Yates v. Delta Air Lines Inc

UNITED STATES DISTRICT COURT WESTERN DISTRICT OF WASHINGTON AT SEATTLE 10 ROBERT HAUSMAN, personal CASE NO. C23-230 MJP representative of DERIK HOWARD, 11 ORDER GRANTING STIPULATED Plaintiff, MOTION TO CONTINUE TRIAL 12 DATE AND RELATED v. DEADLINES DELTA AIRLINES INC., JOHN 14 DOES 1-10, 15 Defendants.

This matter comes before the Court on the Parties’ Stipulated Motion to Continue Trial Date and Related Deadlines. (Dkt. No. 16.) Having reviewed the Motion and all supporting deadlines, the Court GRANTS the Motion.

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 The Parties have renewed their request to reset the trial and interim case deadlines by approximately nine months. In response to the Court’s prior denial, the Parties have now identified good cause for the requested extension of time. Specifically, they have explained how the replacement of the personal representative—which raised issues of a potential conflict of interest—delayed discovery, notwithstanding the Parties’ diligence. The Court agrees that there is good cause to extend the deadlines and trial date in light of the change in personal representative. The Court GRANTS the Motion and hereby sets the following new trial date and interim case deadlines: DEADLINE Current Deadline New Deadline Reports from expert witness under FRCP 11/13/2023 7/30/2024 26(a)(2) due All motions related to discovery must be 12/13/2023 8/29/2024 filed by and noted on the motion calendar on the third Friday thereafter (see CR 7(d)) Discovery completed by 1/12/2024 9/30/2024 All dispositive motions must be filed by and 2/12/2024 10/31/2024 noted on the motion calendar on the fourth Friday thereafter (see CR 7 (d)) All motions in limine must be filed by and 5/6/2024 2/11/2025 noted on the motion calendar no earlier than the third Friday thereafter and no later than the Friday before the pretrial conference Agreed pretrial order due 5/28/2024 3/4/2025 Trial briefs, proposed voir dire questions, 5/28/2024 3/4/2025 and proposed jury instructions Pretrial Conference at 1:00 p.m. 5/30/2024 3/7/2025 Jury Trial Date 6/10/2024 3/17/2025 5 The clerk is ordered to provide copies of this order to all counsel.

6 Dated September 18, 2023. A 8 Marsha J. Pechman United States Senior District Judge