Fennell v. Pacific Maritime Association et al

Filing 52

ORDER granting Plaintiff's 42 Motion to Extend Deadline for Joining Parties; Joinder of Parties deadline EXTENDED to 6/5/2017, by Judge Robert S. Lasnik. (SWT)

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1 2 3 4 5 6 UNITED STATES DISTRICT COURT WESTERN DISTRICT OF WASHINGTON AT SEATTLE 7 8 9 SHIQUAN FENNELL, No. C16-5933RSL Plaintiff, 10 11 12 ORDER GRANTING MOTION TO EXTEND DEADLINE FOR JOINING PARTIES vs. PACIFIC MARITIME ASSOCIATION, et al., 13 Defendants. 14 15 16 17 18 19 20 21 22 23 24 This matter comes before the court on plaintiff’s “Motion to Extend Deadline for Joining Additional Parties.” Dkt. # 42. 1 Defendant Pacific Maritime Association (“PMA”) has denied that it is plaintiff’s employer, asserting that it is “a multi-employer collective-bargaining agent for its member companies, who employ ILWU-represented longshore workers” such as plaintiff. Dkt. # 47 at 2. PMA declined to identify plaintiff’s employer, however, so he has initiated discovery to seek that information in order to pursue his Uniform Services Employment & Reemployment Rights Act (“USERRA”) and Washington Law Against Discrimination (“WLAD”) claims. Plaintiff seeks an extension until June 5, 2017, to receive responses from PMA and to identify his employer. 25 1 26 Plaintiff’s request for alternative relief – that the International Longshore and Warehouse Union be added as a defendant – has been granted. ORDER - 1 1 PMA asserts that plaintiff has long been aware of the dispute regarding the 2 identity of his employer, that he has records in his possession sufficient to identify the 3 employer(s), and/or that plaintiff does not intend to add additional defendants even if the 4 employers were identified. The first argument is uncontested: the parties recognized that 5 there was a dispute and agreed in their Joint Status Report that June 5, 2017, was a 6 reasonable deadline for joining additional parties. Dkt. # 29 at 1. The second and third 7 arguments are unsupported. 8 9 In light of PMA’s refusal to identify plaintiff’s employers and the relevance of that 10 information to his USERRA and WLAD claims, an extension of time in which to conduct 11 discovery is appropriate. Plaintiff’s motion is GRANTED. The deadline for joining 12 parties is hereby extended to June 5, 2017. 13 14 Dated this 3rd day of April, 2017. 15 A Robert S. Lasnik 16 United States District Judge 17 18 19 20 21 22 23 24 25 26 ORDER - 2

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