Tombstone, City of v. United States of America et al

Filing 169

ORDER re: Request for Clarification and Amended Order as to Paper Copies and Other Administrative Matters. Signed by Senior Judge Frank R Zapata on 6/18/14.

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1 2 3 4 5 6 IN THE UNITED STATES DISTRICT COURT 7 FOR THE DISTRICT OF ARIZONA 8 9 City of Tombstone, 10 Plaintiff, 11 vs. 12 United States of America, 13 Defendant. 14 ) ) ) ) ) ) ) ) ) ) ) ) No. CV 11-845-TUC-FRZ ORDER 15 16 17 18 19 20 21 On 6/17/14, the parties stipulated that the following communication could be relayed to the Court: Counsel for the parties have conferred and there is no objection to this communication . . . Plaintiff’s statement of controverting facts [(“PSCF”)] [in opposition to Defendant’s motion for summary judgment (“MSJ”)] will be supported by evidence (declarations, deposition excerpts and exhibits) that was previously filed in support of the . . . motion for partial summary judgment [(“PSJ”)] [that was denied without prejudice] . . . Would you please clarify as to whether the Court’s recent order (Dkt. 168) requires the re-filing of the previously filed evidence such that the same evidence will need to be docketed electronically again? 22 The Court received this communication via the Court’s official email inbox. While the 23 Court has no problem clarifying matters for the parties where such clarification is sought in 24 good faith and is warranted (which are the circumstances in this communication), the Court 25 is concerned that informal email or telephonic communications with the Court could give the 26 appearance of impropriety either for the Court or the parties as to those not directly involved 27 in this litigation. To avoid any appearance of impropriety by anyone involved in this 28 1 litigation and to preserve a complete written record for the parties in the event of any appeals, 2 all communications with the Court shall occur via a written motion officially filed into the 3 docket. 4 The Court notes that the previous PSJ and the related documents were only denied without 5 prejudice, and the documents were not stricken from the record. As to the clarification at 6 issue, Plaintiff need not re-file the previously filed evidence such that the same evidence will 7 need to be docketed electronically again. If Plaintiff is not submitting any new evidence as 8 to the PSCF outside of what was already submitted in relation to the PSJ, Plaintiff need not 9 submit new paper copies as to the PSCF. However, the Court needs to be able to quickly 10 identify and locate any paper copies of evidence cited in the PSCF in support of denying 11 Defendant’s MSJ; while the Court has retained the paper copies of the evidence submitted 12 with the PSJ, Plaintiff will need to submit new paper copies or take other appropriate action 13 (i.e., a new table of contents, chart, or other organizational tool) if this is not possible based 14 on the state of the PSCF and the paper copies already received as to the evidence related to 15 the PSJ. 16 17 Lastly, the Court’s standing orders as to paper copies and other administrative matters are amended and superceded as follows: 18 The parties must file a proposed order with any motion or stipulation filed with the Court 19 and such documents must comply with the applicable requirements in the local rules. See, 20 e.g., LRCiv 5.4, 5.5, 7.1, 7.2; Electronic Case Filing Administrative Policies and Procedures 21 Manual in the United States District Court for the District of Arizona ("Manual"). All 22 proposed orders must be emailed to chambers (zapata_chambers@azd.uscourts.gov) in either 23 Word or Word Perfect format. See id.; Manual at 12-13 (describing pertinent e-filing 24 procedures in detail). In addition, if a motion is opposed, the opposing party shall file and 25 email to chambers a proposed order denying the motion. To the extent the parties file any 26 motions, responses, or replies as to substantive matters (such as motions for: injunctive relief, 27 to dismiss, for summary judgment, to compel, sanctions, etc.), the parties shall email Word 28 or Word Perfect copies of the motions, responses, or replies to chambers. Lastly, the parties -2- 1 shall also email Word or Word Perfect copies of any separate statement of facts in support 2 of, or in opposition to, summary judgment or other dispositive motions. Paper copies of all 3 filings must be mailed (except as noted below) to chambers (LRCiv 5.4); any motion, 4 pleading, or other document which is submitted with more than one exhibit must be 5 accompanied by a Table of Contents and the exhibits must be indexed with tabs which 6 correspond to the Table of Contents. Anytime a party files a motion, response, reply, or 7 other brief with the Court, the party must mail the Court paper copies of all authority cited 8 in the brief which shall be included in a binder with a table of contents and exhibit tags 9 corresponding to the authority cited. Such authority includes, but is not limited to, case law, 10 rules, statutes, regulations, and treatises. 11 regulations are cited, the entire case, rule, statute or regulation shall be included in the binder. 12 The case law shall be organized in alphabetical order. To the extent treatises are cited, only 13 the section(s) relied upon shall be included in the binder. As to all of the authority cited 14 which must be included in the binder, the parties shall also tag (with a post-it) the specific 15 page(s) cited in their briefs and highlight (by circling with a pen or using a highlighter) the 16 portion of the case, rule, statute, regulation, or treatise that supports the citations of authority 17 relied upon in their briefs. Within seven days after a document is filed, the parties shall 18 provide the Court with paper copies in strict compliance with this Order and file a notice that 19 they have strictly complied with the requirements in this Order; failure to timely file this 20 required notice will be viewed as a party's admission that they have failed to comply with this 21 Court's Order.1 If an emergency motion is filed (including, but not limited to, a motion for 22 a temporary restraining order, preliminary injunction, emergency stay, or other motion that 23 warrants expedited action) that requires more immediate attention from the Court, the parties 24 shall provide the required paper copies no later than one business day (or sooner if possible) 25 after the motion, response or reply is filed pertaining to any emergency motion. If a party To the extent case law, rules, statutes, or 26 27 28 1 The parties are not required to provide paper copies of stipulations and unopposed motions to continue, and need not provide authority binders as to stipulations and unopposed motions to continue. -3- 1 fails to submit the required authority binder and other paper copies required by this Order2, 2 the Court may summarily deny or grant a motion as applicable to the party that failed to 3 comply with this Order, and the Court may dismiss the case with prejudice or enter a default 4 judgment as to the non-complying party. Defendant shall comply with the provisions in this 5 paragraph as to its pending filings (i.e., Docs. 152, 153) by 6/30/14; Defendant has already 6 complied with the Court’s revised Order other than emailing Word or Word Perfect copies 7 of these documents. The parties shall comply with these provisions as to all future filings. 8 DATED this 18th day of June, 2014. 9 10 11 12 13 14 15 16 17 18 19 20 21 22 23 24 25 26 27 28 2 On rare occasions, the Court may find it necessary to issue an Order before the deadline to the submit the required binders expires; in these circumstances, the binder requirement becomes moot, and the parties are not required to submit binders. -4-

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