Opinion ID: 755232
Heading Depth: 2
Heading Rank: 3

Heading: Denial of a Continuance Pending Discovery

Text: 34 Wellman contends that the district court erred when it denied his motion for a continuance pending discovery pursuant to Rule 56(f) of the Federal Rules of Civil Procedure. Wellman argues that the district court should have given him time to have an expert evaluate whether the arbiters could have read all the relevant material in such a short time. 35 We review the district court's discovery rulings for an abuse of discretion. Amarel v. Connell, 102 F.3d 1494, 1515 (9th Cir.1996). Rule 56(f) requires Wellman to show that additional discovery would uncover specific facts that would preclude summary judgment. Maljack Prods., Inc. v. GoodTimes Home Video Corp., 81 F.3d 881, 888 (9th Cir.1996). 36 We hold that the district court did not abuse its discretion. The court denied Wellman's discovery request because it believed that expert testimony was neither necessary nor relevant to this issue. Because lay jurors could determine how much the arbiters could read in a given period without the assistance of an expert, the district court did not err when it determined that such testimony was unnecessary to Wellman's case. Additionally, Wellman did not explain how the information he sought would preclude summary judgment. Even if discovery revealed that the arbiters could not have conducted their review in the manner that Wellman believes they should have, he has pointed to no Guild rule requiring that the arbiters peruse the materials in any particular way. Accordingly, we hold that the district court did not abuse its discretion when it denied Wellman's Rule 56(f) motion. The Guild's Cross-Appeal 37 The Guild cross-appeals the district court's denial of its motion for attorneys' fees, contending that the district court committed clear error when it determined that Wellman had not pursued his claims against the Guild in bad faith. Characterizing Wellman's appeal as frivolous, the Guild also requests attorneys' fees on appeal. 38 A prevailing party may receive attorneys' fees if his adversary acted in bad faith, vexatiously, wantonly, or for oppressive reasons. Sheet Metal Workers v. Madison Indus. Inc., 84 F.3d 1186, 1192 (9th Cir.1996) (citation and quotation marks omitted). We must affirm the district court's finding that Wellman did not act in bad faith, unless that finding was clearly erroneous. Id. If that finding is not clearly erroneous, then we review the district court's denial of attorneys' fees for abuse of discretion. Id. 39 Our review of the record convinces us that the district court committed no clear error when it determined that Wellman did not act in bad faith. Although it is true that the district court dismissed without prejudice a very similar suit that Wellman filed against Warner, the mere resemblance of that complaint to the pleading that Wellman filed against the Guild does not, without more, suggest bad faith. Because different defendants and different facts were involved in Wellman's successive lawsuits, the identical pleading could have obtained quite different results. Furthermore, in the face of unresolved disagreement about how many scripts Wellman had reason to believe were sent to the arbiters, the district court's rejection of the conclusion that Wellman's counsel fabricated this issue was not clearly erroneous. We conclude that the court did not abuse its discretion in declining to award the Guild attorneys' fees. 40 Nor do we award the Guild its attorneys' fees on appeal. An appeal is only considered frivolous if the result is obvious or the arguments of error advanced are wholly without merit. International Union of Petroleum and Indus. Workers v. Western Indus. Maint. Inc., 707 F.2d 425, 430 (9th Cir.1983) (citations omitted). Although Wellman's claims were not meritorious, neither were they frivolous. In these circumstances, we will not grant the Guild attorneys' fees on appeal.