1 UNITED STATES DISTRICT COURT

2 DISTRICT OF NEVADA

3 * * *

4 AMINA JOHNSON, Case No. 2:24-cv-02033-CDS-EJY

5 Plaintiff, ORDER 6 v.

7 GENERAL DYNAMICS INFORMATION TECHNOLOGY, 8 Defendant. 9 10 Pending before the Court is Defendant’s Motion for Sanctions based on Plaintiff’s Failure to 11 Attend her Deposition. ECF No. 128. The Court reviewed the Motion, Plaintiff’s Limited Response 12 (ECF No. 129), and Defendant’s Reply (ECF No. 133). 13 On October 1, 2025 the Court struck Plaintiff’s improperly filed Third Amended Complaint. 14 ECF No. 111. The Court further stated it would rule on the Motion to Dismiss the Second Amended 15 Complaint (the operative complaint) in due course. Id. In addition, on October 15, 2025 the Court 16 granted Defendant’s Motion to Extend Scheduling Order Deadlines. ECF No. 118. The October 17 15th Order explained the open and ongoing nature of discovery despite the pending motion to 18 dismiss. Id. 19 On November 7, 2025, Defendant filed a Motion to Compel Discovery Responses based on 20 Plaintiff’s failure to respond to interrogatories and requests for production. ECF No. 121. In 21 response, Plaintiff continued to argue there was no responsive pleading to the Third Amended 22 Complaint (ECF No. 122), appearing to ignore the Court’s earlier ruling and explanation. The Court 23 granted Defendant’s Motion to Compel in part, finding Plaintiff must respond to discovery requests 24 or face sanctions. ECF No. 124. Once again, the Court explained there is no Third Amended 25 Complaint to which Defendant must response, and the outstanding Motion to Dismiss did not 26 preclude discovery. Id. 27 The pending Motion comes before the Court because Plaintiff did not attend her noticed 1 Deposition, setting the deposition for November 21, 2025 at 9:00 a.m. ECF No. 128 at 2. Defendant 2 submits an email it received from Plaintiff on the eve of the scheduled deposition stating Plaintiff 3 would not attend because “the Court’s order compelling deposition prior to joined pleadings and 4 written discovery is unconstitutional and procedurally improper under the Federal Rules of Civil 5 Procedure.” ECF No. 128-2 at 9-10. Defendant responded the deposition would proceed as noticed, 6 but Plaintiff did not appear for her deposition. Id. at 9, 15. Based on Plaintiff’s nonappearance, 7 Defendant asks the Court to either dismiss the case or compel Plaintiff to attend her deposition. ECF 8 No. 128 at 3. 9 Plaintiff’s Limited Response1 reprises arguments rejected by the Court. Once again, Plaintiff 10 contends there has been no responsive pleading to either the Second or Third Amended Complaints. 11 ECF No. 129. As the Court has made clear, Plaintiff’s Third Amended Complaint was stricken on 12 October 1, 2025—hence, there is no Third Amended Complaint to which a response is required. 13 ECF No. 111. Regarding the Second Amended Complaint, Defendant filed a Motion to Dismiss on 14 August 13, 2025 (ECF No. 85), which remains pending (ECF No. 111). The Court has explained to 15 Plaintiff that discovery is open and ongoing. ECF No. 118. 16 Plaintiff contends a Motion to Dismiss is not a “responsive pleading,” citing Schreiber 17 Diustrib. Co. v. Serv-Well Furniture Co.,

, 1399 (9th Cir. 1986). Schreiber, and 18 subsequent cases, stand for the proposition that a Motion to Dismiss is not a responsive pleading for 19 purposes of Fed. R. Civ. Pro. 15(a). 806 F.2d at 1415; see also Shaver v. Operating Eng’rs Loc. 428 20 Pension Tr. Fund,

, 1201 (9th Cir. 2003). However, as the Court’s citations to 21 Tradebay, LLC v. eBay, Inc.,

(D. Nev. 2011) makes clear, a motion to dismiss does 22 not automatically stay discovery.

. While the Motion to Dismiss remains before the 23 Court, discovery in this matter is ongoing. ECF No. 118. 24 Plaintiff must sit for her deposition. Plaintiff brought this case and cannot now refuse to 25 participate in discovery because she disagrees with (has filed objections to) certain Orders in the 26 absence of a stay of discovery. “It is well-established law that the filing of an objection to a 27 magistrate judge’s order on a non-dispositive motion does not automatically stay that order’s 1 operation.” Castelan-Gutierrez v. Bodega Latina Corp., Case No. 2:17-cv-01877-JAD-NJK, 2018

, at *1 (D. Nev. Mar. 30, 2018); accord Ignite Spirits, Inc. v. Consulting by AR, LLC, 3 Case No. 2:21-cv-01590-JCM-EJY,

, at *2 (D. Nev. Aug. 22, 2022). At the risk 4 of redundancy, the Court explains again that “[t]he Federal Rules of Civil Procedure do not provide 5 for automatic or blanket stays of discovery when a potentially dispositive motion is pending.” 6 Tradebay,

. 7 Plaintiff is provided one final chance to attend her deposition. Failure to attend a duly noticed 8 deposition and cooperate in the discovery process will result in the Court entering an Order to Show 9 Cause for why Plaintiff’s Operative Complaint should not be dismissed. 10 Accordingly, IT IS HEREBY ORDERED that Defendant’s Motion for Sanctions for 11 Plaintiff’s Failure to Attend her Deposition (ECF No. 128) is GRANTED in part and DENIED in 12 part. 13 IT IS FURTHER ORDERED that discovery remains open for the sole purpose of allowing 14 Defendant to take Plaintiff’s deposition. No written discovery may be propounded and no 15 depositions may be set other than Plaintiff’s deposition. 16 IT IS FURTHER ORDERED that Defendant must set Plaintiff’s deposition for a date no 17 later than January 31, 2025. The deposition will commence at 9 a.m. and end no later than 5 p.m. 18 with one 10 minute break between 9 and 11 a.m., a 30 minute break sometime between 12 noon and 19 1 p.m., and a second 10 minute break between 2 and 4 p.m. 20 IT IS FURTHER ORDERED that the dispositive motion deadline is reset for March 3, 2025. 21 IT IS FURTHER ORDERED that the due date for the proposed joint pretrial order is April 22 3, 2025; provided, however, that if one or more dispositive motion is pending on that date the due 23 date for the proposed joint pretrial order is automatically advanced to 30 days after the Court issues 24 its ruling on such motion or motions. 25 Dated this 18 day of December, 2025. 26 27