a 20 settlement conference at the U. S. District Court, 501 I Street, Sacramento, California 95814 in 21 Courtroom #25 on January 6, 2020 at 9:00 a.m. 22 In accordance with the above, IT IS HEREBY ORDERED that: 23 1. A settlement conference has been set for January 6, 2020 at 9:00 a.m. in Courtroom 24 #25 before Magistrate Judge Kendall J. Newman at the U. S. District Court, 501 I 25 Street, Sacramento, California 95814. 26 2. A representative with full and unlimited authority to negotiate and enter into a binding 27 1 settlement shall attend in person.1 2 3. Those in attendance must be prepared to discuss the claims, defenses and damages. 3 The failure of any counsel, party or authorized person subject to this order to appear in 4 person may result in the imposition of sanctions. In addition, the conference will not 5 proceed and will be reset to another date. 6 4. The parties are directed to exchange non-confidential settlement statements seven days 7 prior to the settlement conference. These statements shall simultaneously be delivered 8 to the court using the following email address: kjnorders@caed.uscourts.gov. If a 9 party desires to share additional confidential information with the court, they may do 10 so pursuant to the provisions of Local Rule 270(d) and (e). 11 12 DATED: 11/22/2019 13 /s/ John A. Mendez______________________ 14 United States District Court Judge 15 16 17 18 19 20 21 1 While the exercise of its authority is subject to abuse of discretion review, “the district court has the authority to 22 order parties, including the federal government, to participate in mandatory settlement conferences… .” United States v. United States District Court for the Northern Mariana Islands, 694 F.3d 1051, 1053, 1057, 1059 (9th Cir. 23 2012)(“the district court has broad authority to compel participation in mandatory settlement conference[s].”). The term “full authority to settle” means that the individuals attending the mediation conference must be authorized to 24 fully explore settlement options and to agree at that time to any settlement terms acceptable to the parties. G. Heileman Brewing Co., Inc. v. Joseph Oat Corp., 871 F.2d 648, 653 (7th Cir. 1989), cited with approval in Official 25 Airline Guides, Inc. v. Goss, 6 F.3d 1385, 1396 (9th Cir. 1993). The individual with full authority to settle must also have “unfettered discretion and authority” to change the settlement position of the party, if appropriate. Pitman v. 26 Brinker Int’l., Inc., 216 F.R.D. 481, 485-86 (D. Ariz. 2003), amended on recon. in part, Pitman v. Brinker Int’l., Inc., 2003 WL 23353478 (D. Ariz. 2003). The purpose behind requiring the attendance of a person with full settlement authority is that the parties’ view of the case may be altered during the face to face conference. Pitman, 216 F.R.D. 27 at 486. An authorization to settle for a limited dollar amount or sum certain can be found not to comply with the requirement of full authority to settle. Nick v. Morgan’s Foods, Inc., 270 F.3d 590, 596-97 (8th Cir. 2001).