1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 UNITED STATES DISTRICT COURT 10 SOUTHERN DISTRICT OF CALIFORNIA 11 12 AMERICAN EXPRESS NATIONAL Case No.: 3:20-cv-0502-DMS-AHG BANK and AMERICAN EXPRESS 13 ORDER GRANTING FOURTH TRAVEL RELATED SERVICES JOINT MOTION TO CONTINUE 14 COMPANY, INC., EARLY NEUTRAL EVALUATION 15 Plaintiffs, AND CASE MANAGEMENT CONFERENCE 16 v.

17 OWEN MESSAC, SWAGG SEATS INC. [ECF No. 20] and Does 1 through 20, inclusive, 18 Defendants. 19 20 21 This matter comes before the Court on the parties’ Joint Motion for Continuance of 22 the Early Neutral Evaluation (“ENE”) and Case Management Conference (“CMC”) 23 scheduled for March 22, 2021. ECF No. 20. 24 Parties seeking to continue an ENE must demonstrate good cause. ECF No. 8 at 4 25 (“An ENE may be rescheduled only upon a showing of good cause”); Chmb.R. at 2 (stating 26 that any request for continuance requires “[a] showing of good cause for the request”); see, 27 e.g., Fed. R. Civ. P 6(b) (“When an act may or must be done within a specified time, the 28 court may, for good cause, extend the time”); Fed. R. Civ. P 16(b)(4) (“A schedule may be 1 modified only for good cause and with the judge’s consent”). 2 “Good cause” is a non-rigorous standard that has been construed broadly across 3 procedural and statutory contexts. Ahanchian v. Xenon Pictures, Inc.,

, 1259 4 (9th Cir. 2010). The good cause standard focuses on the diligence of the party seeking to 5 amend the scheduling order and the reasons for seeking modification. Johnson v. Mammoth 6 Recreations, Inc.,

(9th Cir. 1992). 7 The Court held the first ENE in this matter on December 4, 2020. Rather than 8 holding the CMC immediately thereafter, the Court set a second ENE for January 27, 2021 9 to further work towards settlement. See ECF Nos. 11, 12. The second ENE has now been 10 continued three times while the parties have been informally exchanging information and 11 privately working towards settlement. ECF Nos. 13, 14, 16, 17, 18, 19. 12 Here, the parties once more seek a continuance of the ENE to continue engaging in 13 private settlement discussions without incurring the costs associated with attending a 14 second ENE. See ECF No. 20. In support, the parties detail their continued efforts to reach 15 a settlement since the last extension was granted, including document production by 16 Defendants and continued efforts to review records and produce further documents in 17 response to questions provided by Plaintiff. Id. at 2. The parties represent that they are 18 “cautiously optimistic” that they will reach resolution of this matter shortly, with the 19 benefit of additional time to review and respond to the content of the documents. Id. 20 In light of the parties’ ongoing settlement discussions, the Court finds the parties 21 have shown good cause to GRANT the Joint Motion. Accordingly, the Court 22 CONTINUES the ENE and CMC to May 21, 20211 at 2:00 p.m. 23 The Court RESETS the related deadlines as follows: 24 1. Confidential ENE Statements Required: No later than May 17, 2021, the parties 25

26 27 1 In the joint motion, the parties propose various dates in April for the continuance of the second ENE. ECF No. 20 at 2. However, none of the proposed dates is available on the 28 1 shall submit confidential statements of five (5) pages or less directly to the chambers of 2 Magistrate Judge Goddard outlining the nature of the case, the claims, and the defenses. 3 These statements shall not be filed or served on opposing counsel. They shall be lodged 4 via email at [email protected]. The ENE statement is limited to five (5) 5 pages or less, and up to five (5) pages of exhibits or declarations. Each party’s ENE 6 statement must outline: 7 A. the nature of the case and the claims, 8 B. position on liability or defense, 9 C. position regarding settlement of the case with a specific2 10 demand/offer for settlement,3 and 11 D. any previous settlement negotiations or mediation efforts. 12 2. As before, the ENE and CMC shall take place by video conference. To 13 accommodate this procedure, no later than May 17, 2021, counsel for each party shall send 14 an e-mail to the Court at [email protected] containing the following: 15 a. The name and title of each participant, including all parties and party 16 representatives with full settlement authority, claims adjusters for insured 17 defendants, and the primary attorney(s) responsible for the litigation; 18 b. An e-mail address for each participant to receive the Zoom video 19 conference invitation; and 20 c. A telephone number where each participant may be reached so that 21 if technical difficulties arise, the Court will be in a position to proceed 22 telephonically instead of by video conference. (If counsel prefers to have all 23

24 25 2 A general statement, such as that a party “will negotiate in good faith,” is a not a specific demand or offer. 26

27 3 If a specific demand or offer cannot be made at the time the ENE statement is submitted, then the reasons as to why a demand or offer cannot be made must be stated. 28 l participants of their party on a single conference call, counsel may provide a 2 conference number and appropriate call-in information, including an access 3 code, where all counsel and parties or party representatives for that side may 4 be reached as an alternative to providing individual telephone numbers for 5 each participant.) 6 d. A cell phone number for that party’s preferred point of contact (and 7 the name of the individual whose cell phone it is) for the Court to use during the 8 ENE to alert counsel via text message that the Court will soon return to that 9 party’s Breakout Room, to avoid any unexpected interruptions of confidential 10 discussions. 1] 3. Case Management Conference: In the event the case does not settle at the ENE, 12 Court will immediately thereafter hold a Case Management Conference (“CMC”) 13 || pursuant to Fed. R. Civ. P 16(b). The parties may, but are not required to, submit an updated 14 || Joint Case Management Statement with new proposed dates for the case schedule no later 15 |/than May 14, 2021. Any such Joint Case Management Statement should be filed on the 16 || docket and must address all points in the “Joint Case Management Statement Requirements 17 ||for Magistrate Judge Allison H. Goddard,” which can be _ found at: 18 || https://www.casd.uscourts.gov/Judges/goddard/docs/Goddard20Joint%20Case%20Man 19 agement%20Statement™%20Rules.pdf. 20 All ENE-related requirements set forth in the Court’s previous Order Setting Second 21 and CMC (ECF No. 12) (e.g., requirements for requesting a continuance, 22 ||requirements and guidance for how to appear by video conference) remain in place, except 23 explicitly modified by this Order or by intervening orders of the Court. 24 IT IS SO ORDERED. 25 26 || Dated: March 11, 2021 27 28 _ Dwar. Kyo Honorable Allison H. Goddard United States Magistrate Judge