Johnson v. Slave-Noose

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-00290-CSD 12 Plaintiff, ORDER GRANTING DEFENDANTS’ MOTION TO STAY 13 v. CASE PENDING GLOBAL SETTLEMENT CONFERENCE 14 SLAVE-NOOSE, et al., 15 Defendants. — 16 — 17 Defendants, John Claudio-Bil, Shelly Conlin, Charles Daniels, Robert Hartman, 18 Jeffrey Holz, Michael Flamm, Micheal Tierney, Armando Medina, and Lance White, by and 19 through counsel, Aaron D. Ford, Nevada Attorney General, and Samuel L. Pezone Jr., 20 Deputy Attorney General, of the State of Nevada, Office of the Attorney General, hereby 21 move for a stay of this case pending an upcoming global settlement conference in Johnson 22 v. Garofalo, et al., Case No. 3:21-cv-00239-MMD-CLB. 23 MEMORANDUM OF POINTS AND AUTHORITIES 24 I. FACTUAL BACKGROUND 25 On April 26, 2023, this Court entered an order setting October 17, 2023, as the 26 deadline to serve discovery, and November 16, 2023, as the date for completion of discovery. 27 ECF No. 28. 28 /// 2 Garofalo, et al., Case No. 3:21-cv-00239-MMD-CLB. ECF No. 35. During this conference, 3 Deputy Attorney General Andrew Nelson, Plaintiff Lausteveion Johnson (Johnson) and his 4 counsel agreed to participate in a global settlement conference regarding all of Johnson’s 5 civil cases pending in this court, including this case, Johnson v. Slave-Noose, et al., Case 6 No. 3:22-cv-00290-CSD. See Id. 7 Accordingly, this Court set Thursday October 5, 2023, at 9:00 AM, as the date and 8 time for a global settlement conference. ECF No. 35 at 2. Further, this Court advised the 9 parties to “request or file a stipulation regarding a stay in any case where they find it 10 appropriate.” Id. This request for a stay follows. 11 II. LEGAL STANDARD 12 “A court's power to stay proceedings is incidental to its inherent power to manage its 13 docket.” Stephens v. Comenity, LLC, 287 F.Supp.3d 1091, 1096 (D. Nev. 2017) (citing 14 Landis v. N. Am. Co., 299 U.S. 248, 254-55 (1936)). “Proceedings may be stayed ‘pending 15 resolution of independent proceedings which bear upon the case.’” Id. at 1096-97 (citing 16 Leyva v. Certified Grocers of California, Ltd., 593 F.2d 857, 863 (9th Cir. 1979)). “In 17 determining whether a stay is appropriate, a court ‘must weigh competing interests and 18 maintain an even balance.’” Id. at 1097 (citing Landis, 299 U.S. at 254-55 ); see also Lockyer 19 v. Mirant Corp., 398 F.3d 1098, 1110 (9th Cir. 2005). “These competing interests include: 20 (1) possible damage resulting from granting a stay; (2) hardship or inequity to a party if 21 the proceedings go forward; and (3) simplification or complication of issues, proof and 22 questions of law from a stay.” Id. (citing CMAX, Inc. v. Hall, 300 F.2d 265, 268 (9th Cir. 23 1962)). 24 III. ARGUMENT 25 Staying this case will further the goal of efficiency for this Court and the parties, as 26 a global settlement may result in the prompt resolution of this case. If a global settlement 27 is not reached, Johnson may resume the instant case with only a short delay of five weeks. 28 Discovery is ongoing and is due to be completed on November 16, 2023. ECF No. 28. 1 || Without a stay, all parties may incur the expense of responding to additional discovery, 2 ||which discovery may ultimately prove fruitless if this case is resolved at the global 3 settlement conference. 4 Furthermore, the settlement conference may help to simplify the issues to be 5 ||resolved in this litigation. Even if this case is not resolved, a settlement conference may 6 || allow the parties to eliminate some factual disputes in this case, which will make for more 7 || efficient discovery and narrower dispositive motions. 8 ||IV. CONCLUSION 9 This Court should grant a stay of these proceedings pending the upcoming global 10 || settlement conference on Thursday October 5, 2023, at 9:00 AM. Defendants request a stay 11 || of this case until no later than October 19, 2023, by which date the parties shall inform the 12 || court of the results of the global settlement conference. 13 DATED this 28th day of August, 20238. 14 AARON D. FORD Attorney General By: /s/ Samuel L. Pezone Jr. 16 SAMUEL L. PEZONE JR. (Bar No. 15978) WW Deputy Attorney General 18 Attorneys for Defendants — 19 — — 20 — IT IS SO ORDERED. 99 DATED: August 29, 2023. 23 Cc’ SS 24 UNITED STATES oy JUDGE — 25 — — 26 — — 27 — — 28 —