Thomson v. Russell Investment Management LLC ( 2023 )

1 Paul S. Padda 2 NV Bar No. 10417 PAUL PADDA LAW, PLLC 3 4560 South Decatur Blvd., Suite 300 Las Vegas, NV 89103 4 Tel: 702.366.1888 psp@paulpaddalaw.com 5 6 Paul J. Lukas, MN Bar No. 22084X* lukas@nka.com 7 Brock J. Specht, MN Bar No. 0388343* bspecht@nka.com 8 Benjamin J. Bauer, MN Bar No. 0398853* bbauer@nka.com 9 NICHOLS KASTER, PLLP 10 4700 IDS Center 80 S 8th Street 11 Minneapolis, MN 55402 Telephone: (612) 256-3200 12 Facsimile: (612) 338-4878 13 *admitted pro hac vice 14 ATTORNEYS FOR PLAINTIFF AND THE PROPOSED CLASS 15 16 17 UNITED STATES DISTRICT COURT DISTRICT OF NEVADA 18 DANNY WANEK and JUAN DUARTE, as 19 representatives of a class of similarly situated Case No. 2:21-cv-00961-CDS-BNW persons, and on behalf of the Caesars 20 Entertainment Corporation Savings & 21 Retirement Plan, STIPULATION REGARDING BRIEFING SCHEDULES 22 Plaintiffs, (FIRST REQUEST FOR SUBJECT DEADLINES) 23 v. 24 RUSSELL INVESTMENTS TRUST COMPANY, CAESARS HOLDINGS, INC., 25 THE PLAN INVESTMENT COMMITTEE, and THE 401(K) PLAN COMMITTEE. 26 27 Defendants. 28 1 Plaintiffs Danny Wanek and Juan Duarte (“Plaintiffs”), as representatives of a class of 2 similarly situated persons, and on behalf of the Caesars Entertainment Corporation Savings & 3 Retirement Plan, and Defendants Russell Investments Trust Company, Caesars Holdings, Inc., the 4 Plan Investment Committee, and the 401(k) Plan Committee (“Defendants”) (collectively, the 5 “Parties”), by and through their undersigned counsel, hereby stipulate and agree as follows: 6 WHEREAS, Plaintiffs filed their Motion for Leave to File the Fourth Amended Complaint 7 (ECF No. 131) on October 17, 2023, within the deadline agreed-upon by the parties and ordered 8 by the Court (ECF No. 63); 9 WHEREAS, Plaintiffs filed their Motion for Class Certification (ECF No. 133) on October 10 17, 2023, within the deadline agreed-upon by the parties and ordered by the Court (ECF No. 63); 11 WHEREAS, Plaintiffs filed a Motion to Seal Documents that Defendants have designated 12 as confidential (ECF No. 135) on October 17, 2023; 13 WHEREAS, pursuant to Ninth Circuit caselaw, the trial court must rule on a pending motion 14 to amend before considering a motion for class certification. See, e.g., Tan v. Quick Box, LLC, 2022 15 WL 17184568, at *2 (S.D. Cal. Nov. 23, 2022) (noting that “[a]n amended complaint may moot 16 the motion for class certification because an amended complaint supersedes the original complaint 17 so that the original complaint is treated as non-existent”) (citing Ramirez v. Cty. of San Bernardino, 18 806 F.3d 1002, 1008 (9th Cir. 2015)); Dean v. Colgate-Palmolive Co., 2017 WL 11585683, at *5 19 (C.D. Cal. May 15, 2017) (explaining that “an amended complaint would moot the Motion for Class 20 Certification”); Burchfield v. Corel Corp., 2013 WL 12120088 (N.D. Cal. Sept. 12, 2013) (finding 21 that class certification motion was “rendered moot” based on amendment of complaint). 22 WHEREAS, Defendants’ opposition to Plaintiffs’ Motion for Leave to File the Fourth 23 Amended Complaint is currently due October 31, 2023, and Plaintiffs’ reply in support of their 24 motion would be due November 7, 2023; 25 WHEREAS, Defendants’ response to the Motion to Seal Documents is currently due 26 October 31, 2023; 27 WHEREAS, the parties aver that there is good cause to reasonably extend the above 28 deadlines for briefing related to the motion to amend and the motion to seal to allow Defendants 1 sufficient time to respond to the issues raised in each motion, and to allow Plaintiffs sufficient time 2 to address the issues raised in Defendants’ responses; 3 WHEREAS, the parties aver that there is good cause to postpone class certification briefing 4 until the Court has ruled on the motion to amend, and that the parties are willing to meet and confer 5 and submit a proposed schedule for briefing Plaintiffs’ motion for class certification within 14 days 6 of the Court’s ruling on the motion to amend; 7 WHEREAS, counsel for the parties have conferred and agreed to the following briefing 8 schedule for the motion to amend and motion to seal: 9 Event Proposed Date Deadline for Defendants to respond to the 10 November 14, 2023 Motion to Seal Documents 11 Deadline for Defendants to oppose Plaintiffs’ November 22, 2023 Motion for Leave to File the Fourth Amended 12 Complaint Deadline for Plaintiffs to file reply in support 13 December 6, 2023 of their motion for Leave to File the Fourth Amended Complaint 14 WHEREAS, this stipulation is not made for purposes of delay; and 15 WHEREAS, this is the first request for an extension of time for the subject deadlines; 16 IT IS HEREBY STIPULATED AND AGREED, subject to the approval of the Court, that 17 (1) the deadline for Defendants to respond to the Motion to Seal Documents shall be November 14, 18 2023; (2) the deadline for Defendants to oppose Plaintiffs’ Motion for Leave to File the Fourth 19 Amended Complaint shall be November 22, 2023; (3) the deadline for Plaintiffs to file reply in 20 support of their motion for Leave to File the Fourth Amended Complaint shall be December 6, 21 2023; (4) within 14 days of the Court’s ruling on the motion to amend, the parties will meet and 22 confer and submit a proposed schedule for briefing deadlines on Plaintiffs’ motion for class 23 certification. 24 25 26 27 28 1 2 NICHOLS KASTER, PLLP MAYER BROWN LLP /s/ Benjamin J. Bauer /s/ D. Matthew Moscon 3 Paul J. Lukas, Esq. (admitted pro hac vice) D. Matthew Moscon (admitted pro hac vice) Brock J. Specht, Esq. (admitted pro hac vice) 201 South Main Street, Suite 1100 4 Benjamin J. Bauer, Esq. (admitted pro hac Salt Lake City, UT 84111 vice) Telephone: (801) 907-2703 5 4700 IDS Center mmoscon@mayerbrown.com 6 80 S. 8th Street Minneapolis, MN 55402 MAYER BROWN LLP 7 Telephone: (612) 256-3200 Nancy G. Ross (admitted pro hac vice) 71 South Wacker Drive 8 PAUL PADDA LAW, PLLC Chicago, IL 60606 Paul S. Padda, Esq. Telephone: (312) 782-0600 9 4560 South Decatur Blvd., Suite 300 nross@mayerbrown.com 10 Las Vegas, NV 89103 Telephone: (702) 366-1888 LITTLER MENDELSON P.C. 11 Attorneys for Plaintiff Patrick H. Hicks, Esq. Bar. No. 004632 Diana G. Dickinson, Esq. Bar No. 13477 12 3960 Howard Hughes Parkway, Suite 300 Las Vegas, Nevada 89169-5937 13 Telephone: (702) 862-8800 14 phicks@littler.com ddickinson@littler.com 15 Attorneys for Defendant Caesars Holdings, 16 Inc., the Plan Investment Committee, and the 401(k) Plan Committee 17 18 MILBANK LLP /s/ Robert C. Hora 19 Sean M. Murphy, Esq. (admitted pro hac vice) 20 Robert C. Hora, Esq. (admitted pro hac vice) 21 Joseph J. Kammerman, Esq. (admitted pro hac vice) 22 Emily E. Werkmann, Esq. (admitted pro hac vice) 23 55 Hudson Yards New York, NY 10001 24 Telephone: (212) 530-5000 25 PARSONS, BEHLE & LATIMER 26 Rew R. Goodenow, Esq. NSBN 3722 Michael R. Kealy, Esq. NSBN 971 27 50 West Liberty Street, Suite 750 Reno, NV 89501 28 | Attorneys for Defendant Russell Investments 2 Trust Company 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 | DATED: _ 10/30/2023 IT IS SO ORDERED. ° Ei pm Lea We barn 13 ITED STATES DISTRICT JUDGE □ 14 UNITED STATES MAGISTRATE JUDGE 15 16 17 18 19 20 21 22 23 24 25 26 27 28