United States v. Brooke

8 UNITED STATES DISTRICT COURT 9 FOR THE EASTERN DISTRICT OF CALIFORNIA UNITED STATES, No. 2:22–cv–960–KJM–KJN 12 Plaintiff, ORDER GRANTING EXTENSION OF TIME 13 v. (ECF No. 40.)

14 BILL H. BROOKE, et al., 15 Defendants.

17 Presently pending before the court is plaintiff’s motion for default judgment against defendant Bill H. Brooke, which was filed on December 19, 2023 and which was set for hearing on January 23, 2024. (ECF No. 36.) Defendant was to file an opposition by January 2, 2024, but this deadline passed without any filing. Accordingly, the court vacated the hearing and provided defendant until January 30, 2024 to file a written response. (ECF No. 37.) This last order was served on defendant by mail. (ECF No. 38.) Despite this, no written response was filed.

23 However, the court became aware that Mr. Brooke appeared at the Sacramento courthouse on January 23rd and, finding no hearing, inquired with a court employee about the status of the case. Given this, and out of an abundance of caution, the court ordered Mr. Brooke to file a written response to the default judgment motion within the month. (ECF No. 39.) On February 26, Mr. Brooke filed a request for more time to oppose, indicating he is attempting to secure counsel for this matter. (ECF No. 40.) ] Given defendant’s filing, the pending default judgment motion, and this Circuit’s long- || held policy that “cases should be decided upon their merits whenever reasonably possible,” Eitel || v. McCool, 782 F.2d 1470, 1472 (9th Cir. 1986), defendant is granted an extension of time.

4 Accordingly, it is hereby ORDERED that: 5 1. By April 30, 2024, Mr. Brooke shall cause counsel to enter an appearance in this action.

6 Should this occur, new counsel shall immediately confer with the Government’s counsel 7 about how this case should proceed; 8 2. Should Mr. Brooke be unable to retain counsel by April 30", he shall file a declaration 9 with the court indicating what efforts he made to retain counsel; 10 3. Regardless of whether or not Mr. Brooke retains counsel, an opposition to the motion for 11 default judgment, or a statement of non-opposition, is due by May 14, 2024.

12 | Dated: February 29, 2024 / aa / x ly a 13 CAROLYN K DELANEY 14 UNITED STATES MAGISTRATE JUDGE 15. || bro0.960