Welch v. Minor ( 2020 )

Attorney General 2 ALEXANDER J. SMITH (Bar No. 15484C) Deputy Attorney General 3 State of Nevada Office of the Attorney General 4 555 East Washington Avenue Suite 3900 5 Las Vegas, Nevada 89101 (702) 486-4070 (phone) 6 (702) 486-3773 (fax) Email: ajsmith@ag.nv.gov 7 Attorneys for Defendant 8 Michael Minev 9 10 11 12 UNITED STATES DISTRICT COURT 13 DISTRICT OF NEVADA 14 KENTRELL D. WELCH, Case No. 2:19-cv-00480-JAD-BNW 15 Plaintiff, DEFENDANT’S MOTION FOR A 16 v. FORTY-FIVE DAY EXTENSION OF TIME TO ANSWER OR RESPOND 17 MICHAEL MINOR, et al., TO THE COMPLAINT (FIRST REQUEST) 18 Defendants. 19 20 Defendant Michael Minev, by and through counsel, Aaron D. Ford, Nevada Attorney 21 General, and Alexander J. Smith, Deputy Attorney General, of the State of Nevada, Office 22 of the Attorney General, hereby moves for a forty-five day extension of time to answer or 23 respond to the first amended complaint (ECF No. 77). A November 6, 2020 order (ECF No. 24 76) granted Plaintiff Kentrell D. Welch’s unopposed motion (ECF No. 68) to amend the 25 complaint. The deadline to answer or respond to the complaint is November 27, 2020, but 26 for the reasons outlined below, Defendant requests a forty-five day extension of time to 27 answer or respond to the first amended complaint. 28 /// 2 new cases in addition to his almost four-dozen or so others after his colleague, Deputy 3 Attorney General Matthew Feeley, recently departed the division. Some of these demanded 4 immediate responses. Also, Attorney Smith has several summary judgment motion 5 deadlines within the next forty days, and within the last two weeks, all Attorney General’s 6 Office staff have been ordered to stay at home because of the Coronavirus spike; Attorney 7 Smith has had delayed access to the materials he needs in order to diligently defend all his 8 cases. In order to familiarize himself with the case and to respond adequately and 9 thoroughly, Attorney Smith needs further time to prepare a thorough response to the 10 complaint.1 11 Defendant therefore respectfully moves under Rule 6(b)(1), Federal Rules of Civil 12 Procedure, for a forty-five day extension of time to respond. This will take the deadline to 13 answer or respond to the complaint from November 27, 2020, to January 11, 2020; good 14 cause exists for granting this motion, and Welch will not be prejudiced by this short delay. 15 I. LAW AND ARGUMENT 16 A. Rule 6(b), Federal Rules Of Civil Procedure 17 Rule 6(b)(1), Federal Rules of Civil Procedure, governs extensions of time and states: 18 When an act may or must be done within a specified time, the court may, for good cause, extend the time: (A) with or without 19 motion or notice if the court acts, or if a request is made, before the original time or its extension expires; or (B) on motion made 20 after the time has expired if the party failed to act because of excusable neglect. 21 22 If additional time for any purpose is needed, the proper procedure is to present a 23 request for extension of time before the time fixed has expired. Canup v. Mississippi Val. 24 Barge Line Co., 31 F.R.D. 282 (W.D.Pa. 1962). An extension of time may always be sought 25 /// 26 1 The court informed (ECF No. 76) Defendant that it would not perform a second screening of Welch’s’s first amended complaint. Defendant would benefit considerably from 27 the requested extension of time in order to respond adequately to Welch’s somewhat lengthy handwritten complaint, which adds many new defendants and new causes of 28 action. 2 of the Rule. Creedon v. Taubman, 8 F.R.D. 268 (N.D. Ohio 1947). 3 B. Local Rules IA 6-1 And 26-3. 4 LR IA 6-1 requires that a motion to extend time must state the reasons for the 5 extension requested, and LR 26-3 requires that a motion to extend any date set by the 6 discovery plan, scheduling order, or other order must, as well as satisfying the 7 requirements of LR IA 6-1, demonstrate good cause for the extension.2 8 C. Good Cause Exists, Thus An Order Should Grant Defendants’ Motion For An Extension Of Time To Answer Or Respond To The Complaint 9 10 Here, good cause exists for extending the deadline to answer or respond to the 11 complaint by forty-five days. Defendant intends to move to dismiss; by extending the 12 deadline, Welch is under no danger of prejudice, and the delay is short. 13 Some of Attorney Smith’s cases that he inherited from his predecessor have required 14 immediate, lengthy attention, in addition to his usual caseload. Second, Attorney Smith 15 started with the Nevada Attorney General’s Office approximately two months ago and was 16 only recently admitted to the Federal District Court (late September 2020). Upon 17 commencement of his employment, Attorney Smith became counsel for the defense in over 18 forty actions (now approximately fifty) and has worked assiduously and expeditiously to 19 review each case file. Because of Attorney Smith having spent an inordinate amount of 20 time satisfying several imminent deadlines in the recently assigned cases, Attorney Smith 21 needs further time to adequately brief the court on why Welch’s complaint is legally 22 deficient. 23 Bearing in mind the numerous technological difficulties caused by the State of 24 Nevada moving to working from home because of the COVID-19 crisis, Attorney Smith is 25 /// 26 2 LR 26-3 lists four factors that are considered upon adjudication of a motion to 27 extend a discovery deadline or to reopen discovery, but these are not considered in this motion because Defendant neither moves to extend a discovery deadline nor moves to 28 reopen discovery. 1 || working diligently to defend this action.? In sum, Attorney Smith needs additional time in 2 || order to adequately move to dismiss. 3 || II. CONCLUSION 4 For the reasons stated above, good cause exists for the granting of an extension, and 5 || Defendant respectfully moves for an extension of the deadline to answer or respond to th 6 |}complaint from November 27, 2020, to January 11, 2021. 7 DATED this 24th day of November, 2020. 8 AARON D. FORD 9 Attorney General 10 By:_/s/ Alexander J. Smith ALEXANDER J. SMITH (Bar No. 15484C) 11 Deputy Attorney General 12 Attorneys for Defendant 13 14 || SO ORDERED 15 || DATED: 12:38 pm, December 01, 2020 16 Les Are Eat, BRENDA WEKSLER 18 ||] UNITED STATES MAGISTRATE JUDGE 19 20 21 22 23 24 25 26 27 3 Two weeks ago, all Attorney General’s Office employees were ordered to work from home because of Governor Sisolak’s “Stay at Home 2.0” plan. Following Sisolak’s 28 November 22, 2020 announcement telling all Nevadans to stay at home wherever possible, this has been extended for another three weeks.