AI CA LLC v. CrediautoUSA Financial Company LLC ( 2022 )

1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 UNITED STATES DISTRICT COURT 9 SOUTHERN DISTRICT OF CALIFORNIA 10 11 AI CA LLC, Case No.: 3:20-cv-2352-MMA-AHG 12 Plaintiff, ORDER GRANTING JOINT 13 v. MOTION TO EXTEND THE FACT DISCOVERY DEADLINE 14 CREDIAUTOUSA FINANCIAL COMPANY LLC, et al., 15 Defendants. [ECF No. 23] 16 17 Before the Court is the parties’ Status Report and Joint Motion to extend the fact 18 discovery deadline. ECF No. 23. The parties seek a four-week extension of the fact 19 discovery cut-off to allow them to complete depositions. Id. 20 Under Fed. R. Civ. P 16(b)(4), “[a] schedule may be modified only for good cause 21 and with the judge’s consent.” “Good cause” is a non-rigorous standard that has been 22 construed broadly across procedural and statutory contexts. Ahanchian v. Xenon Pictures, 23 Inc., 624 F.3d 1253, 1259 (9th Cir. 2010). The good cause standard focuses on the diligence 24 of the party seeking to amend the scheduling order and the reasons for seeking 25 modification. Johnson v. Mammoth Recreations, Inc., 975 F.2d 604, 609 (9th Cir. 1992). 26 “[T]he court may modify the schedule on a showing of good cause if it cannot reasonably 27 be met despite the diligence of the party seeking the extension.” Fed. R. Civ. P. 16, advisory 28 committee’s notes to 1983 amendment. Therefore, “a party demonstrates good cause by 1 acting diligently to meet the original deadlines set forth by the court.” Merck v. Swift 2 || Transportation Co., No. CV-16-01103-PHX-ROS, 2018 WL 4492362, at *2 (D. Ariz. 3 19, 2018). 4 Here, the parties explain that both sides have produced documents in response to one 5 ||another’s written discovery requests, and Plaintiff anticipates completing production by 6 || January 28, 2022 after conducting an expanded review of ESI. Although the parties 7 previously scheduled all necessary depositions to be completed by the current fact 8 || discovery deadline of January 28, 2022, the depositions of Defendants and the former CFO 9 Defendant CrediAuto USA have been postponed due to the timing of Defendants’ 10 document production, and the depositions of two of Plaintiff's employees also need to be 11 |}rescheduled due to conflicts with defense counsel’s schedule. ECF No. 23 at 1-2. 12 || Therefore, the parties need more time to complete fact discovery, but they do not request 13 || extensions of any other deadlines in the case schedule. /d. at 2. 14 Upon due consideration, the Court finds good cause to GRANT the Joint Motion 15 (ECF No. 23). Accordingly, the deadline for the parties to complete all fact discovery is 16 extended to February 25, 2022. “Completed” means that all discovery under Rules 30-36 17 the Federal Rules of Civil Procedure, and discovery subpoenas under Rule 45, must be 18 |/initiated a sufficient period of time in advance of the cut-off date, so that it may be 19 |}completed by the cut-off date, taking into account the times for service, notice and 20 response as set forth in the Federal Rules of Civil Procedure. 21 All other dates and requirements set forth in the Court’s prior Scheduling Order 22 ||(ECF No. 12) remain in place, except where explicitly modified herein. 23 IT IS SO ORDERED. 24 ||Dated: January 25, 2022 _ Siow. Xion Honorable Allison H. Goddard 26 United States Magistrate Judge 27 28