ME2 Productions Inc v. Doe 1 et al

Filing 17

ORDER denying plaintiff's 13 Motion for extension of time in which to serve the complaint. This action is hereby DISMISSED without prejudice for failure to comply with Fed. R. Civ. P. 4(m). Signed by Judge Robert S. Lasnik. (PM)

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1 2 3 4 5 UNITED STATES DISTRICT COURT WESTERN DISTRICT OF WASHINGTON AT SEATTLE 6 7 ME2 PRODUCTIONS, INC., 8 9 10 11 Plaintiff, Case No. C17-0694RSL v. MADALYNN ALEXANDER, et al., ORDER DENYING MOTION FOR EXTENSION OF TIME AND DISMISSING CASE Defendants. 12 13 This matter comes before the Court on plaintiff’s motion for an extension of time 14 in which to serve the complaint. Dkt. # 13. A party generally has 90 days after a 15 complaint is filed in which to serve the defendant. Fed. R. Civ. P. 4(m). It can be 16 challenging to meet this deadline in BitTorrent cases where plaintiff must first conduct 17 discovery from the ISP before it can identify, name, and serve the defendant. It can be 18 done, however, and the Court has repeatedly indicated that it expects at least a good faith 19 effort to comply with the service deadline. In this case, the motion for leave to conduct 20 expedited discovery was granted in a timely manner, the ISP responded promptly, and 21 plaintiff appropriately pursued an amicable resolution of the case before utilizing the 22 waiver of service procedure set forth in Fed. R. Civ. P. 4(d). Plaintiff, however, forgot to 23 calendar the service and waiver of service deadlines: no further attempt at service was 24 made until this motion was filed. 25 Plaintiff argues that the failure to calendar the service and waiver of service 26 ORDER DENYING MOTION FOR EXTENSION OF TIME AND DISMISSING CASE - 1 1 deadlines was “[l]ikely due in part” to counsel’s unexpected shoulder surgery on July 12, 2 2017, and/or staff turnover. Dkt. # 14 at 3. The facts do not support this assertion. The 3 service deadline was established -- and should have been calendared -- in May 2017, long 4 before counsel’s shoulder surgery or the loss of his legal assistant. Similarly the waiver of 5 service deadline should have been calendered as soon as the waivers were mailed out in 6 June 2017. The failure to calendar and the resulting failure to timely serve cannot be 7 excused by events that occurred in July. 8 9 10 Good cause has not been shown, and the Court finds that an extension of the service deadline is not warranted. This action is hereby DISMISSED without prejudice for failure to comply with Fed. R. Civ. P. 4(m). 11 12 Dated this 11th day of August, 2017. 13 A 14 Robert S. Lasnik United States District Judge 15 16 17 18 19 20 21 22 23 24 25 26 ORDER DENYING MOTION FOR EXTENSION OF TIME AND DISMISSING CASE - 2

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