Silver v. Wolfson ( 2019 )

1 UNITED STATES DISTRICT COURT 2 DISTRICT OF NEVADA 3 FREDERICK O. SILVER, Case No.: 2:19-cv-00032-APG-BNW 4 Plaintiff Order Denying Motion for Default Judgment and Directing Plaintiff to Show 5 v. Cause Why Clark County Child Support Division Should Not Be Dismissed 6 DISTRICT ATTORNEY STEVEN B. WOLFSON, et al., [ECF No. 132] 7 Defendants 8 9 Plaintiff Frederick O. Silver moves for default judgment against defendant Clark County 10 Child Support Division. ECF No. 132. However, the Child Support Division is not a suable 11 entity because it is a department of Clark County, not a political subdivision. See Nev. Rev. Stat. 12 §41.031(2) (stating an action may be brought against the State of Nevada “or any political 13 subdivision of the State”). “In the absence of statutory authorization, a department of the 14 municipal government may not, in the departmental name, sue or be sued.” Wayment v. Holmes, 15 912 P.2d 816, 819 (Nev. 1996) (quotation omitted). The State of Nevada has not waived 16 immunity on behalf of its departments or political subdivisions, and Silver has presented no 17 authority for the proposition that the Child Support Division has been conferred the power to sue 18 and be sued in its own name. I therefore deny his motion for default judgment. Further, because 19 it appears the Child Support Division is not a suable entity, I order Silver to show cause why it 20 should not be dismissed as a defendant in this action. 21 I THEREFORE ORDER that plaintiff Frederick O. Silver’s motion for default judgment 22 (ECF No. 132) is DENIED. 23 1 I FURTHER ORDER that on or before January 3, 2020, plaintiff Frederick O. Silver 2} shall show cause, in writing, why defendant Clark County Child Support Division should not be dismissed from this action because it is not a suable entity. 4 DATED this 4th day of December, 2019. 5 fe 6 ANDREW P. GORDON 7 UNITED STATES DISTRICT JUDGE 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 15 16 17 18 19 20 21 22 23