Dept. of Fair Employment and Housing v. SUV Affordable LP

United States District Court for the Eastern District of California

Dept. of Fair Employment and Housing v. SUV Affordable LP

Trial Court Opinion

1 JAMIE CROOK, Chief Counsel (#245757) NADIA AZIZ, Assistant Chief Counsel (#252966) 2 AZADEH HOSSEINIAN, Associate Chief Counsel (#306141) CECILIA AGUILERA, Staff Counsel (#347770) 3 CIVIL RIGHTS DEPARTMENT 4 651 Bannon Street #200 Sacramento, CA 95811 5 Telephone: (916) 964-1925 Facsimile: (888) 382-5293 6 Attorneys for Plaintiff 7 CIVIL RIGHTS DEPARTMENT

8 DAVID I. DALBY (SBN 114750) HINSHAW & CULBERTSON LLP 9 50 California Street, Suite 2900 San Francisco, CA 94111 10 Telephone: 415-362-6000

11 Attorney for Defendants AWI MANAGEMENT CORPORATION, 12 MICHAEL BURKE AND KIRAN CHHOTU

13 PHILIP J. TERRY (SBN 148144) JUSTIN D. HEIN (SBN 249275) 14 CARLE, MACKIE, POWER & ROSS LLP 100 B Street, Suite 400 15 Santa Rosa, California 95401 Telephone: (707) 526-4200 16 Facsimile: (707) 526-4707

17 Attorney for Defendant SUV AFFORDABLE LP 18 UNITED STATES DISTRICT COURT 19 FOR THE EASTERN DISTRICT OF CALIFORNIA 20 21 CIVIL RIGHTS DEPARTMENT, an agency of the Case No.: 2:22-cv-00584-MCE-CSK 22 State of California,

23 Plaintiff, JOINT STIPULATION AND REQUEST TO vs. STAY THIS ACTION PENDING 24 SETTLEMENT CONFERENCE SUV AFFORDABLE LP, a California Limited 25 Partnership; AWI MANAGEMENT ORDER CORPORATION, a California Limited Partnership; 26 MICHAEL BURKE, an individual; and KIRAN Assigned to Honorable Morrison C. England, Jr. CHHOTU, an individual, 27 Complaint Filed: April 1, 2022 Defendants. Trial Date: None 28 1 TO THE HONORABLE COURT: 2 PLEASE BE ADVISED that Plaintiff Civil Rights Department (“CRD”), formerly named the 3 Department of Fair Employment and Housing, and Defendants SUV Affordable LP (“SUV”), AWI 4 Management Corporation (“AWI”), Michael Burke, and Kiran Chhotu (collectively referred to herein as 5 the “Parties”) respectfully submit this Joint Stipulation and [Proposed] Order in support of their joint 6 stipulation and request to stay this action pending the completion of a settlement conference before the 7 assigned Magistrate Judge. The Parties stipulate as follows: 8 WHEREAS, on April 1, 2022, CRD, an agency of the state of California, filed a government 9 civil action in the U.S. District Court for the Eastern District of California, Case Number 2:22-cv-00584- 10 MCE-CSK (“Civil Action”) on its own behalf as Plaintiff against Defendants SUV, AWI, Michael 11 Burke, and Kiran Chhotu, based on CRD’s investigation of allegations made by the Real Party in 12 Interest Katy Willis regarding disability discrimination. 13 WHEREAS, the Parties previously attended mediation with private mediator Vivien B. 14 Williamson, but were unable to reach settlement; 15 WHEREAS, the deadline for expert witness disclosures is November 5, 2024; 16 WHEREAS, the deadline to file dispositive motions is January 23, 2025; 17 WHEREAS, the Parties hope to achieve a satisfactory settlement before expending further 18 resources on litigating this matter; 19 WHEREAS, on September 16, 2024, the Court ordered that this matter be set for a settlement 20 conference with the assigned Magistrate Judge (ECF No. 51); 21 WHEREAS, the Parties are scheduled to participate in a settlement conference before 22 Magistrate Judge Chi Soo Kim on December 20, 2024; 23 WHEREAS, district courts have “discretionary power to stay proceedings.” Lockyer v. Mirant 24 Corp.,

398 F.3d 1098, 1109

(9th Cir. 2005); see also City of Sacramento v. Wells Fargo & Co., No. 25 2:18-cv-00416-KJM-GGH,

2019 WL 11093495

, at *2 (E.D. Cal. Nov. 20, 2019) (“In determining 26 whether a stay is warranted, the court must weigh . . . (1) ‘the possible damage that may result from the 27 granting of a stay,’ (2) ‘the hardship or inequity a party may suffer in being required to go forward,’ 28 and (3) ‘the orderly course of justice measured in terms of the simplifying or complicating of issues, 1 proof and questions of law expected to result from a stay.’” (quoting CMAX, Inc. v. Hall,

300 F.2d 265

, 2 268 (9th Cir. 2005))); 3 WHEREAS, the requested stay is for a minimal amount of time to allow the Parties to 4 participate in the December 20, 2024 settlement conference; and 5 WHEREAS, there is no foreseeable damage from granting such a limited stay, nor would this 6 limited stay complicate litigating this matter; 7 The Parties hereby respectfully REQUEST and STIPULATE that the Court stay this Action 8 until December 27, 2024. Any deadlines, including expert witness disclosures and dispositive motion 9 deadlines, will be tolled and will begin to run again starting on December 27, 2024, should the Parties 10 be unable to settle this matter during the December 20, 2024 settlement conference. 11 IT IS SO STIPULATED.

12

13 Dated: September 27, 2024 /s/ Cecilia L. Aguilera Cecilia Aguilera 14 Civil Rights Department Attorney for Plaintiff Civil Rights Department 15

16 Dated: September 27, 2024 /s/ David I. Dalby David Dalby 17 Hinshaw & Culbertson LLP Attorney for Defendants AWI, Michael Burke, and 18 Kiran Chhotu

19 Dated: September 27, 2024 /s/ Justin D. Hein 20 Justin D. Hein CARLE, MACKIE, POWER & ROSS LLP 21 Attorney for Defendant SUV

22 23 24 25 26 27 28 1 ORDER 2 Based on the foregoing stipulation, and good cause having been shown by the Parties, IT IS 3 HEREBY ORDERED that all court dates and deadlines associated with the above-referenced action 4 are stayed until December 27, 2024. Any deadlines, including expert witness disclosures and 5 dispositive motion deadlines, will begin to run again on December 27, 2024. 6 IT IS SO ORDERED. 7 DATED: September 30, 2024 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 15 16 17 18 19 20 21 22 23 24 25 26 27 28

Reference

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