Bartell Ranch LLC v. McCullough ( 2024 )

1 Christopher Mixson (NV Bar#10685) 2 KEMP JONES, LLP 3800 Howard Hughes Parkway, Suite 1700 3 Las Vegas, Nevada 89169 702-385-6000 4 c.mixson@kempjones.com 5 Attorney for Plaintiffs 6 Roger Flynn, Pro Hac Vice 7 Jeffrey C. Parsons, Pro Hac Vice 8 WESTERN MINING ACTION PROJECT P.O. Box 349, 440 Main St., #2 9 Lyons, CO 80540 (303)823-5738 10 wmap@igc.org 11 Attorneys for Great Basin Resource Watch, Basin and Range Watch, and Wildlands Defense 12 13 Jamie Park, Pro Hac Vice WESTERN WATERSHEDS PROJECT 14 P.O. Box 37198 Albuquerque, NM 87110-9998 15 (505)750-0334 jaimie@westernwatersheds.org 16 Attorney for Western Watersheds Project 17 UNITED STATES DISTRICT COURT 18 DISTRICT OF NEVADA 19 BARTELL RANCH LLC, et al., Case No.: 3:21-cv-80-MMD-CLB 20 (LEAD CASE) Plaintiffs, 21 ORDER GRANTING JOINT MOTION 22 v. BY ENVIRONMENTAL PLAINTIFFS AND FEDERAL DEFENDANTS FOR 23 ESTER M. MCCULLOUGH, et al., STAY OF BRIEFING ON PLAINTIFFS’ MOTION FOR 24 Defendants, ATTORNEYS’ FEES AND EXPENSES 25 and 26 LITHIUM NEVADA CORPORATION, 27 Intervenor-Defendant 28 1 WESTERN WATERSHEDS PROJECT, et al., Case No.: 3:21-cv-103-MMD-CLB 2 (CONSOLIDATED CASE) Plaintiffs, 3 and 4 5 RENO SPARKS INDIAN COLONY, 6 Intervenor-Plaintiff, 7 and 8 BURNS PAIUTE TRIBE, 9 Intervenor-Plaintiff, 10 11 v. 12 UNITED STATES DEPARTMENT OF THE INTERIOR, et al., 13 14 Defendants, 15 and 16 LITHIUM NEVADA CORPORATION, 17 Intervenor-Defendant. 18 19 Plaintiffs Western Watersheds Project, et al. (WWP or Environmental Plaintiffs), and the 20 Federal Defendants, the United States Bureau of Land Management et al. (BLM), file this Joint 21 Motion and Status Report to continue the stay of briefing on WWP’s Motion for attorneys’ fees 22 23 and expenses to facilitate negotiations that may result in settlement of WWP’s fees Motion. This 24 Motion proposes a shorter stay and schedule that will allow the Court to resolve WWP’s Motion 25 for attorneys’ fees by the end of September, in compliance with the Court’s Order issued June 26 17, 2024 (ECF No. 331). 27 Pursuant to the Equal Access to Justice Act, 28 U.S.C. §2412 (EAJA), WWP filed its fees 28 Motion on November 10, 2023 (ECF No. 309). In order to meet EAJA’s filing deadline, 28 1 U.S.C. §2412(d)(1)(B), and in support of potential settlement, WWP filed a “placeholder” fees 2 motion, meeting the requirements of EAJA, while allowing the parties to pursue settlement and 3 avoid further briefing and evidence submittals while negotiations continue. See Greenpeace v. 4 5 Stewart, No. 17-35945, 2020 WL 2465321, *4-5 (9th Cir. Commissioner, May 12, 6 2020)(approving use of placeholder fees motion to facilitate settlement). 7 Pursuant to this Court’s Order (ECF No. 327) approving WWP’s and the Federal 8 Defendants’ previous joint status report and motion to extend the deadlines regarding WWP’s 9 fees Motion, this status report is due June 19, 2024. Environmental Plaintiffs and the Federal 10 11 Defendants filed a fifth Joint Motion for Stay on Briefing of Plaintiffs’ Motion for Attorneys’ 12 Fees and Expenses on June 13, 2024 (ECF No. 330). 13 The Court denied our Joint Motion (ECF No. 330) on June 17, 2024 without prejudice 14 “to the parties proposing a shorter stay and schedule that would allow the Court to resolve the 15 Motion by the end of September” (ECF No. 331). As stated above, Environmental Plaintiffs and 16 17 the Federal Defendants therefore file this new Joint Motion and Status Report to comply with the 18 Court’s deadline provided in the Court’s Order (Id.). 19 WWP and the Federal Defendants are currently engaged in negotiations and propose that 20 briefing be continued to be stayed while these discussions are ongoing. In the event that a 21 settlement cannot be reached, WWP and the Federal Defendants further propose that WWP and 22 23 the Federal Defendants will inform the Court and, at that time, file a joint schedule to allow 24 WWP to amend its fees Motion and submit additional declarations and materials in support of its 25 Motion, as well as a schedule for the Federal Defendants’ response and WWP’s reply. 26 Accordingly, WWP respectfully request that this Court issue an Order such that: 27 1. Briefing on WWP’s Motion continues to be stayed; 28 2. The parties will submit a status report on the potential settlement of WWP’s 1 Motion within 30 days of the date of this Court’s Order on this Joint Motion; and 2 3. If settlement cannot be reached, WWP and the Federal Defendants will file an 3 expedited joint schedule for WWP to amend its Motion, and include additional declarations and 4 5 materials in support, as well as for the Federal Defendants’ response and WWP’s reply, that will 6 allow the Court to resolve the Motion by the end of September 2024 pursuant to the Court’s 7 Order (ECF. 331). 8 Respectfully submitted this 19th day of June, 2024. 9 /s/ Jaimie Park 10 Jaimie Park Pro Hac Vice 11 WESTERN WATERSHEDS PROJECT P.O. Box 37198 12 Albuquerque, NM 87110-9998 (505)750-0334 13 jaimie@westernwatersheds.org 14 Attorney for Western Watersheds Project 15 Roger Flynn Jeffrey C. Parsons 16 WESTERN MINING ACTION PROJECT 17 P.O. Box 349, 440 Main St., #2 Lyons, CO 80540 18 (303)823-5738 19 roger@wmaplaw.org 20 Attorneys for GBRW, BRW, WD 21 Christopher Mixson (NV Bar#10685) 22 KEMP JONES, LLP 3800 Howard Hughes Parkway, Suite 1700 23 Las Vegas, Nevada 89169 702-385-6000 24 c.mixson@kempjones.com 25 Attorney for Plaintiffs 26 27 28 /s/ Michael K. Roberston (signed with permission) Michael K. Robertson (DC Bar 1017183) Trial Attorney, U.S. Department of Justice, Natural Resources Section 3} P.O. Box 7611 4 Washington, D.C. 20044-7611 202-305-9609 5 | michael.robertson@usdoj.gov 6| Attorney for Federal Defendants 7 CERTIFICATE OF SERVICE 8 I hereby attest that I served the foregoing on counsel of record for all parties via the Court’s CM/ECF system, this 19" day of June, 2024. 10 /s/ Jaimie Park 11 IT ISSO ORDERED. 12 DatEp: June 20, 2024 { . 14 CHIEF U.S. DISTRICT JUDGE 15 MIRANDA M. DU 16 17 18 19 20 21 22 23 24 25 26 27 28