Morrison v. State of Washington ( 2022 )

1 2 3 4 5 6 7 The Honorable John H. Chun 8 UNITED STATES DISTRICT COURT WESTERN DISTRICT OF WASHINGTON AT TACOMA 9 GLENN S. MORRISON, Individually, NO. 3:20-cv-06015-JHC 10 Plaintiff, STIPULATION TO EXTEND 11 vs. DISCOVERY CUT-OFF DEADLINE FOR DEPOSITIONS OF WITNESSES 12 STATE OF WASHINGTON, DEPARTMENT JONES, DRENGSON AND DAVIS OF HEALTH and SOCIAL SERVICES 13 (DSHS); DEPARTMENT OF HEALTH (DOH) DAVID HOLT, CEO WESTERN 14 STATE HOSPITAL; KATHERINE RAYMER, DANIEL RUIZ PAREDES, 15 TODD M. TERHAAR, DOH HEALTH CARE INVESTIGATOR III, 16 Defendants. 17 18 I. INTRODUCTION 19 The parties, Plaintiff Glenn Morrison (“Plaintiff”) and defendants State of Washington, 20 Department of Social and Health Services, Department of Health, David Holt, Katherine Raymer, Daniel 21 Ruiz Paredes, and Todd Terhaar (collectively, “Defendants”), through their respective attorneys of record, 22 hereby jointly stipulate to a one-month extension of the discovery cutoff deadline from September 29, 23 2022 to October 31 for the limited purposes of taking discovery depositions of three witnesses: Michael 24 25 26 LAW, LYMAN, DANIEL, KAMERRER A T& TO B RNO EYG S D ATA LN AWO VICH, P.S. 1 Jones, Michelle Drengson, and Dr. Frederick B. Davis. These witnesses are Plaintiff’s expert witness and 2 two treating health care providers for Plaintiff. 3 II. LEGAL AUTHORITY AND ANALYSIS 4 Pursuant to Rule 16(b)(4), a party may seek modification of a scheduling order including 5 modification of a discovery cut-off date, “only for good cause and with a judge’s consent.” See accord 6 Local Rule 16(b)(6). Good cause exists when a scheduling deadline cannot reasonably be met despite the 7 8 diligence of the party seeking the extension. Zivkovic v. S. Cal. Edison Co., 302 F.3d 1080, 1878 (9th Cir. 9 2002). In considering whether good cause exists, the Court “primarily considers the diligence of the party 10 seeking amendment.” Johnson v. Mammoth Recreations, Inc., 975 F.2d 604, 609 (1992). A party may 11 establish good cause by showing: 12 (1) that [he or she] was diligent in assisting the court in creating a workable Rule 16 13 order; (2) that [his or her] noncompliance with a Rule 16 deadline occurred or will occur, notwithstanding [his or her] diligent efforts to comply, because of the development of 14 matters which could not have been reasonably foreseen or anticipated at the time of the 15 Rule 16 scheduling conference; and (3) that [he or she] was diligent in seeking amendment of the Rule 16 order, once it became apparent that he or she could not comply 16 with the order. 17 Hood v. Hartford Life & Accident Ins. Co., 567 F.Supp.2d 1221, 1224 (E.D. Cal. 2008) (internal citations 18 omitted). 19 Here, the current deadline to complete discovery is September 29, 2022. Dkt. 30. The parties 20 stipulate and agree to extend this discovery cut-off deadline for the sole purpose of taking the three 21 depositions because additional time is needed to complete the discovery process adequately and fairly for 22 23 these three depositions. The parties are currently and diligently negotiating to resolve various scheduling 24 issues in terms of party and witness depositions to complete this discovery in the most efficient manner 25 possible. The parties make this request to extend the discovery cut-off deadline after ultimately concluding 26 LAW, LYMAN, DANIEL, KAMERRER A T& TO B RNO EYG S D ATA LN AWO VICH, P.S. 1 that avoiding this request is not feasible. At this time, however, the parties do not in good faith anticipate 2 the need to extend the discovery cut-off deadline to accommodate any additional witness depositions nor 3 discovery, in general. 4 AND, THE PARTIES STIPULATE AND AGREED TO THE FOLLOWING: 5 To extend the discovery cut-off deadline one month, from September 29, 2022 to October 31, 6 2022. 7 8 SO STIPULATED 9 DATED this 7th day of September 2022. LAW, LYMAN, DANIEL, KAMERRER & BOGDANOVICH, P.S. 10 /s/ Amanda Bley Kuehn 11 Amanda Bley Kuehn, WSBA No. 42450 12 Attorney for Defendant Todd M. Terhaar P.O. Box 11880, Olympia, WA 98508 13 Phone: (360) 754-3480 Fax: (360) 357-3511 14 Email: akuehn@lldkb.com 15 DATED this 7th day of September 2022. KRAM & WOOSTER, P.S. 16 s/ Richard W. Wooster __________________________________ 17 RICHARD W. WOOSTER, WSBA No. 13752 18 Attorney for Plaintiff Morrison 1901 South I Street 19 Tacoma, WA 984050 Phone: (253) 272-7929 20 E-mail: Rich@kjwmlaw.com 21 DATED this 7th day of September 2022. ROBERT W. FERGUSON 22 Attorney General 23 s/ Debra Lefing ___________________________________ 24 DEBRA LEFING, WSBA No. 53344 Attorneys for (Remaining) State Defendants 25 26 LAW, LYMAN, DANIEL, KAMERRER A T& TO B RNO EYG S D ATA LN AWO VICH, P.S. 1 Assistant Attorney General Washington State Attorney General’s Office 2 Tort’s Division P.O. Box 40126 3 Olympia, WA 98504-0126 4 (360)586-6300 Debra.Lefing@atg.wa.gov 5 6 III. ORDER 7 8 The Court finds good cause to extend the discovery cut-off period one-month from September 29, 9 2022 to October 31, 2022 for the sole purpose of accommodating the Jones, Drengson, and Davis 10 depositions. The current case schedule order is at Dkt. 30. 11 IT IS SO ORDERED. 12 Dated: 9th day of September, 2022. 13 14 __A__________________________________ 15 HON. JOHN H. CHUN United States District Judge 16 17 18 19 20 21 22 23 24 25 26 LAW, LYMAN, DANIEL, KAMERRER & BOGDANOVICH, P.S. ATTORNEYS AT LAW