Opinion
Civil Action No. 07-cv-00632-EWN-MEH.
July 11, 2007
ORDER
Pending before the Court is an Unopposed Motion to Stay discovery filed by Defendants Bonnie Roesink and Daniel Edwards [Doc #22]. The Motion is hereby granted.
The Supreme Court has emphasized the broad protection qualified immunity affords, giving officials "a right, not merely to avoid `standing trial,' but also to avoid the burdens of `such pretrial matters as discovery.'" Behrens v. Pelletier, 516 U.S. 299, 308 (1996) (quoting Mitchell v. Forsyth, 472 U.S. 511, 526 (1985)); see also Crawford-El v. Britton, 523 U.S. 574, 598 (1998). Consequently, courts should resolve the purely legal question raised by a qualified immunity defense at the earliest possible stage in litigation. Albright v. Rodriguez, 51 F.3d 1531, 1534 (10th Cir. 1995); see also Medina v. Cram, 252 F.3d 1124, 1127-28 (10th Cir. 2001).
In this case, Defendants Roesink and Edwards filed a Motion to Dismiss [Doc #11] alleging, among other defenses, that they enjoy immunity from the state law claims under the Colorado Governmental Immunity Act, and absolute prosecutorial immunity from the constitutional claims raised in this matter.
In addition, Defendants Rodney Johnson and Kim Wilken have filed a Motion to Dismiss based upon Fed.R.Civ.P. 12(b)(1) and 12(b)(6) [Doc #12]. The Court has broad discretion to stay proceedings as an incident to its power to control its own docket. See Clinton v. Jones, 520 U.S. 681, 706-07 (1997) (citing Landis v. North American Co., 299 U.S. 248, 254 (1936)). Because the Motion raises a legal question of this Court's jurisdiction over the subject matter of the dispute, the question should be resolved as early as possible in the litigation. See Albright, 51 F.3d at 1534. Consequently, the Court will grant the stay as to all discovery in this matter pending the dispositions of the motions to dismiss filed by Defendants Johnson and Wilken, and by Roesink and Edwards.
Accordingly, for the reasons stated above, it is hereby ORDERED that the Unopposed Motion to Stay discovery filed by Defendants Roesink and Edwards [Filed 7/9/07; Doc #22] is granted. Discovery in this matter is hereby stayed in accordance with this Order. The parties are directed to submit a status report within five days of the entry of any order adjudicating either of the pending motions to dismiss.