Atlantic Specialty Insurance Company v. JCR Development LLC ( 2024 )

1 UNITED STATES DISTRICT COURT 2 DISTRICT OF NEVADA 3 Case No.: 3:24-cv-00181-ART-CSD ATLANTIC SPECIALTY INSURANCE 4 COMPANY, Order 5 Plaintiff Re: ECF No. 12 6 v. 7 JCR DEVELOPMENT, LLC, et al., 8 Defendants 9 10 Plaintiff filed this diversity action against JCR Development, LLC, Jerry Jones, 11 individually and as trustee of the Jones Family Trust, Paula Jones, individually and as trustee of 12 the Jones Family Trust, and the Jones Family Trust, on April 17, 2024. Plaintiff asserts claims 13 related to the breach of an indemnity agreement Defendants entered into with Plaintiff in 14 exchange for Plaintiff’s issuance of development and construction-related surety bonds. (ECF 15 No. 1.) 16 Defendants were served on July 3, 2024. (ECF Nos. 8-11.) As such, Defendants’ answer 17 was due on or before July 24, 2024. Fed. R. Civ. P. 12(a)(1)(A)(i). 18 On August 7, 2024, Defendants filed a document asking the court to allow them a few 19 more weeks to retain an attorney, stating that they have been financially destroyed by this job, 20 lost their contractor’s license, and are in the process of borrowing cash to hire an attorney for 21 their defense. They ask to be given until the end of August to secure counsel. They also mention 22 that an engineering group and another entity that they are going to have to take legal action 23 against as they were the primary cause of “this.” (ECF No. 12.) 1 Plaintiff filed a response. Plaintiff does not oppose the motion, but asserts this is not a 2 valid response to Plaintiff’s complaint, and notes that Plaintiff already granted a prior request for 3 an extension. Plaintiff also argues the explanation that third parties are responsible for Plaintiff’s 4 claims is irrelevant to this action. Plaintiff asks the court not allow Defendants to further delay 5 these proceedings and requests the court to permit Plaintiff to take the default of each of the 6 Defendants if they do not respond to the complaint by September 1, 2024. (ECF No. 13.) 7 The court interprets Defendants’ filing as a request for an extension of time to file an 8 answer or otherwise respond to Plaintiff’s complaint. The court will grant Defendants’ request 9 (ECF No. 12) insofar as Defendants will have up to and including September 27, 2024, to file an 10 answer or otherwise respond to Plaintiff’s complaint. 11 Defendants are advised that only a licensed attorney may represent a corporation or other 12 business entity, such as a limited liability company, in federal court. Rowland v. Cal. Men’s 13 Colony, 506 U.S. 194, 202 (1993). A trust also is not permitted to represent itself in court, and 14 must be represented by an attorney. See C.E. Pope Equity Trust v. United States, 818 F.2d 696, 15 697-98 (9th Cir. 1987) (non-attorney may represent himself in a lawsuit, he does not have 16 authority to appear as an attorney for others; finding that person filing action on behalf of trust 17 and himself as trustee of the trust was not allowed to represent himself or the trust pro se in 18 federal court unless the trustee was the actual beneficial owner of the trust’s claims); see also 19 Maisano v. Welcher, 940 F.2d 499, 501 (9th Cir. 1991); Church of the New Testament v. United 20 States, 783 F.2d 771, 773 (9th Cir. 1986); U.S. v. Haines, No. C13-5082 BHS, 2013 WL 5719455 21 (W.D. Wa. Aug. 5, 2013) (“A trustee cannot act in a pro se capacity in a judicial proceeding 22 involving the trust for which he serves as a fiduciary.”); Guerin v. Guerin, 993 P.2d 1256, 1258, 23 116 Nev. 210, 214 (2000). ] Defendants are further advised that if they fail to timely file an answer or otherwise respond to the complaint, Plaintiff may seek the Clerk’s entry of default against them and then the entry of default judgment under Rule 55 of the Federal Rules of Civil Procedure. 4 CONCLUSION 5 Defendants’ motion (ECF No. 12) is GRANTED insofar as Defendants have up to and 6|| including September 27, 2024, to file an answer or otherwise respond to Plaintiff's complaint. 7 IT IS SO ORDERED. 9|| Dated: September 6, 2024 0 CS On Craig S. Denney 11 United States Magistiate Judge 12 13 14 15 16 17 18 19 20 21 22 23