Speaks v. City of North Las Vegas ( 2024 )

1 MELANIE A. HILL (Nevada Bar No. 8796) 2 MELANIE HILL LAW PLLC 1925 Village Center Circle, Suite 150 3 Las Vegas, Nevada 89134 Tel: (702) 362-8500 4 Fax: (702) 362-8505 Email: Melanie@MelanieHillLaw.com 5 Attorneys for Plaintiff Frazier S. Speaks, Jr. 6 7 8 UNITED STATES DISTRICT COURT 9 10 DISTRICT OF NEVADA 11 FRAZIER S. SPEAKS, JR., CASE NO.: 2:23-cv-00887-APG-MDC 12 Plaintiff, STIPULATION TO EXTEND DEADLINES TO RESPOND TO CITY OF NORTH LAS 13 vs. VEGAS’S MOTION TO DISMISS OR, 14 ALTERNATIVELY, MOTION FOR CITY OF NORTH LAS VEGAS, a municipal SUMMARY JUDGMENT 15 corporation, [ECF Nos. 21, 22] 16 Defendant. (Fourth Request) 17 18 Plaintiff, Frazier S. Speaks, Jr. (“Speaks”), by and through his counsel, Melanie Hill Law, and 19 Defendant City of North Las Vegas (“CNLV”), by and through its counsel, Kaempfer Crowell, hereby 20 stipulate to extend the deadline for Mr. Speaks to respond to the City of North Las Vegas’s Motion to 21 Dismiss, or, Alternatively, Motion for Summary Judgment filed on August 14, 2024 [ECF Nos. 21, 22 22] from the current deadline of November 12, 2024 for two additional days until November 14, 2024. 23 This stipulation is made at the request of Plaintiff’s counsel for the good faith reasons and 24 extraordinary circumstances set forth herein. This is the fourth request to extend the deadline to 25 26 respond to these dispositive motions and requests a two-day extension. 27 In support of this Stipulation, Plaintiff states as follows: 28 1 November 12, 2024. The parties previously stipulated to combine the deadlines that occurred one 2 3 week apart because the motions were combined into one pleading such that it made the most sense to 4 respond to them together on the same deadline date of September 27, 2024. 5 2. The parties again stipulated to extend the deadline an additional 14 days, even though 6 Plaintiff’s counsel had asked Defendant’s counsel for an additional 30-day extension. Prior to filing 7 the second stipulation, counsel for Plaintiff had reached out to counsel for Defendant requesting an 8 additional thirty-day extension of the response deadlines due to Plaintiff’s counsel dealing with some 9 10 new health issues, symptoms, and diagnostic testing as well as assisting in the preparation of a Ninth 11 Circuit oral argument. Defendant only agreed to stipulate to a 14-day extension of the deadlines for 12 Mr. Speaks to respond to both motions. Plaintiff’s counsel notified the court in the second stipulation 13 that counsel had originally requested additional time that was not stipulated to. 14 3. Thereafter, Plaintiff filed a third request to extend by motion requesting that additional time 15 that Defendant did not stipulate to in the second stipulation. The good cause for the motion was to 16 allow counsel for the Plaintiff additional time to respond while Plaintiff’s counsel was working on two 17 18 separate Ninth Circuit appeals and coordinating moving deadlines in other cases that were continued 19 while Plaintiff’s counsel was undergoing the diagnostic medical imaging and symptoms referenced in 20 the second stipulation that necessitated moving deadlines and hearings in multiple cases, including an 21 opening brief deadline in a Ninth Circuit appeal that was filed on November 7, 2024. 22 4. The motion to extend was opposed by Defendant [ECF No. 29] and Plaintiff filed a reply 23 [ECF No. 30]. 24 5. The court granted the motion to extend, but stated in the order that “[n]o further extensions 25 26 will be granted absent extraordinary circumstances.” [ECF No. 31.] 27 / / / 28 1 the deadline because her daughter was out from school sick today, November 12, 2024, and her illness 2 3 necessitated Plaintiff’s counsel unexpectedly staying home from work with her sick daughter. 4 7. Additionally, late Friday afternoon, November 8, 2024, the Ninth Circuit imposed a 5 November 12, 2024 by 5:00pm deadline for Plaintiff’s counsel to make modifications to the citations, 6 revise the excerpts of record numbering, and table of contents and table of authorities in the Ninth 7 Circuit Opening Brief filed by Plaintiff’s counsel in another of her cases on November 7, 2024 that 8 she unexpectedly had to attend to today due to the weekend and Veteran’s Day holiday on Monday, 9 10 November 11, 2024. 11 8. This extension of the deadline to oppose Defendant’s dispositive motions was agreed to by 12 the Defendant, is brought in good faith, and is accompanied by a showing of good cause and 13 extraordinary and unforeseen circumstances. This two-day extension request and is not sought for any 14 improper purpose or other purpose of delay, but to allow counsel for the Plaintiff additional time to 15 respond to these two dispositive motions in light of her daughter’s illness that necessitated her staying 16 home from work and the Ninth Circuit’s last minute deadline over a holiday weekend for Plaintiff’s 17 18 counsel make modifications to the citations in the opening brief, revise the excerpts of record 19 numbering, and table of contents and table of authorities in the Ninth Circuit Opening Brief filed by 20 Plaintiff’s counsel in another of her cases on November 7, 2024. 21 9. Courts in the District of Nevada have routinely held extensions of deadlines for illness and 22 the “practicalities of life” establish good cause for the requested extension. In Morales v. McDaniel, 23 District of Nevada Magistrate Judge Baldwin found good cause to grant an extension and held as 24 25 follows: 26 “The proper procedure, when additional time for any purpose is needed, is to present to the Court a timely request for an extension before the time fixed has expired (i.e., a 27 request presented before the time then fixed for the purpose in question has expired).” Canup v. Miss. Valley Barge Line Co., 31 F.R.D. 282, 283 (D. Pa. 1962). The Canup 28 Court explained that “the practicalities of life” (such as an attorney’s “conflicting professional engagements” or personal commitments such as vacations, family ] activities, illnesses, or death) often necessitate an enlargement of time to comply with a court deadline. /d. Extensions of time “usually are granted upon a showing of good 2 cause, if timely made.” Creedon v. Taubman, 8 F.R.D. 268, 269 (D. Ohio 1947). The good cause standard considers a party’s diligence in seeking the continuance or 3 extension. Johnson v. Mammoth Recreations, Inc., 975 F.2d 604, 609 (9th Cir. 1992). 4 ||2019 US. Dist. LEXIS 173103 (D. Nev. Oct. 3, 2019). 5 WHEREFORE, the parties respectfully request by this stipulation setting forth good cause an 6 extraordinary and unforeseen circumstances that the Court extend the deadline for Plaintiff Speaks t 7 ||respond to the City’s Motions, for two additional days up to and including November 14, 2024. 8 DATED this 12th day of November, 2024. 9 10 MELANIE HILL LAW PLLC KAEMPFER CROWELL 1] 12 By: /s/ Melanie A. Hill By: /s/Lyssa S. Anderson MELANIE A. HILL LYSSA S. ANDERSON 13 Nevada Bar No. 8796 Nevada Bar No. 5781 1925 Village Center Circle, Ste. 150 KRISTOPHER KALKOWSKI 14 Las Vegas, Nevada 89134 Fete ear NG ane Drive. Sui as Vegas, ~ . 1980 Festival Plaza Drive, Suite 650 15 Attorneys for Plaintiff Frazier S. Las Vegas, Nevada 89135 Speaks, Jr. Attorneys for Defendant 16 City of North Las Vegas 17 18 19 IT IS SO ORDERED: 20 21 fo — 22 — ANDREW P. GORDON 23 UNITED STATES DISTRICT JUDGE 24 Dated: November 14, 2024 25 26 27 28 Hill Law PLLC 4 of 4 ge Center Circle