Thornton v. Portola Del Sol Operator, LLC et al, No. 2:2021cv01123 - Document 72 (D. Nev. 2023)

Court Description: ORDER Granting 71 Motion to Extend Time (Sixth Request). IT IS HEREBY ORDERED that time within which to serve Defendant Rene Richardson with the Summonses and Complaint is extended to November 11, 2023. Signed by Magistrate Judge Brenda Weksler on 10/4/2023. (Copies have been distributed pursuant to the NEF - AMMi)

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Thornton v. Portola Del Sol Operator, LLC et al Doc. 72 Case 2:21-cv-01123-APG-BNW Document 72 Filed 10/04/23 Page 1 of 6 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 ELIZABETH S. CARMONA, ESQ. Nevada State Bar No. 14687 KRISTOPHER S. PRE, ESQ. Nevada State Bar No. 14106 PETER C. WETHERALL, ESQ. Nevada State Bar No. 4414 NEVADA LEGAL SERVICES, INC. 701 E. Bridger Avenue, Suite 400 Las Vegas, Nevada 89101 Telephone: (702) 386-0404, ext. 128 ecarmona@nevadalegalservices.org kpre@nevadalegalservices.org pwetherall@nevadalegalservices.org Attorneys for Peggy Thornton 10 UNITED STATES DISTRICT COURT DISTRICT OF NEVADA 11 12 13 14 UNITED STATES OF AMERICA ex rel. PEGGY THORNTON, Relator, PEGGY THORNTON, 16 Plaintiff, 18 19 20 21 22 23 24 MOTION TO ENLARGE TIME TO SERVE SUMMONS AND COMPLAINT – 6th REQUEST and 15 17 No.: 2:21-CV-01123 v. PORTOLA DEL SOL OPERATOR, LLC, a foreign limited-liability company; TMIF II PORTOLA, LLC, a foreign limited-liability company; APARTMENT MANAGEMENT CONSULTANTS, LLC, a foreign limited liability company, and RENE RICHARDSON, as AGENT of PORTOLA DEL SOL OPERATOR, LLC. Defendants. 25 26 27 COMES NOW, Plaintiff, Peggy Thornton, by and through her attorneys, Elizabeth S. 28 Carmona, Esq., Kristopher S. Pre, Esq., and Peter C. Wetherall, Esq., of Nevada Legal Services, 1 Dockets.Justia.com Case 2:21-cv-01123-APG-BNW Document 72 Filed 10/04/23 Page 2 of 6 1 Inc., moves this Court for an Order extending time to serve the Summons and Complaint on the 2 Defendant Rene Richardson. 3 POINTS AND AUTHORITIES 4 I. STATEMENT OF FACTS 5 On June 14, 2021, Plaintiff filed her qui tam Complaint under seal. This Court previously 6 granted three Motions to Enlarge Time to Serve Summons and Complaint based on an extensive 7 1.5 year-long investigation by the Department of Justice while the Complaint was under seal. 8 Once the Department of Justice concluded its investigation and elected not to intervene, the 9 Court unsealed the Complaint and set a service deadline for March 9, 2023. Plaintiff then, 10 diligently, began service. 11 Earlier this year, Plaintiff successfully served Defendants Portola Del Sol Operator, LLC, 12 TMIF II Portola, LLC, and Apartment Management Consultants, LLC; however, Plaintiff has 13 experienced significant challenges surrounding the service of Defendant Rene Richardson. 14 Plaintiff hired Junes Legal Services, Inc. (“Junes”), to serve Defendant Rene Richardson, but the 15 initial attempt was unsuccessful. Plaintiff then began conducting significant research regarding 16 the whereabouts of Defendant Rene Richardson, but had to enlist the assistance of Junes to 17 perform a “skip trace” when internal research failed to produce any helpful information. The 18 Junes skip trace also proved to be inconclusive based on Plaintiff’s limited knowledge of her 19 demographics and the common nature of her name. 20 Based on these challenges, on March 7, 2023, Plaintiff filed a Motion to Extend Time to 21 Serve Defendant Rene Richardson, which the Court granted on March 8, 2023. Since the Court’s 22 March 8, 2023 Order, Plaintiff has diligently continued her efforts to serve Defendant Rene 23 Richardson. Junes attempted service at three local properties managed by Rene Richardson’s 24 previous employer, Defendant Apartment Management Consultants, LLC. When the local 25 service attempts were unsuccessful, Plaintiff hired a Utah process server to attempt service at the 26 Apartment Management Consultants, LLC, headquarters in Utah. The Utah service attempt was 27 also unsuccessful. 28 2 Case 2:21-cv-01123-APG-BNW Document 72 Filed 10/04/23 Page 3 of 6 1 Plaintiff then reached out to counsel for Apartment Management Consultants, LLC, and 2 asked whether they would agree to accept service on Rene Richardson’s behalf but received no 3 response. On July 6, 2023, Plaintiff filed a Motion to Extend Time to Serve Defendant Rene 4 Richardson, which the Court granted on July 7, 2023, allowing until October 7, 2023, to serve 5 Defendant Rene Richardson. 6 On September 25, 2023, Plaintiff filed a Motion for Service by Publication, which this 7 Court granted on September 29, 2023. As part of its Order, this Court ordered Plaintiff to publish 8 the Summons and Complaint in the Las Vegas Review Journal at least once a week for a period 9 of four weeks, with service to be deemed complete four weeks from the date of first publication. 10 11 Plaintiff is now in the process of arranging said publication. II. ARGUMENT 12 Pursuant to Federal Rule of Civil Procedure 4(m), if a plaintiff shows good cause for the 13 failure to serve a defendant within 90 days, the court must extend the time for service for an 14 appropriate period. Good cause is present here, as this Court recently ordered that Plaintiff can 15 serve Defendant Rene Richardson by publication and said publication will not be completed by 16 October 7, 2023. Therefore, Plaintiff requests that this Court issue an Order to Enlarge Time to 17 Serve Summons and Complaint on Defendant Rene Richardson in this matter. 18 19 20 21 CONCLUSION Wherefore, based on the above points and authorities, Plaintiff respectfully requests an Order enlarging time for service in regard to Defendant Rene Richardson. DATED this 3rd day of October, 2023. Respectfully Submitted, NEVADA LEGAL SERVICES, INC. 22 23 24 25 26 ____________________________ ELIZABETH S. CARMONA, ESQ. Nevada State Bar No. 14687 KRISTOPHER S. PRE, ESQ. Nevada State Bar No. 14106 27 28 3 Case 2:21-cv-01123-APG-BNW Document 72 Filed 10/04/23 Page 4 of 6 PETER C. WETHERALL, ESQ. Nevada State Bar No. 4414 701 E. Bridger Avenue, Suite 400 Las Vegas, Nevada 89101 Telephone: (702) 386-0404 ecarmona@nevadalegalservices.org kpre@nevadalegalservices.org pwetherall@nevadalegalservices.org Attorneys for Peggy Thornton 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 15 16 17 18 19 20 21 22 23 24 25 26 27 28 4 Case 2:21-cv-01123-APG-BNW Document 72 Filed 10/04/23 Page 5 of 6 UNITED STATES DISTRICT COURT DISTRICT OF NEVADA 1 2 3 4 5 UNITED STATES OF AMERICA ex rel. PEGGY THORNTON, Relator, and 6 PEGGY THORNTON, 7 Plaintiff, 8 v. 9 10 11 12 13 14 15 16 17 18 FILED UNDER SEAL PURSUANT TO 31 U.S.C. § 3730(b)(2) No.: 2:21-CV-01123 ORDER TO ENLARGE TIME TO SERVE SUMMONS AND COMPLAINT – 6th REQUEST PORTOLA DEL SOL OPERATOR, LLC, a foreign limited-liability company; TMIF II PORTOLA, LLC, a foreign limited-liability company; APARTMENT MANAGEMENT CONSULTANTS, LLC, a foreign limited liability company, and RENE RICHARDSON, as AGENT of PORTOLA DEL SOL OPERATOR, LLC. Defendants. Upon consideration of the declaration of Plaintiff and good cause appearing, IT IS HEREBY ORDERED that time within which to serve Defendant Rene 19 11 Richardson with the Summonses and Complaint is extended to the _________ day of 20 ________________, 2023. November 21 DATED this ______ day of ____________, 2023. 4 October 22 23 ____________________________________ DISTRICT COURT U.S. Magistrate JudgeJUDGE 24 25 26 Respectfully Submitted, NEVADA LEGAL SERVICES, INC. 27 28 ________________________________ 5 Case 2:21-cv-01123-APG-BNW Document 72 Filed 10/04/23 Page 6 of 6 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 ELIZABETH S. CARMONA, ESQ. Nevada State Bar No. 14687 KRISTOPHER S. PRE, ESQ. Nevada State Bar No. 14106 PETER C. WETHERALL, ESQ. Nevada State Bar No. 4414 701 E. Bridger Avenue, Suite 400 Las Vegas, Nevada 89101 Telephone: (702) 386-0404 ecarmona@nevadalegalservices.org kpre@nevadalegalservices.org pwetherall@nevadalegalservices.org Attorneys for Peggy Thornton 9 10 11 12 13 14 15 16 17 18 19 20 21 22 23 24 25 26 27 28 6

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