Sunset Commercial LLC v. Montrose Chemical Corporation of California ( 2024 )

1 Richard J. Angell, Nevada Bar ID No. 9339 Ashley C. Nikkel, Nevada Bar ID No. 12838 2 PARSONS BEHLE & LATIMER 3 50 West Liberty Street, Suite 750 Reno, NV 89501 4 Telephone: 775.323.1601 Facsimile: 775.348.7250 5 rangell@parsonsbehle.com anikkel@parsonsbehle.com 6 7 Attorneys for Plaintiff Sunset Commercial LLC 8 9 UNITED STATES DISTRICT COURT 10 DISTRICT OF NEVADA 11 SUNSET COMMERCIAL LLC, a Nevada Case No. 2:23-CV-02081-GMN-BNW Limited Liability Company, 12 Plaintiff, 13 vs. STIPULATION TO EXTEND DEADLINE 14 FOR PARTIES TO FILE DISCOVERY 15 B CA orY poE rR at iC oR n;O MP OSC NI TE RN OC SE E, I CN HC E., M a IN Ce Aw L Y ork PLAN AND SCHEDULING ORDER CORPORATION OF CALIFORNIA, a 16 Delaware Corporation; ATLANTIC (Second Request) RICHFIELD COMPANY, a Delaware 17 Corporation; OLIN CORPORATION, a 18 V COirg Ri Pni Oa RC Ao Trp Io Or Nat ,i o an D, T elI aT wA aN reI U CM or pM orE aT tioA nL ; S NL INDUSTRIES, INC., a New Jersey 19 Corporation; LE PETOMANE XXVII, INC., an Illinois Corporation, in its representative 20 capacity as the NEVADA ENVIRONMENTAL RESPONSE TRUST 21 TRUSTEE; and the UNITED STATES OF AMERICA. 22 Defendants. 23 24 Plaintiff Sunset Commercial LLC (“Sunset” or “Plaintiff”), Defendant Bayer Cropscience, 25 Inc., Defendant Atlantic Richfield Company, Defendant Titanium Metals Corporation, Defendant 26 Olin Corporation, Defendant Le Petomane XXVII, Inc., solely in its capacity as trustee of the 27 Nevada Environmental Response Trust, and Defendant United States of America, by and through 28 counsel of record, and consistent with LR IA 6-1(a), hereby stipulate for this Court to extend the 1 time within which the parties must file a Rule 26(f) Discovery Plan and Proposed Scheduling Order 2 (the “Rule 26 Filing”) through and including August 15, 2024. Sunset and all Defendants have 3 agreed to stipulate to the extension.1 4 This is the second requested extension of this deadline and is made in good faith and not 5 for purposes of delay. See LR IA 6-1(a). 6 Sunset seeks to abide by this Court’s “Standing Order” filed on December 19, 2023 (Docket 7 Entry No. 9), stating that “Judge Navarro will generally deny a stipulation or motion for a 8 continuance or extension of time which lacks justification,” and that “[s]uch requests may be 9 granted only in extraordinary circumstances if just cause is presented.” Sunset therefore identifies 10 the following points of justification that show just cause exists for granting the Motion: 11 1. Sunset filed the instant Complaint against the eight (8) Defendants captioned above 12 on December 14, 2023, seeking judgment against all Defendants for contribution 13 damages “for response costs in accordance with CERCLA Section[] 107(a),” (see 14 Complaint “Prayer for Relief” ¶ 1), meaning at least a portion of the Complaint’s 15 allegations (and especially its first two Claims for Relief) necessitate proceeding 16 against all Defendants together, rather than serially (see Compl. ¶¶ 154–78); 17 2. Since then, all Defendants have filed an answer and/or responsive pleading; 18 3. On May 13, 2024, Defendant USA filed a Motion to Dismiss Amended Complaint 19 (ECF No. 64), which Defendant Atlantic Richfield Company joined (ECF No. 65) 20 along with other Defendants have joined; 21 4. Given the piecemeal appearances, answers, and motions to dismiss, along with 22 attempts to explore whether this case can be resolved without further proceedings, 23 the parties have not yet conducted a Rule 26(f) conference as set forth in the Federal 24 Rules of Civil Procedure; 25 26 27 1 Counsel for Defendant Montrose Chemical Corporation of California agreed to the extended date in principle but did not respond to the request for signature on this stipulation in time 1 5. Several parties have exchanged settlement proposals and need more time to evaluate 2 the proposals and continue discussions; 3 6. The parties believe it would be fair and most efficient to avoid proceeding with a 4 discovery conference, preparing for initial disclosures, and filing a Discovery Plan 5 and Proposed Scheduling Order and instead focus on exploring the potential for 6 resolving this case without further proceedings, which would, in turn, preserve 7 judicial and party resources; and 8 7. Discovery has not yet commenced in this case and extending the deadline to submit 9 a Discovery Plan and Proposed Scheduling Order would not prejudice any other 10 party to this case, nor would it affect any other deadlines at this early stage in the 11 proceedings. 12 DATED: June 12, 2024. DATED: June 12, 2024. 13 PARSONS BEHLE & LATIMER UNITED STATES OF AMERICA 14 15 By: /s/ Ashley C. Nikkel By: /s/ Brandon N. Adkins Richard J. Angell, Nevada Bar ID 9339 Todd Kim, Assistant Attorney General 16 Ashley C. Nikkel, Nevada Bar No. 12838 Brandon N. Adkins, Senior Trial Counsel 50 West Liberty Street, Suite 750 Rachel D. Martinez, Trial Attorney 17 Reno, NV 89501 Environmental & Natural Resources Div. 18 rangell@parsonsbehle.com P.O. Box 7611 anikkel@parsonsbehle.com Washington, DC 20044 19 Brandon.Adkins@usdoj.gov Attorneys for Plaintiff Rachel.Martinez@usdoj.gov 20 Sunset Commercial LLC 21 Jason M. Frierson, Nevada Bar ID 7709 United States Attorney, Dist. Of Nevada 22 Lindsay Ager, Nevada Bar ID 11985 Assistant United States Attorney 23 501 Las Vegas Blvd. So., Suite 1100 Las Vegas, NV 89101 24 Lindsay.Ager@usdog.gov 25 Attorneys for United States of America 26 27 / / / 1 DATED: June 12, 2024. DATED: June 12, 2024. 2 DAVIS GRAHAM & STUBBS LLP EDGCOMB LAW GROUP, LLP 3 4 By: /s/ Jonathan W. Rauchway By: /s/ John D. Edgcomb Jonathan W. Rauchway (pro hac vice) John D. Edgcomb (pro hac vice) 5 Adam S. Cohen (pro hac vice) 591 Redwood Highway, Suite 2320 Aditi Kulkarni-Night (pro hac vice) Mill Valley, CA 94941 6 Cormac M. Bloomfield (pro hac vice) jedgcomb@edgcomb-law.com 1550 17th Street, Suite 500 7 Denver, CO 80202 Ryan J. Works, Nevada Bar ID 9224 jon.rauchway@dgslaw.com John A. Fortin, Nevada Bar ID 15221 8 adam.cohen@dgslaw.com McDONALD CARANO LLP aditi.kulkarni@dgslaw.com 2300 W. Sahara Ave., Suite 1200 9 Las Vegas, NV 89102 cormac.bloomfield@dgslaw.com rworks@mcdonaldcarano.com 10 jfortin@mcdonaldcarano.com Robert A. Dotson, Nevada Bar ID 5285 11 Daniel T. Hayward, Nevada Bar ID 5986 Gabriel J. Padilla (pro hac vice) DOTSON LAW EDGCOMB LAW GROUP, LLP 12 5355 Reno Corporate Dr., Ste. 100 2102 Business Center Dr., Suite 130 #651 Reno, NV 89511 Irvine, CA 92612 13 gpadilla@edgcomb-law.com rdotson@dotsonlaw.legal 14 dhayward@dotsonlaw.legal Attorneys for Defendant Bayer CropScience, Inc. 15 Attorneys for Defendant Atlantic Richfield Company 16 17 DATED: June 12, 2024. DATED: June 12, 2024. 18 McGUIRE WOODS LLP LEWIS ROCA ROTHGERBER CHRISTIE LLP 19 By: /s/ Robert F. Redmond Robert F. Redmond (pro hac vice) By: /s/ J. Christopher Jorgensen 20 Matthew D. Fender (pro hac vice) J. Christopher Jorgensen Carson R. Bartlett (pro hac vice) Dibora L. Berhanu 21 800 East Canal Street 3993 Howard Hughes Pkwy., Ste. 600 Richmond, VA 23219 Las Vegas, NV 89169 22 rredmond@mcguirewoods.com cjorgensen@lewisroca.com mfender@mcquirewoods.com dberhanu@lewisroca.com 23 cbartlett@mcguirewoods.com Attorneys for Defendant 24 Joseph G. Went, Nevada Bar ID 9220 Titanium Metals Corporation Sydney R. Gambee, Nevada Bar ID 14201 25 HOLLAND & HART LLP 9555 Hillwood Drive, 2nd Floor 26 Las Vegas, NV 89134 jgwent@hollandhart.com 27 srgambee@hollandhart.com Attorneys for Defendant 1 |] DATED: June 12, 2024. 2 || FOLEY & LARDNER LLP 4 || By: 4/Eric L. Maassen Eric L. Maassen (pro hac vice) 5 Tanya C. O’Neill (pro hac vice) 777 E. Wisconsin Ave. 6 Milwaukee, WI 53202 emaassen@foley.com 7 toneill@foley.com 8 James J. Pisanelli, Nevada Bar ID 4027 M. Magali Mercera, Nevada Bar ID 11742 9 PISANELLI BICE PLLC 400 South 7" St., Suite 300 10 Las Vegas, NV 89101 JJP@pisanellibice.com 11 MMM@pisanellibice.com 12 Attorneys for Defendant 13 Le Petomane XXVIF Inc., an Ulinois Corporation, in its representative capacity as 14 |! trustee of the Nevada Environmental Response Trust 15 16 17 18 ORDER 19 IT IS SO ORDERED. 20 21 gu lee WER UNITED STATES MAGISTRATE JUDGE 22 3 Dated: _ 6/13/2024 24 25 26 27 28 PARSONS BEHLE &