District Court, D. Nevada, 2022

United States of America for the Use and Benefit of Wells Cargo, Inc. v. Alpha Energy and Electric, Inc.

United States of America for the Use and Benefit of Wells Cargo, Inc. v. Alpha Energy and Electric, Inc.
District Court, D. Nevada · Decided December 5, 2022
United States of America for the Use and Benefit of Wells Cargo, Inc. v. Alpha Energy and Electric, Inc.

Trial Court Opinion

Stephen J. Moore || Pro Hac Vice Krigel & Krigel, P.C.

4520 Main, Ste 700 || Kansas City, MO 64111 Phone: (816) 756-5800 || Fax: (816) 756-1999 Email: [email protected] || Counsel for Alpha Energy and Electric, Inc. || Jakub B. Medrala, Esq.

3 Nevada Bar NO. 12822 The Medrala Law Firm, PLLC 9 South 6th Street Las Vegas, Nevada 89101 || Phone: (702) 475-8884 □□ Fax: (702) 938-8625 Email: [email protected] || Local Counsel for Alpha Energy and Electric, Inc. 13 UNITED STATES DISTRICT COURT 4 FOR THE DISTRICT OF NEVADA || UNITED STATES OF AMERICA, for the use] Case No. 2:18-cv-01182-JCM-EJY and benefit of WELLS CARGO, INC., 16 Plaintiffs, 17 STIPULATION TO EXTEND TIME □□□ SOUTHWESTERN CONSTRUCTION, || ALPHA ENERGY AND ELECTRIC, INC., INC. TO RESPOND TO || @ Missouri corporation, and AMERICAN MOTIONS FOR ATTORNEYS’ FEES CONTRACTORS INDEMNITY COMPANY,| AND FOR ALPHA AND ACIC TO FILE || a California corporation, REPLY BRIEFS ON THOSE MOTIONS Defendants.

21 (First Request) ||} ALPHA ENERGY AND ELECTRIC, INC., a Missouri Corporation, 23 Third-Party Plaintiff, v. NORTHCON, INC., an Idaho corporation; SOUTHWESTERN CONSTRUCTION, INC., || a Utah corporation; DOES 1 through 10; AND ROE corporations | through 10, 27 Third Party Defendants.

1 On November 4, 2022, the Court entered its Order following the bench trial, which holds that Alpha Energy and Electric, Inc.(“Alpha”) and American Contractors Indemnity Company (“ACIC”) are prevailing parties entitled to attorneys’ fees and directs the following briefing schedule on the motions for attorneys’ fees: “. . . Alpha and ACIC shall file motions for attorneys’ fees no later than 14 days from the date of this order.Northcon will then have seven days to respond, and Alpha and ACIC will have seven days to file a reply.” (Doc. No. 264 at 19.) Alpha and ACIC filed their motions for attorneys’ fees on November 18, 2020 (Doc. Nos. 266, 268), and Northcon filed its response on November 25, 2022 (Doc. No. 271).

10 The parties disagree whether Southwestern Construction, Inc. (“Southwestern”) is implicated in the issue of attorneys’ fees.1 In an abundance of caution, Southwestern plans to file a response to the motions for attorneys’ fees, and because the deadline for Southwestern’s response is not expressly stated in the Court’s Order (Doc. No. 264 at 19), Southwestern has taken the position that its response is due by the normal 14-day deadline for motion responses under LR 7-2(b)—i.e., December 2, 2022.

Counsel for Southwestern needs more time to adequately respond to the motions as a result of his travel schedule, the Thanksgiving holiday, and litigation deadlines in other cases.

Pursuant to LR IA 6-1, the parties hereby stipulate that the deadline for Southwesternto respond to the motions for attorneys’ fees filed by Alpha (Doc. No. 266) and ACIC (Doc. 268) may be extended to December 7, 2022.2 For sake of fairness and judicial efficiency, the parties further stipulate that the deadline for Alpha and ACIC to file reply briefs to both Northcon’s already 1 Before trial, the parties’ submitted a stipulation confirming Southwestern was no longer involved in the case because its affirmative claims were assigned to Northcon (Doc. No. 237). And the Court’s Order following trial speaks only of Alpha, ACIC and Northcon with respect to the issue of attorneys’ fees (Doc. No. 264 at 19). Based on these documents, Alpha and ACIC believe that Southwestern no longer has any interest or right in opposing the motions for attorneys’ fees.

28 2 This stipulation regarding scheduling deadlines is not a substantive concession on any issue. Alpha and ACIC reserve the right to challenge Southwestern’s ability to oppose the motions for attorneys’ fees. filed response (Doc. No. 271) and Southwestern’s forthcoming response may be extended 1 December 14, 2022.° This will allow both Alpha and ACIC to file respective consolidate || replies addressing all arguments raised by Northcon and Southwestern on the issue of attorney || fees. ° This is the parties’ first request to extend these deadlines. ; DATED this 2°¢ day of December, 2022.

9 ||S/Michael D. Stanger Michael D. Stanger || STRONG & HANNI, P.C. 102 South 200 East, Suite 800 || Salt Lake City, Utah 84111 || Kent Larsen, Esq.

SMITH LARSEN & WIXOM || 1935 Village Center Circle Las Vegas, Nevada 89134 || 4ttorneys for Southwestern Construction, Inc. /s/Stephen J. Moore || Stephen J. Moore KRIGEL & KRIGEL, P.C.

18 |] 4520 Main, Suite 700 Kansas City, MO 64111 [email protected] Jakub P. Medrala, Esq.

2! || THE MEDRALA LAW FIRM, PROF. LLC 1091 S. Cimarron Road, Suite A-1 Las Vegas, Nevada 89145 || □□□□□□□□□□□□□□□□□□□□□ || Attorneys for Alpha Energy and Electric, Inc. If the Court rejects this stipulation or otherwise finds that a response from Southwestern on the motions f attorneys’ fees is not required, Northcon agrees not to oppose motions by Alpha and ACIC for leave to file the reply briefs on the motions for attorneys’ fees within two (2) days of the Court’s order to that effect.

/s/Nicholas D. Kovarik || Nicholas D. Kovarik Benjamin J. McDonnell Ryan D. Yahne || PISKEL YAHNE KOVARIK, PLLC W. Riverside Ave., Suite 700 || Spokane, WA 99201 || [email protected] [email protected] Donna DiMaggio || Brian W Boschee Holley Driggs Walch Fine Wray Puzey & Thompson S Fourth St., 3rd Fl.

9 || Las Vegas, NV 89101 [email protected] || [email protected] Attorneys for Northcon, Inc /s/ Jordan F, Faux || Kurt C. Faux, Esq.

4 Willi H. Siepmann, Esq.

Jordan F. Faux, Esq.

15 || THE FAUX LAW GROUP 2625 N. Green Valley Parkway, #100 || Henderson, Nevada 89014 [email protected] [email protected] || [email protected] Attorneys for American Contractors Indemnity Company ORDER IT IS SO ORDERED.

Dated December 5, 2022.

25 : 0% Mb yO. Atatlan HON. JAMES C. MAHAN 27 UNITED STATES DISTRICT JUDGE 1 CERTIFICATE OF SERVICE I, the undersigned, hereby certify that on December 2, 2022, I served a true and correct copy of the foregoing document via the ECF filing system upon the following: Michael D. Stanger, Esq.

4 STRONG & HANNI PC 102 South 200 East, Suite 800 5 Salt Lake City, UT 84111 [email protected] 6 Counsel for Southwestern Construction 7 Kent F. Larsen SMITH LARSEN & WIXOM 8 1935 Village Center Circle Las Vegas, NV 89134 [email protected] 10 Local counsel for Southwestern Construction Ryan D. Yahne, Esq.

Nicholas D. Kovarik, Esq.

12 Benjamin McDonnell, Esq.

PISKEL YAHNE KOVARIK, PLLC 13 522 Wet Riverside Ave., Suite 700 Spokane, WA 99201 14 Email: [email protected] Email: [email protected] 15 Email: [email protected] Counsel for Northcon, Inc. Brian W. Boschee, Nevada Bar #7612 17 HOLLEY DRIGGS WALCH FINE WRAY PUZEY & THOMPSON S. Fourth Street, 3rd Floor Las Vegas, Nevada 89101 Telephone: (702) 791-0308 20 Facsimile: (702) 791-1912 Email:[email protected] 21 Local counsel for Northcon, Inc. 22 Kurt C. Faux, Esq.

Jordan F. Faux, Esq.

23 THE FAUX LAW GROUP 2625 N. Green Valley Parkway, #100 24 Henderson, NV 89014 Email: [email protected] 25 Email: [email protected] Counsel for American Contractors Indemnity Company /s/ Stephen J. Moore 28 Attorney for Alpha Energy and Electric, Inc.

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