Jones v. Pierce County Jail

UNITED STATES DISTRICT COURT WESTERN DISTRICT OF WASHINGTON AT TACOMA 10 TERRELL E. JONES, CASE NO. 3:19-cv-06241-BHS-JRC 11 Plaintiff, ORDER GRANTING MOTION TO 12 v. STAY DISCOVERY 13 A. MASTANDREA, 14 Defendant.

16 This matter is before the Court on defendant’s motion to stay discovery until the resolution of his motion to dismiss. See Dkt. 19.

18 Currently pending in this Court is also defendant’s motion to dismiss, which seeks dismissal with prejudice of all plaintiff’s claims. See Dkt. 17. Defendant asserts, among other things, that qualified immunity bars plaintiff’s claims. Dkt. 17, at 6.

21 Plaintiff, who is pro se, has filed a motion for summary judgment in response to the motion to dismiss. See Dkt. 21. Briefing on both the summary judgment motion and the motion to dismiss is complete. Plaintiff has not filed any response to the motion to stay. Plaintiff’s failure to respond to the request to stay discovery may be deemed an admission that the motion has merit. Local Civil Rule 7(b)(2).

3 Regarding the merits of the motion to stay, this court has broad discretionary powers to control discovery. Little v. City of Seattle, 863 F.2d 681, 685 (9th Cir. 1988). Further, a district court should stay discovery until the threshold question of qualified immunity is settled. See, e.g., Crawford–El v. Britton, 523 U.S. 574, 598 (1998). This is because “[q]ualified immunity is ‘an entitlement not to stand trial or face the other burdens of litigation.’” Saucier v. Katz, 533 8 U.S. 194, 200 (2001) (quoting Mitchell v. Forsyth, 472 U.S. 511, 526 (1985)), overruled on other grounds by Pearson v. Callahan, 555 U.S. 223 (2009)).

10 Based on this authority, the Court finds that it is appropriate to grant the motion to stay.

11 The Court notes that although plaintiff has begun propounding discovery in this matter, the Court has yet to issue its initial scheduling order and this matter remains in its early stages. Further, because briefing on the summary judgment motion is complete, staying discovery will not hamper plaintiff’s ability to litigate his summary judgment motion.

15 The motion to stay discovery is GRANTED. See Dkt. 19. The stay of discovery shall end when the District Court has decided the pending motion to dismiss. Dkt. 17.

17 Dated this 25th day of September, 2020.

A J. Richard Creatura United States Magistrate Judge