Sexton v. Hickenlooper et al
Filing
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ORDER granting 49 Motion to Stay. All discovery in this matter is hereby STAYED and the Scheduling Conference will not be reset at this time. The parties shall file a Joint Status Report within seven days of a ruling on Defendants motions to dismiss, if any portion of the case remains pending, to advise if the Scheduling Conference should be reset. by Magistrate Judge Kathleen M. Tafoya on 10/1/2013.(trlee, )
IN THE UNITED STATES DISTRICT COURT
FOR THE DISTRICT OF COLORADO
Magistrate Judge Kathleen M. Tafoya
Civil Action No. 13–cv–01008–MKS–KMT
JOHN THOMAS SEXTON, JR.,
Plaintiff,
v.
GOVERNOR JOHN HICKENLOOPER,
MAYOR MICHAEL HANCOCK,
LT. JAMES HENNING OF DENVER POLICE DEPARTMENT,
UNKNOWN OFFICER OF DENVER POLICE DEPARTMENT,
Defendants.
ORDER
This matter is before the court on “Defendants’ Joint Motion to Stay Proceedings
Pending Determination of Qualified Immunity.” (Doc. No. 49, filed Aug. 27, 2013.) Pursuant to
D.C.COLO.LCivR 7.1A and Fed. R. Civ. P. 6(d), Plaintiff had until September 20, 2013 to
respond to Defendants’ Motion. No response was filed on or before that date. For the following
reasons, Defendants’ Motion to Stay is GRANTED.
In his Prisoner Complaint (Doc. No. 1), filed April 17, 2013, Plaintiff alleges several
claims, pursuant to 42 U.S.C. § 1983, based on his arrest at an “Occupy Denver” rally in
downtown Denver, Colorado. On May 24, 2013, Defendant Hickenlooper filed a Motion to
Dismiss Plaintiff’s Complaint arguing, inter alia, that he is entitled to qualified immunity from
Plaintiff’s claims. (See Doc. No. 20 at 7-8.) Similarly, on June 11, 2013, Defendants Hancock
and Henning file a motion to Dismiss arguing, inter alia, that they are entitled to qualified
immunity from Plaintiff’s claims. (See Doc. No. 24 at 4-7.) In their Motion to Stay, Defendants
request that this court stay all proceedings in this action until it is determined, by way of a ruling
on their motions to dismiss, whether Defendants are entitled to qualified immunity.
Immunity provisions, whether qualified, absolute or pursuant to the Eleventh
Amendment, are meant to free officials from the concerns of litigation, including avoidance of
disruptive discovery. See Ashcroft v. Iqbal, 556 U.S. 662, 685 (2009) (citing Siegert v. Gilley,
500 U.S. 226, 236 (1991) (Kennedy, J., concurring in judgment)); see also Workman v. Jordan,
958 F.2d 332, 335 (10th Cir. 1992) (noting that qualified immunity, if successful, protects an
official both from liability and the ordinary burdens of litigation, including far-ranging
discovery) (citing Harlow v. Fitzgerald, 457 U.S. 800, 817-18 (1982)). As explained by the
Court in Iqbal, there are serious and legitimate reasons for this protection:
If a Government official is to devote time to his or her duties, and to the
formulation of sound and responsible policies, it is counterproductive to require
the substantial diversion that is attendant to participating in litigation and making
informed decisions as to how it should proceed. Litigation, though necessary to
ensure that officials comply with the law, exacts heavy costs in terms of
efficiency and expenditure of valuable time and resources that might otherwise be
directed to the proper execution of the work of the Government. The costs of
diversion are only magnified when Government officials are charged with
responding to [the burdens of litigation discovery].
Id. at 685.
The Federal Rules of Civil Procedure do not expressly provide for a stay of proceedings.
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See String Cheese Incident, LLC v. Stylus Shows, Inc., 02-CV-01934-LTB-PA, 2006 WL
894955, at *2 (D. Colo. March 30, 2006) (unpublished). Federal Rule of Civil Procedure 26
does, however, provide that
[a] party or any person from whom discovery is sought may move for a protective
order in the court where the action is pending . . . . The court may, for good
cause, issue an order to protect a party or person from annoyance, embarrassment,
oppression, or undue burden or expense . . . .
Fed. R. Civ. P. 26(c). Moreover,
[t]he power to stay proceedings is incidental to the power inherent in every court
to control the disposition of the causes on its docket with economy of time and
effort for itself, for counsel, and for litigants. How this can best be done calls for
the exercise of judgment, which must weigh competing interests and maintain an
even balance.
Landis v. N. Am. Co., 299 U.S. 248, 254-55 (1936) (citing Kansas City S. Ry. Co. v. United
States, 282 U.S. 760, 763 (1931)). An order staying discovery is thus an appropriate exercise of
this court’s discretion. Id.
Additionally, “a court may decide that in a particular case it would be wise to stay
discovery on the merits until [certain challenges] have been resolved.” 8A Charles Alan Wright,
Arthur R. Miller & Richard L. Marcus, Federal Practice and Procedure § 2040, at 198 (3d ed.
2010). Although a stay of all discovery is generally disfavored, see Bustos v. U.S., 257 F.R.D.
617, 623 (D. Colo. 2009), a stay may be appropriate if “resolution of a preliminary motion may
dispose of the entire action.” Nankivil v. Lockheed Martin Corp., 216 F.R.D. 689, 692 (M.D.
Fla. 2003). See also Vivid Techs., Inc. v. Am. Sci. & Eng’r, Inc., 200 F.3d 795, 804 (Fed. Cir.
1999) (“When a particular issue may be dispositive, the court may stay discovery concerning
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other issues until the critical issue is resolved”). When considering a stay of discovery, this
court considers: (1) the plaintiff’s interests in proceeding expeditiously with the civil action and
the potential prejudice to plaintiff of a delay; (2) the burden on the defendants; (3) the
convenience to the court; (4) the interests of persons not parties to the civil litigation; and (5) the
public interest. See String Cheese Incident, 2006 WL 894955, at *2 (citing FDIC v. Renda, No.
85-2216-O, 1987 WL 348635, at *2 (D. Kan. 1987)).
As discussed above, Plaintiff has not filed a response in opposition to Defendants’
Motion to Stay. In any event, the court finds that any prejudice a stay might have on Plaintiff’s
interest in proceeding expeditiously with this case is outweighed by the burden Defendants
would face if they were forced to proceed with discovery in spite of well-established precedent
supporting a stay when an immunity defense has been raised. Further, although qualified
immunity is a potential defense only as to Plaintiff’s individual capacity claims under § 1983,
see Rome v. Romero, 225 F.R.D. 640, 643-644 (D. Colo. 2004), the Supreme Court has
recognized:
It is no answer to these concerns [of avoiding disruptive discovery] to say that
discovery can be deferred while pretrial proceedings continue for other
defendants. It is quite likely that, when discovery as to the other parties proceeds,
it would prove necessary for petitioners and their counsel to participate in the
process to ensure the case does not develop in a misleading or slanted way that
causes prejudice to their position. Even if petitioners are not yet themselves
subject to discovery orders, then, they would not be free from the burdens of
discovery.
Iqbal, 556 U.S. at 685. As such, proceeding with discovery as to claims that are not subject to
the assertion of qualified immunity is not a permissible alternative.
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The third String Cheese factor also favors a stay. Although the court has an interest in
managing its docket by seeing the case proceed expeditiously, the court finds that any
inconvenience that might result from rescheduling the docket is outweighed by the potential
waste of judicial resources that would result from allowing discovery to proceed, only to have
the case subsequently dismissed in its entirety on the grounds raised in the motions to dismiss.
See Nankivil, 216 F.R.D. at 692 (a stay may be appropriate if “resolution of a preliminary motion
may dispose of the entire action.”).
Finally, neither the interest of nonparties or the public interest in general prompt the court
to reach a different result. Accordingly, on balance, the court finds that a stay of discovery is
appropriate in this case. Therefore, it is
ORDERED that “Defendants’ Joint Motion to Stay Proceedings Pending Determination
of Qualified Immunity” (Doc. No. 49) is GRANTED. All discovery in this matter is hereby
STAYED and the Scheduling Conference will not be reset at this time. The parties shall file a
Joint Status Report within seven days of a ruling on Defendants’ motions to dismiss, if any
portion of the case remains pending, to advise if the Scheduling Conference should be reset.
Dated this 1st day of October, 2013.
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