Dept. of Fair Employment and Housing v. SUV Affordable LP ( 2023 )

1 JAMIE CROOK, Chief Counsel (#245757) AZADEH HOSSEINIAN, Senior Staff Counsel (#306141) 2 MACKENZIE ANDERSON, Staff Counsel (#335469) CIVIL RIGHTS DEPARTMENT 3 2218 Kausen Drive #100 4 Elk Grove, CA 95758 Telephone: (916) 478-7251 5 Facsimile: (888) 382-5293 6 Attorneys for Plaintiff CIVIL RIGHTS DEPARTMENT 7 DAVID I. DALBY (SBN 114750) 8 HINSHAW & CULBERTSON LLP 50 California Street, Suite 2900 9 San Francisco, CA 94111 Telephone: 415-362-6000 10 Attorney for Defendants 11 AWI MANAGEMENT CORPORATION, MICHAEL BURKE AND KIRAN CHHOTU 12 PHILIP J. TERRY (SBN 148144) 13 JUSTIN D. HEIN (SBN 249275) CARLE, MACKIE, POWER & ROSS LLP 14 100 B Street, Suite 400 Santa Rosa, California 95401 15 Telephone: (707) 526-4200 Facsimile: (707) 526-4707 16 Attorney for Defendant 17 SUV AFFORDABLE LP 18 UNITED STATES DISTRICT COURT 19 FOR THE EASTERN DISTRICT OF CALIFORNIA 20 CIVIL RIGHTS DEPARTMENT, an agency of the Case No.: 2:22-cv-00584-MCE-KJN 21 State of California, 22 Plaintiff, JOINT STIPULATION AND REQUEST TO vs. STAY ACTION PENDING MEDIATION 23 SUV AFFORDABLE LP, a California Limited ORDER 24 Partnership; AWI MANAGEMENT CORPORATION, a California Limited Partnership; 25 MICHAEL BURKE, an individual; and KIRAN Assigned to Honorable Morrison C. England, Jr. CHHOTU, an individual, 26 Complaint Filed: April 1, 2022 Defendants. Trial Date: None 27 28 1 TO THE HONORABLE COURT: 2 PLEASE BE ADVISED that Plaintiff Civil Rights Departments (“CRD”), formerly named the 3 Department of Fair Employment and Housing, and Defendants SUV Affordable LP (“SUV”), AWI 4 Management Corporation (“AWI”), Michael Burke, and Kiran Chhotu (collectively referred to herein as 5 the “Parties”) respectfully submit this Joint Stipulation and [Proposed] Order in support of their joint 6 stipulation and request to stay this action pending the competition of mediation. The Parties stipulate as 7 follows: 8 WHEREAS, CRD filed this action in its own name in the United States District Court for the 9 Eastern District of California on April 1, 2022 (“Action”) alleging that the real party in interest, Katy 10 Willis, was discriminated against based on her disability, and seeking affirmative relief and 11 compensatory, statutory, and punitive damages on behalf of Ms. Willis; 12 WHEREAS, in or around January 7, 2023, Ms. Willis passed away; 13 WHEREAS, on information and belief, Ms. Willis passed away without a will and her heirs are 14 her five children, including her two minor children; 15 WHEREAS, there is no pending probate action due to the size of Ms. Willis’ estate; 16 WHEREAS, in an effort to resolve this Action, the Parties agreed to private mediation in front 17 of Vivien Williamson; 18 WHEREAS, CRD is in communication with Ms. Willis’ informal estate representatives, but 19 requires additional time to explore a potential allocation of any potential settlement of the Action with 20 each of Ms. Willis’ five heirs, two of whom are minors; 21 WHEREAS, to provide CRD with time to coordinate with Ms. Willis’ heirs regarding allocation 22 of any potential settlement of the Action, the Parties agreed to schedule the mediation with Ms. 23 Williamson on June 7, 2023; 24 WHEREAS, district courts have “discretionary power to stay proceedings.” Lockyer v. Mirant 25 Corp., 398 F.3d 1098, 1109 (9th Cir. 2005); see also City of Sacramento v. Wells Fargo & Co., No. 26 218CV00416KJMGGH, 2019 WL 11093495, at *2 (E.D. Cal. Nov. 20, 2019)(“Courts weigh various 27 factors when determining whether a stay is appropriate, including “damage that may result from the 28 granting of a stay,’ . . . ‘the hardship or inequity a party may suffer in being required to go forward,’ and 1 . . . ‘the orderly course of justice measured in terms of the simplifying or complicating of issues, proof 2 and questions of law expected to result from a stay.’”); 3 WHEREAS, the requested stay is for a minimal amount of time to give the parties sufficient 4 time to address the complexities of any potential settlement prior to the mediation scheduled for June 7, 5 2023 and to finalize any potential settlement; 6 WHEREAS, there is no foreseeable damage from granting such a limited stay, nor would this 7 limited stay complicate litigating this matter; and 8 WHEREAS, the current deadlines in this Action are Non-expert Discovery cut-off deadline of 9 May 2, 2023; Initial Expert Disclosures and Report deadline of July 3, 2023; Rebuttal Expert Disclosure 10 deadline of August 2, 2023; and Dispositive Motions should be filed by October 30, 2023; 11 The Parties hereby respectfully REQUEST and STIPULATE that the Court stay the Action for 12 120 days from the date that the Order granting this request and stipulation is signed. Any deadlines will 13 be tolled and will begin to run again after 120 days from the date that the Order is signed. 14 IT IS SO STIPULATED: 15 16 DATED: March 2, 2023 CIVIL RIGHTS DEPARTMENT 17 By: _/ s/ Aza deh Hosseinian 18 Azadeh Hosseinian 19 Attorney for Plaintiff, CRD 20 I, Azadeh Hosseinian, hereby attest that all signatories listed and on whose behalf the filing 21 is submitted, concur in the filing’s content and have authorized the filing. 22 23 24 DATED: March 2, 2023 HINSHAW & CULBERTSON LLP 25 By: /s/ Da vid Dalby 26 David I. Dalby 27 MAt it co hr an ee ly B f uo rr k D e e af ne dn d Ka in rt as n A CW hhI o, tu 28 1 DATED: March 2, 2023 CARLE, MACKIE, POWER & ROSS LLP 2 3 By: /s/ Justin Hein Justin D. Hein 4 Attorney for Defendant SUV 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 15 16 17 18 19 20 21 22 23 24 25 26 27 28 1 ORDER 2 Based on the foregoing stipulation, and good cause having been shown by the Parties, IT IS 3 || HEREBY ORDERED that all court dates and deadlines associated with the above-references action are 4 || STAYED for 120 days from the date that this Order is signed. Any deadlines will be tolled by 120 days 5 || and will begin to run again after 120 days from the date that the Order is signed. 6 IT IS SO ORDERED. 7 || Dated: March 7, 2023 Matar LEK: 9 MORRISON C_ ENGLANE © 7 10 SENIOR UNITED STATES DISTRICT JUDGE 11 12 13 14 15 16 17 18 19 20 21 22 23 24 25 26 27 28 5.