IN THE UNITED STATES DISTRICT COURT

SOUTHERN DISTRICT OF OHIO

WESTERN DIVISION AT CINCINNATI

TAMERA BROWN, et al.

Plaintiff,

v.

CITY OF CINCINNATI, et al.

Defendants.

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CASE NO: 1:18-CV-00412

Judge Susan J. Dlott

Magistrate Judge Karen L. Litkovitz

MOTION FOR EXTENSION OF TIME TO ANSWER AND FILE MOTIONS FOR 

JUDGMENT ON THE PLEADINGS

Defendants respectfully move the Court for a second extension of time to answer 

Plaintiffs’ Second Amended Complaint and file Defendants’ Motions for Judgment on the 

Pleadings. Defendants contacted Plaintiffs regarding whether Plaintiffs objected to Defendants’

Motion for Extension of Time until after the Court assists the parties in resolving the outstanding 

discovery issues. Plaintiffs object to Defendants’ Motion. 

Defendants do not seek the extension to delay this litigation. Defendant Danita Pettis in 

her individual capacity served Plaintiffs Tamera Brown and Joy Ludgatis with Interrogatories 

and Requests for Production of Documents on December 3, 2018. On February 19, 2019 

Defendants sought their first extension of the answer deadline in order to provide Plaintiffs time 

to respond to Defendant Pettis’ discovery demand. The parties agreed on the dates set forth 

below after email communications in which Defendants specifically requested “if Plaintiffs do 

not realistically believe that you can provide complete responses to discovery by Monday, please 

let me know so that I can adjust the dates, and we don’t have to keep going back to the Court.” 

Case: 1:18-cv-00412-MWM-KLL Doc #: 26 Filed: 03/06/19 Page: 1 of 3 PAGEID #: 457
Plaintiffs responded “Plaintiffs have no objections to the motion to extend. While 

Plaintiffs fully anticipate providing responses by this Friday, 22 February, extending the 

deadlines by another week to 1 March 2019 may be the safer approach.” At no time did 

Plaintiffs represent to Defendants that Plaintiffs had an objection to any of Defendants discovery 

responses served almost 90 days prior nor did Plaintiffs represent that Plaintiffs would refuse to 

provide any documents responsive to Defendant Pettis’ requests. Had Defendants known this 

information at the time the first extension was filed, Defendants would have requested an 

extension to answer until after March 8, 2019 and would have sought the Court’s intervention at 

that time. While Defendants have requested an informal discovery conference, Defendants now 

face an answer deadline of March 8, 2019, which date all parties agreed to based on the March 1, 

2019 discovery production deadline. Defendants do not believe they can protect their interests 

by proceeding with answering the Second Amended Complaint until the Court assists the parties 

in resolving their discovery dispute. 

Defendants seek this extension so that Defendants have all information to adequately 

answer the Second Amended Complaint and prepare Defendants’ Motion for Judgement on the 

Pleadings. Defendants respectfully request that the Court extend Defendants answer deadline to 

a date agreed upon after the parties’ informal discovery conference with the Court. 

Respectfully submitted,

/s/ Janaya Trotter Bratton 

Alphonse A. Gerhardstein (0032053)

Janaya Trotter Bratton (0084123)

Gerhardstein & Branch Co. LPA

441 Vine Street, Suite 3400

Cincinnati, Ohio 45202

Tel (513) 621-9100 

Case: 1:18-cv-00412-MWM-KLL Doc #: 26 Filed: 03/06/19 Page: 2 of 3 PAGEID #: 458
Fax (513) 345-5543

jtbratton@gbfirm.com

agerhardstein@gbfirm.com

Counsel for Defendants Sentinel Police 

Association and Danita Pettis, 

Individually

/s/ Shuva J. Paul 

Peter J. Stackpole (0072103)

Emily Woerner (0089349)

Shuva J. Paul (0088484)

City of Cincinnati

Room 214, City Hall

801 Plum Street

Cincinnati, Ohio 45202

Tel (513) 352-4551

Fax (513) 352-1515

Peter.stackpole@cincinnati-oh.gov

Emily.woerner@cincinnati-oh.gov

Shuva.paul@cincinnati-oh.gov

Counsel for City Defendants

CERTIFICATE OF SERVICE

I hereby certify that on March 6, 2019 a copy of the foregoing pleading was filed 

electronically. Notice of this filing will be sent to all parties for whom counsel has entered an 

appearance by operation of the Court’s electronic filing system. Parties may access this filing 

through the Court’s system. 

s/ Janaya Trotter Bratton

 

Case: 1:18-cv-00412-MWM-KLL Doc #: 26 Filed: 03/06/19 Page: 3 of 3 PAGEID #: 459