Bank of New York Mellon v. Vegas Property Services, Inc. et al

Filing 21

ORDER DENYING Plaintiff's ECF No. 16 Motion to stay discovery. Signed by Magistrate Judge Nancy J. Koppe on 5/2/2017. (Copies have been distributed pursuant to the NEF - DRM)

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1 2 3 4 5 6 7 UNITED STATES DISTRICT COURT 8 DISTRICT OF NEVADA 9 10 BANK OF NEW YORK MELLON, 11 Plaintiff(s), 12 vs. 13 VEGAS PROPERTY SERVICES, INC., et al., 14 Defendant(s). 15 ) ) ) ) ) ) ) ) ) ) Case No. 2:17-cv-00776-MMD-NJK ORDER (Docket No. 16) 16 Pending before the Court is Plaintiff’s motion to stay discovery pending resolution of its motion 17 for summary judgment. See Docket No. 16; see also Docket No. 15 (motion for summary judgment). 18 Defendant filed a response in opposition. Docket No. 20. No reply was filed. The Court finds the 19 motion properly resolved without a hearing. See Local Rule 78-1. For the reasons discussed below, the 20 Court DENIES the motion to stay discovery. 21 The Court has broad discretionary power to control discovery. See, e.g., Little v. City of Seattle, 22 863 F.2d 681, 685 (9th Cir. 1988). “The Federal Rules of Civil Procedure do not provide for automatic 23 or blanket stays of discovery when a potentially dispositive motion is pending.” Tradebay, LLC v. eBay, 24 Inc., 278 F.R.D. 597, 601 (D. Nev. 2011).1 The party seeking a stay carries the heavy burden of making 25 26 27 28 1 As the briefing acknowledges, various judges in this District have found it appropriate to stay proceedings pending resolution of petitions for certiorari in the United States Supreme Court. Docket No. 20 at 5. That issue is not presently before the Court, but rather the motion seeks a stay of discovery pending resolution of Plaintiff’s motion for summary judgment. 1 a strong showing why discovery should be denied. See, e.g., Turner Broadcasting Sys., Inc. v. Tracinda 2 Corp., 175 F.R.D. 554, 556 (D. Nev. 1997). The case law in this District makes clear that requests to 3 stay all discovery may be granted when: (1) the pending motion is potentially dispositive; (2) the 4 potentially dispositive motion can be decided without additional discovery; and (3) the Court has taken 5 a “preliminary peek” at the merits of the potentially dispositive motion and is convinced that the plaintiff 6 will be unable to state a claim for relief. See Kor Media Group, LLC v. Green, 294 F.R.D. 579, 581 (D. 7 Nev. 2013).2 8 The Court finds that a stay of discovery is not appropriate in this case. Most significantly, the 9 Court has taken a preliminary peek at the motion for summary judgment and is not convinced that it will 10 be granted.3 It bears repeating that the filing of a non-frivolous dispositive motion, standing alone, is 11 simply not enough to warrant staying discovery. See, e.g., Tradebay, 278 F.R.D. at 603. Instead, the 12 Court must be “convinced” that the dispositive motion will be granted. See, e.g., id. “That standard is 13 not easily met.” Kor Media, 294 F.R.D. at 583. “[T]here must be no question in the court’s mind that 14 the dispositive motion will prevail, and therefore, discovery is a waste of effort.” Id. (quoting Trazska 15 v. Int’l Game Tech., 2011 WL 1233298, *3 (D. Nev. Mar. 29, 2011)) (emphasis in original). The Court 16 requires this robust showing that the dispositive motion will succeed because applying a lower standard 17 would likely result in unnecessary delay in many cases. Id. (quoting Trazska, 2011 WL 1233298, at *4). 18 The Court has carefully reviewed the arguments presented in the motion for summary judgment, 19 as well as the arguments made in the briefing on the motion to stay discovery.4 The Court is simply not 20 convinced that the motion for summary judgment will be granted, such that conducting discovery will 21 22 23 24 25 26 27 28 2 The pending motion is somewhat unusual in that it is the plaintiff seeking a stay of discovery pending resolution of its dispositive motion. As such, the Court modifies the applicable standards in that it is taking a preliminary peek to determine whether it is convinced that dispositive relief will be granted to Plaintiff vis-a-vis its motion for summary judgment. 3 Conducting this preliminary peek puts the undersigned in an awkward position because the assigned district judge who will decide the motion to dismiss may have a different view of its merits. See Tradebay, 278 F.R.D. at 603. The undersigned’s “preliminary peek” at the merits of that motion is not intended to prejudice its outcome. See id. 4 Briefing on the motion for summary judgment has not been completed. 2 1 be a waste of effort. See, e.g., Bayview Loan Serv., LLC v. SFR Investments Pool 1, LLC, 2017 WL 2 1100955, at *4-5 (D. Nev. Mar. 22, 2017) (rejecting arguments similar to those presented by Plaintiff 3 here). 4 Accordingly, the Court DENIES Plaintiff’s motion to stay discovery. Docket No. 16. 5 IT IS SO ORDERED. 6 DATED: May 2, 2017 7 8 ______________________________________ NANCY J. KOPPE United States Magistrate Judge 9 10 11 12 13 14 15 16 17 18 19 20 21 22 23 24 25 26 27 28 3

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