NOT FOR PUBLICATION

UNITED STATES COURT OF APPEALS

FOR THE NINTH CIRCUIT

KEN SHEPPARD, an individual, 

Plaintiff-Appellant, 

 v. 

COUNTY OF LOS ANGELES, a local 

public entity; et al., 

Defendants-Appellees.

No. 16-56622 

D.C. No. 

2:15-cv-02920-SJO-JC 

MEMORANDUM*

Appeal from the United States District Court

for the Central District of California

S. James Otero, District Judge, Presiding

Argued and Submitted October 18, 2019

Pasadena, California

Before: WARDLAW and HURWITZ, Circuit Judges, and BATAILLON,**

District Judge.

In this action, Ken Sheppard raises 42 U.S.C. § 1983 claims against the 

County of Los Angeles, Sergeant Booker Hollis of the Los Angeles County Sheriff’s 

Department, and Sheriff’s Deputies Tai Plunkett, Caroline Rodriquez, and Bonnie 

* This disposition is not appropriate for publication and is not precedent 

except as provided by Ninth Circuit Rule 36-3.

** The Honorable Joseph F. Bataillon, United States District Judge for the 

District of Nebraska, sitting by designation.

FILED

NOV 21 2019

MOLLY C. DWYER, CLERK

U.S. COURT OF APPEALS
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Hanson.1 After the district court dismissed the claims against Hollis and the County,

the jury returned defense verdicts on Sheppard’s claims against Plunkett, Rodriquez, 

and Hanson. On appeal, Sheppard challenges the district court’s denial of his request

to withdraw admissions under Federal Rule of Civil Procedure 36, the formulation 

of a jury instruction, and the denial of his summary judgment motion. We have 

jurisdiction under 28 U.S.C. § 1291 and affirm.2

1. The district court did not abuse its discretion in denying Sheppard’s 

belated motion to withdraw admissions under Federal Rule of Civil Procedure 36(b).

The court reasonably found that Defendants relied on the admissions for nearly 

seven months, would have been prejudiced at trial by having forgone discovery on 

the admitted matters, and Sheppard failed to show good cause for his delay in 

seeking relief. See Conlon v. United States, 474 F.3d 616, 621–25 (9th Cir. 2007); 

Fed. R. Civ. P. 36(b). 

2. The district court did not abuse its discretion in giving Jury Instruction 

21, which stated that the jury “may” accept as true certain matters deemed admitted 

1 Sheppard does not challenge the district court’s dismissal without prejudice 

of his state law claims. 

2 Contrary to Defendants’ assertions, Sheppard’s notice of appeal was not 

defective under Federal Rule of Appellate Procedure 3(c)(1)(B) for lack of 

specificity. Defendants received ample notice of the issues on appeal from 

Sheppard’s opening brief and they fully responded to his arguments. See Le v. 

Astrue, 558 F.3d 1019, 1022–24 (9th Cir. 2009). 
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because of Sheppard’s failure to timely respond to requests for admission. The bulk 

of the admissions at issue concerned factual matters, and any admissions that 

arguably pose legal conclusions only related to Sheppard’s dismissed state tort 

claims or his alleged damages on the federal claims. 

3. We lack jurisdiction to review the denial of Sheppard’s motion for 

summary judgment. See Williams v. Gaye, 895 F.3d 1106, 1122 (9th Cir. 2018) 

(citing Ortiz v. Jordan, 562 U.S. 180, 183–84 (2011)).

AFFIRMED.