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Home My WebLink About2023-cv-1343 - Elias v. City of Fort Collins, et al. - 114 - Unopposed Motion to Extend Two Scheduling Order Deadlines1 IN THE UNITED STATES DISTRICT COURT FOR THE DISTRICT OF COLORADO Civil Action No.: 23-cv-01343-GPG-KAS HARRIS ELIAS, Plaintiff, v. CITY OF FORT COLLINS, JASON HAFERMAN and SERGEANT ALLEN HEATON. Defendants. UNOPPOSED MOTION TO EXTEND TWO REMAINING SCHEDULING ORDER DEADLINES [ECF 112] BY 45 DAYS Plaintiff Harris Elias, by and through the undersigned counsel, respectfully submits this Unopposed Motion to Extend Two Remaining Scheduling Order Deadlines [ECF 112] by 45 days, and in support of the same, states as follows: 1. Conferral. Plaintiff conferred with counsel for both sets of Defendants regarding the relief requested in this Motion. There is no objection. 2. This Court entered the original Scheduling Order (ECF 35) in this matter on September 11, 2023. 3. Plaintiff filed a Motion to Amend Scheduling Order on May 28, 2024 (ECF 100) which was granted by the Court (ECF 102). The parties subsequently filed a Joint Motion to Amend the Scheduling Order on August 26, 2024, which was granted in part by the Court (ECF 110). 4. The current remaining deadlines in the case are: - Discovery cutoff & 702/704 motions 11/4/24 Case No. 1:23-cv-01343-GPG-KAS Document 114 filed 10/30/24 USDC Colorado pg 1 of 6 2 - Dispositive motions deadline 12/10/24 5. In addition to the instant matter, there are four other lawsuits against the Defendants also pending (Notice of Related Cases, ECF 2). 6. There is compelling need and good cause for this extension request: A. Expert discovery (deposition) scheduling efforts began on 8/2/24 but the depositions could not get set to occur prior to the 11/4 deadline for 702 motions. Plaintiff requested availability from defense counsel in early August for purposes of scheduling the deposition of Defendant Haferman’s endorsed expert Christopher Treadway (he is endorsed as an expert in all 5 of the pending Haferman matters). Counsel for Plaintiff sought 2 full days to utilize for purposes of deposing Mr. Treadway in all 5 matters remotely by Zoom. Counsel for Defendant Haferman indicated that even though Plaintiff was doing the depositions remotely, they (Haferman’s counsel) intended to fly to South Dakota to be present with their retained expert Mr. Treadway during the depositions, which would limit the number of dates they could offer, since they’d need to plan for travel time and would want to keep the two days of depositions consecutive. Counsel for Defendant Haferman were as a result ultimately not able to offer any September or October dates for Treadway’s depositions. In early August, the earliest date that worked for all parties and Mr. Treadway was November 19. This date is after the current 11/4 deadline for 702 motions in this case. Plaintiff’s ability to file necessary, competent, and fully briefed 702 motions should not be prejudiced by scheduling difficulties he did not cause and which resulted in more than 2 months (September and October) being unavailable for scheduling Mr. Case No. 1:23-cv-01343-GPG-KAS Document 114 filed 10/30/24 USDC Colorado pg 2 of 6 3 Treadway’s deposition. B. Defendant City of Fort Collins continues to request additional time to exhaust conferral on Plaintiff’s discovery disputes (which he first raised in June) and just last week provided another round of voluminous supplemental discovery that Plaintiff needs time to review to discern what discovery disputes remain for the Court. Plaintiff sent discovery requests to the Defendant City in this case in February 2024. Counsel for the City requested multiple extensions to produce their responses, all of which Plaintiff accommodated. Given the Monell claims in this case and volume of prior DUI arrests by former officer Defendant Haferman, the discovery ultimately produced in response was voluminous and took several weeks for Plaintiff’s office to review and catalog. When Plaintiff’s office finally finished doing so in June 2024, there was a long list of items missing from the disclosures that had been specifically requested by Plaintiff or that ought to have been included but which had been omitted without explanation. Plaintiff sent that list to counsel for the City and requested expedient response in order to take whatever disputes remained to this Court for resolution. Counsel for the City stated in an email on July 3, 2024 that they needed additional time to review and possibly supplement their responses in response to Plaintiff’s list and that they were unwilling to commit to any deadline for production of said response or supplement. Not knowing whether the City intended to supplement their disclosures made it impossible for Plaintiff to complete conferral to identify what disputes remained and were ripe for bringing to the Court for resolution. Only last week Case No. 1:23-cv-01343-GPG-KAS Document 114 filed 10/30/24 USDC Colorado pg 3 of 6 4 (on 10/24/24), did the City finally provide that latest round of supplementation, which will take Plaintiff’s office at least a week to review and catalog. Plaintiff needs time to do that in order to identify what items the City is in fact refusing to produce (rather than simply neglecting to produce) so as to know what discovery disputes remain and require the Court’s intervention to resolve. 7. The discovery cutoff and 702 motion deadline in the other 4 pending associated Haferman cases is 12/4/24. Defendant Haferman indicated today that will be requesting a similar brief extension to that cutoff in at least 2 of those cases. 8. Plaintiff is cognizant of the Court’s previous ruling on the parties’ prior Motion to Amend the deadlines in this case, and of the Court’s obligation to keep it expeditiously moving forward. Counsel assures the Court that maximum effort is being employed here but that (1) scheduling difficulties, combined with (2) voluminous discovery, and (3) lengthy requests for extensions from Defendants complicating the ability to exhaust discovery dispute conferrals, have rendered the current remaining deadlines impossible. 9. Plaintiff respectfully requests that the Court permit a 45-day extension to the remaining two deadlines in this case, which would result in the following amended deadlines: - Discovery cutoff & 702/704 motions 12/19/24 - Dispositive motions deadline 1/24/25 10. Forty-five days is requested to permit Plaintiff time to take Mr. Treadway’s deposition on 11/19 and adequate time before the deadline to thereafter obtain the deposition transcript, which will be needed for his 702 motion. Plaintiff believes 45 days will also be adequate to exhaust the ongoing discovery dispute conferral effort following the City’s late supplementation last week. Case No. 1:23-cv-01343-GPG-KAS Document 114 filed 10/30/24 USDC Colorado pg 4 of 6 5 This extension will not unduly delay these proceedings or otherwise interfere with the administration of justice. 11. No party will be prejudiced by the relief sought herein. 12. If on this record the Court is unwilling to grant this extension, Plaintiff respectfully requests in the alternative that the Court please toll the remaining deadlines to permit a hearing to be held on the matter where further record can be made before ruling. Wherefore Plaintiff Harris Elias for the good cause described herein respectfully requests that the Court permit a 45-day extension to the 2 remaining deadlines for discovery cutoff/702 motions and the filing of dispositive motions. Respectfully submitted this 30th day of October, 2024. s/ Sarah Schielke Sarah Schielke The Life & Liberty Law Office LLC 1055 Cleveland Avenue Loveland, CO 80537 Telephone: (970) 493-1980 FAX: (970) 797-4008 Email: sarah@lifeandlibertylaw.com Attorney for Plaintiff Harris Elias Case No. 1:23-cv-01343-GPG-KAS Document 114 filed 10/30/24 USDC Colorado pg 5 of 6 6 CERTIFICATE OF SERVICE I hereby certify that October 30, 2024, a true and accurate copy of the foregoing Motion has been sent to the following parties by PACER/ECF: Mark Ratner Hall & Evans, LLC Attorneys for Defendant City of Fort Collins and Sergeant Allen Heaton Yulia Nikolaevskaya Jonathan Abramson SGR, LLC Attorneys for Defendant Jason Haferman Harris Elias Plaintiff s/ Sarah Schielke Case No. 1:23-cv-01343-GPG-KAS Document 114 filed 10/30/24 USDC Colorado pg 6 of 6