Castaneda v. CDCR et al

Filing 74

ORDER GRANTING Defendants' 70 Motion to Modify Discovery and Scheduling Order Nunc Pro Tunc; Dispositive Motion Deadline: 7/17/2020 signed by Magistrate Judge Sheila K. Oberto on 6/17/2020. (Sant Agata, S)

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UNITED STATES DISTRICT COURT

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EASTERN DISTRICT OF CALIFORNIA

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JESUS BONILLA CASTANEDA,

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Plaintiff,
v.
ACEBEDO, et al.,

Case No. 1:16-cv-01562-NONE-SKO (PC)
ORDER GRANTING DEFENDANTS’
MOTION TO MODIFY DISCOVERY
AND SCHEDULING ORDER NUNC
PRO TUNC
(Doc. 70)

Defendants.

Dispositive Motion Deadline: July 17, 2020

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On December 18, 2019, Defendants filed a motion to extend the pretrial dispositive

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motion deadline until after the Court ruled on their then-pending, exhaustion-based motion for

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summary judgment. (Doc. 63.) On December 23, 2019, the Court granted Defendants’ motion

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and vacated the dispositive motion deadline. (Doc. 64.) On March 17, 2020, District Judge Dale

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A. Drozd adopted the undersigned’s findings and recommendations (Doc. 65), granting in part

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and denying in part Defendants’ exhaustion-based motion for summary judgment. (Doc. 68.) On

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March 19, 2020, the Court reset the dispositive motion deadline to April 30, 2020. (Doc. 69.)

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On May 14, 2020, Defendants filed a motion to modify the Court’s discovery and

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scheduling order nunc pro tunc to extend the dispositive motion deadline. (Doc. 70.) On May 15,

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2020, the Court directed Plaintiff to respond to Defendants’ motion. (Doc. 71.) Plaintiff filed an

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opposition on June 8, 2020. (Doc. 72.) Defendants filed a reply thereto on June 15, 2020. (Doc.

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73.) The motion is deemed submitted. See Local Rule 230(l).

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I.

LEGAL STANDARD

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A scheduling order “may be modified only for good cause.” Fed. R. Civ. P. 16(b)(4). In

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determining whether good cause exists, courts “primarily consider[] the diligence of the party”

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requesting the modification. Johnson v. Mammoth Recreations, Inc., 975 F.2d 604, 609 (9th Cir.

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1992). “Good cause may be found to exist where the moving party shows that it diligently

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assisted the court with creating a workable scheduling order, that it is unable to comply with the

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scheduling order’s deadlines due to matters that could not have reasonably been foreseen at the

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time of the issuance of the scheduling order, and that it was diligent in seeking an amendment

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once it became apparent that the party could not comply with the scheduling order.” Kuschner v.

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Nationwide Credit, Inc., 256 F.R.D. 684, 687 (E.D. Cal. 2009).
II.

DISCUSSION

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Defense counsel declares that, on March 15, 2020, the California Attorney General issued

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a memorandum directing all deputy attorney generals and support staff to work from home. (Doc.

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70-1 at 6.) On March 17, 2020, the deputies lost remote access to the Department of Justice’s

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computer systems due to technical problems; defense counsel’s access was not restored until

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April 7, 2020. (Id.) Counsel states that, after his remote access was restored, he had to draft

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responses, oppositions, a motion for summary judgment, and an appellate answering brief in

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several other matters between April 7 and May 11, 2020. (Id.) Counsel declares that, because of

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the loss of remote access, and his workload following the restoration of remote access, he failed

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to note the dispositive motion deadline in this matter until May 12, 2020. (Id.)

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Plaintiff contends that defense counsel has failed to show due diligence because (1) he

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could have accessed the Department of Justice’s servers from his office, and (2) the Court’s

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orders are publicly available. (See Doc. 72 at 4-5.) Plaintiff further states that he would be

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prejudiced if the Court grants Defendants’ request, since he plans to file a petition for a writ of

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mandate in another matter, and “he will be unable to handle both” the petition and a motion for

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summary judgment in this case. (Id. at 5-6.)

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In response, Defendants state that, when the Court reset the dispositive motion deadline,

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“defense counsel had already been instructed to not come into the office to prevent the spread of
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COVID-19,” and “counsel had already lost remote access to the case file.” (Doc. 73 at 4.)

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Defendants also state that they would “not oppose any reasonable extensions of time that Plaintiff

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may need to prepare an opposition to their motion for summary judgment.” (Id.)
The Court finds good cause to grant Defendants’ request. Defendants have shown

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diligence in moving this matter forward. Defendants participated in a settlement conference on

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June 6, 2019, (Doc. 54), and filed an exhaustion-based motion for summary judgment on August

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29, 2019 (Doc. 56). While their motion was pending before the Court, Defendants requested that

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the dispositive motion deadline be extended until after the Court ruled on the motion, which the

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Court granted. (Docs. 63, 64.)
The COVID-19 pandemic and resulting work-from-home directives and shelter-in-place

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orders could not have been reasonably foreseen by Defendants, nor could the loss of remote

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access to the Department of Justice’s servers and defense counsel’s resulting backlog of work.

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Defendants filed the present motion two days after defense counsel learned of the current

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deadline.
The Court does not find that Plaintiff would be prejudiced if it grants the present motion.

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If Plaintiff were to require an extension of time to file an opposition to Defendants’ anticipated

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motion for summary judgment, the Court would grant the extension, as long as it is reasonable

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and good cause exists.

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III.

CONCLUSION
Based on the foregoing, the Court GRANTS Defendants’ motion to modify the discovery

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and scheduling order nunc pro tunc. The pretrial dispositive motion deadline is extended to July

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17, 2020. All other deadlines remain in effect.

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IT IS SO ORDERED.
Dated:

June 17, 2020

/s/

Sheila K. Oberto

UNITED STATES MAGISTRATE JUDGE

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