Spicher v. American Family Mutual Insurance Company SI

UNITED STATES DISTRICT COURT WESTERN DISTRICT OF WASHINGTON AT SEATTLE 10 WHITNEY SPICHER, CASE NO. C22-1116 MJP 11 Plaintiff, ORDER DENYING STIPULATED MOTION TO CONTINUE 12 v. 13 AMERICAN FAMILY MUTUAL INSURANCE COMPANY, S.I. and 14 JOHN and JANE DOES 1-10, 15 Defendants.

This matter comes before the Court on the Parties’ Stipulated Motion to Continue Expert Deadline. (Dkt. No. 14.) Having reviewed the Motion and all supporting materials, the Court DENIES the Motion without prejudice.

Rule 16(b)(4) states that “a schedule may be modified only for good cause and with the judge’s consent.” Fed. R. Civ. P. 16(b)(4). “Rule 16(b)’s ‘good cause’ standard primarily considers the diligence of the party seeking the amendment.” Johnson v. Mammoth Recreations, Inc., 975 F.2d 604, 609 (9th Cir. 1992). “[T]he focus of the inquiry is upon the moving party’s reasons for seeking modification” and “[i]f that party was not diligent, the inquiry should end.”

2 Id. (citation omitted).

3 Although the Motion states that the Parties wish to “continue the trial date and remaining deadlines in this matter,” they only to ask for an extension of the expert disclosure deadline.

5 (Compare Mot. at 1 with Mot. at 2.) The current expert disclosure deadline is April 3, 2023.

6 (Dkt. No. 12.) The Parties ask for an additional sixty days so that they can “properly disclose experts that may be retained based on the outcome of Plaintiff ‘s deposition” which is currently set for February 28, 2023. (Mot. at 2.) But the Parties fail to explain why the month between the scheduled deposition and the current expert disclosure deadline is an inadequate amount of time for their experts to prepare reports. Nor have the Parties identified any other reason why the expert disclosure deadline should be extended and why, with diligence, they cannot meet that existing deadline. The Court finds an absence of good cause and DENIES the Motion without prejudice. The Parties may submit a renewed request, but it must, at a minimum, address the Court’s concerns identified in this Order.

15 The clerk is ordered to provide copies of this order to all counsel.

16 Dated February 16, 2023.

A 18 Marsha J. Pechman United States Senior District Judge