Johnson v. Suicide

Attorney General 2 SAMUEL L. PEZONE JR. (Bar No. 15978) Deputy Attorney General 3 State of Nevada Office of the Attorney General 4 555 E. Washington Ave., Ste. 3900 Las Vegas, Nevada 89101 5 (702) 486-4070 (phone) (702) 486-3773 (fax) 6 Email: spezone@ag.nv.gov 7 Attorneys for Defendants — 8 — UNITED STATES DISTRICT COURT — 9 — DISTRICT OF NEVADA — 10 — 11 LAUSTEVEION JOHNSON, Case No. 3:22-cv-00285-ART-CSD 12 Plaintiff, ORDER GRANTING 13 v. DEFENDANTS’ MOTION TO STAY CASE PENDING GLOBAL 14 A. SUICIDE, et al., SETTLEMENT CONFERENCE 15 Defendants. — 16 — 17 Defendants, Michael Minev, Perry Russell, Joseph Sherry, Candis Rambar, Robert 18 Hartman, Jeffrey Holz, Joel Hightower, Shelly Conlin, John Claudio-Bil, Kyle Olsen, 19 Michael Flamm, Nethanjah Breitenbach-Childers, Brian Williams, Michael Tierney, John 20 Henley, Joseph Kobrick, and Lance White, by and through counsel, Aaron D. Ford, Nevada 21 Attorney General, and Samuel L. Pezone Jr., Deputy Attorney General, of the State of 22 Nevada, Office of the Attorney General, hereby move for a stay of this case pending an 23 upcoming global settlement conference in Johnson v. Garofalo, et al., Case No. 3:21-cv24 00239-MMD-CLB. 25 /// 26 /// 27 /// 28 /// 2 I. FACTUAL BACKGROUND 3 On May 26, 2023, this Court entered an order setting September 22, 2023, as the 4 deadline to serve discovery, and October 23, 2023, as the date for completion of discovery. 5 ECF No. 29. 6 On August 21, 2023, this court held a telephonic status conference in Johnson v. 7 Garofalo, et al., Case No. 3:21-cv-00239-MMD-CLB. ECF No. 32. During this conference, 8 Deputy Attorney General Andrew Nelson, Plaintiff Lausteveion Johnson (Johnson) and his 9 counsel agreed to participate in a global settlement conference regarding all of Johnson’s 10 civil cases pending in this court, including this case, Johnson v. Suicide, et al., Case No. 11 3:22-cv-00285-ART-CSD. See Id. 12 Accordingly, this Court set Thursday October 5, 2023, at 9:00 AM, as the date and 13 time for a global settlement conference. ECF No. 32 at 2. Further, this Court advised the 14 parties to “request or file a stipulation regarding a stay in any case where they find it 15 appropriate.” Id. This request for a stay follows. 16 II. LEGAL STANDARD 17 “A court's power to stay proceedings is incidental to its inherent power to manage its 18 docket.” Stephens v. Comenity, LLC, 287 F.Supp.3d 1091, 1096 (D. Nev. 2017) (citing 19 Landis v. N. Am. Co., 299 U.S. 248, 254-55 (1936)). “Proceedings may be stayed ‘pending 20 resolution of independent proceedings which bear upon the case.’” Id. at 1096-97 (citing 21 Leyva v. Certified Grocers of California, Ltd., 593 F.2d 857, 863 (9th Cir. 1979)). “In 22 determining whether a stay is appropriate, a court ‘must weigh competing interests and 23 maintain an even balance.’” Id. at 1097 (citing Landis, 299 U.S. at 254-55 ); see also Lockyer 24 v. Mirant Corp., 398 F.3d 1098, 1110 (9th Cir. 2005). “These competing interests include: 25 (1) possible damage resulting from granting a stay; (2) hardship or inequity to a party if 26 the proceedings go forward; and (3) simplification or complication of issues, proof and 27 questions of law from a stay.” Id. (citing CMAX, Inc. v. Hall, 300 F.2d 265, 268 (9th Cir. 28 1962)). 1 ARGUMENT 2 Staying this case will further the goal of efficiency for this Court and the parties, as 3 global settlement may result in the prompt resolution of this case. If a global settlement 4 not reached, Johnson may resume the instant case with only a short delay of five weeks. 5 || Discovery is ongoing and is due to be completed on October 5, 2023. ECF No. 29. Without 6 stay, all parties may incur the expense of responding to additional discovery, which 7 || discovery may ultimately prove fruitless if this case is resolved at the global settlement 8 || conference. 9 Furthermore, the settlement conference may help to simplify the issues to be 10 || resolved in this litigation. Even if this case is not resolved, a settlement conference may 11 || allow the parties to eliminate some factual disputes in this case, which will make for more 12 || efficient discovery and narrower dispositive motions. 13 ||IV. CONCLUSION 14 This Court should grant a stay of these proceedings pending the upcoming global 15 || settlement conference on Thursday October 5, 2023, at 9:00 AM. Defendants request a stay 16 || of this case until no later than October 19, 2023, by which date the parties shall inform the 17 || court of the results of the global settlement conference. 18 DATED this 28th day of August, 2023. 19 AARON D. FORD 20 Attorney General By: /s/ Samuel L. Pezone Jr. 21 SAMUEL L. PEZONE JR. (Bar No. 15978) 99 Deputy Attorney General 93 Attorneys for Defendants 24 IT IS SO ORDERED. 25 |! DATED: August 29, 2023. Co Ss — 26 — 27 KA ZX... — 28 —