Lee v. Dennison ( 2021 )

1 2 3 4 UNITED STATES DISTRICT COURT 5 DISTRICT OF NEVADA 6 * * * 7 ALEXIS LEE, Case No. 2:19-cv-1332-KJD-DJA 8 Plaintiff, ORDER 9 v. 10 DINO DENNISON, et al., 11 Defendants. 12 Presently before the Court is Plaintiff’s Motion to Continue Trial (#72). Defendants filed 13 a response in opposition (#75). 14 Trial is currently set for October 4, 2021. Master Trial Calendar Scheduling Conference 15 is currently set for 2 p.m., September 7, 2021. Plaintiff asserts that her expert witness Dr. David 16 J. Oliveri is unavailable to testify at her trial in October and that her counsel has four (4) other 17 trials set on or about the same dates in October. The parties were unable to come to an agreement 18 after conferring. 19 Generally, a district court’s decision regarding a continuance is given deference. See 20 Danjaq LLC v. Sony Corp., 263 F.3d 942, 961 (9th Cir. 2001). The Court should consider four 21 factors when deciding whether to grant a continuance: (1) the movant’s diligence in preparing for 22 the date set for hearing; (2) the likelihood that a continuance will address the need giving rise to 23 the motion for a continuance; (3) the extent to which a continuance will inconvenience the court 24 and the opposing party, including its witnesses; and (4) whether the movant will suffer prejudice 25 if the continuance is denied. United States v. Flynt, 756 F.2d 1352, 1359 (9th Cir. 1985). Here, 26 there is no evidence that Plaintiff was not diligent in preparing for trial. Further, given the 27 continual delays caused by the Covid-19 pandemic, scheduling of all trials has been difficult 28 with schedules of courts, attorneys and experts constantly changing. Plaintiff’s expert is a 1 | necessary witness and Plaintiff will be prejudiced if the expert is unable to testify at trial. 2 | Continuing the trial will give the parties an ability to reschedule for a date that witnesses and 3 | counsel are available. This continuance does inconvenience defense counsel and their witnesses. 4| Therefore, a date will be selected based on the availability of both parties. 5 Accordingly, IT IS HEREBY ORDERED that Plaintiff's Motion to Continue Trial (#72) 6| is GRANTED; 7 IT IS FURTHER ORDERED that a new date for calendar call and trial be set by separate 8 | order. Dated this 3rd day of September, 2021. LO. "1 eae Kent J. Dawson 12 United States District Judge 13 14 15 16 17 18 19 20 21 22 23 24 25 26 27 28 -2-