Guzman Reyes v. United States

UNITED STATES DISTRICT COURT FOR THE 7 WESTERN DISTRICT OF WASHINGTON AT SEATTLE M.S.G.L., by and through her parents Case No. 2:22-cv-01554-KKE GREGORIO GUZMAN REYES and MARICRUZ LOPEZ SANTOS, and ORDER GRANTING STIPULATED individually, MOTION FOR EXTENSION OF 11 PRETRIAL DEADLINES Plaintiffs, 12 v. UNITED STATES OF AMERICA, 14 Defendant.

JOINT STIPULATION The parties hereby jointly STIPULATE AND AGREE to extend the following deadlines, which were set forth in the Court’s October 24, 2024, Order Amending Trial Date and Related Dates (Dkt. 34), as set forth below.

Proposed New 20 Deadline Current Deadline Deadline Disclosure of rebuttal expert testimony March 20, 2025 April 3, 2025 Discovery completed by April 18, 2025 23 May 2, 2025 1 A court may modify a schedule for good cause. Fed. R. Civ. P. 16(b)(4). Continuing pretrial and trial dates is within the discretion of the trial judge. King v. State of California, 784 F.2d 910, 912 (9th Cir. 1986). The parties have been diligent in completing the discovery in this case, including disclosing numerous expert witnesses on February 18, 2025. On February 26, 2025, the White House issued an executive order entitled “Implementing the President’s ‘Department of Government Efficiency’ Cost Efficiency Initiative.” See https://www.whitehouse.gov/presidential-actions/2025/02/implementing-the-presidents- department-of-government-efficiency-cost-efficiency-initiative/. Under this Executive Order, the United States’ ability to contract for new services, including payments for expert witnesses and payments for the cost of taking plaintiffs’ experts’ depositions, was limited for 30 days. The United States has worked to find ways to manage existing funds to continue work on the case. However, the pause in funding has caused delays in the United States’ ability to pay expert fees and schedule depositions, including payments to Plaintiffs’ experts for their deposition time.

14 Recently, this Court denied the parties’ stipulated motion for a one-month continuance of the rebuttal expert disclosure, close of discovery, and dispositive motions deadline on the basis that the Court requires approximately 120 days between the dispositive motions deadline and trial.

17 Dkt. 36. The Court indicated it would consider a subsequent motion that accommodated this requirement. Id. 19 The parties now request to move the rebuttal expert disclosure deadline and the close of discovery deadline only so that the trial date can be maintained. Moving these deadlines will allow the United States needed additional time to prepare rebuttal expert reports and to depose Plaintiffs’ experts. Plaintiffs’ counsel does not condone or concede that the executive order is lawful. In fact, Plaintiffs’ counsel believes the executive order is an assault on the judiciary. However, as a courtesy to the United States, Plaintiffs have agreed to stipulate to this extension of deadlines.

1 For the reasons set forth above, the parties believe that there is good cause to request an extension of the above-listed dates and respectfully request that the Court grant their motion.

3 SO STIPULATED.

4 DATED this 18th day of March, 2025.

5 Respectfully submitted, TEAL LUTHY MILLER GEORGIA TREJO LOCHER, P.S.

Acting United States Attorney s/ Whitney Passmore s/ Georgia Trejo Locher WHITNEY PASSMORE, FL No. 91922 GEORGIA TREJO LOCHER, WSBA No. 21450 Assistant United States Attorney 237 SW 153rd St. United States Attorney’s Office Burien, WA 98166 Western District of Washington Phone: 206-246-6100 700 Stewart Street, Suite 5220 Fax: 206-246-6105 Seattle, Washington 98101-1271 Email: [email protected] Phone: 206-553-7970 Fax: 206-553-4073 Attorney for Plaintiffs Email: [email protected] Attorneys for United States of America I certify that this memorandum contains words, in compliance with the Local Civil Rules.

1 ORDER 2 It is hereby ORDERED that the parties’ motion is GRANTED. Dkt. No. 37. The new pretrial deadlines are as follows, all other deadlines from the Court’s prior case schedule remain unchanged (Dkt. No. 34): Deadlines Disclosure of rebuttal expert testimony April 3, 2025 Discovery completed by May 2, 2025

DATED this 20th day of March, 2025.

A Kymberly K. Evanson United States District Judge