Jiang v. KNTV Television LLC

Nature of the order

This order is a referral under Civil Local Rule 3-12(c). The court did not decide the merits of the plaintiffs’ claims. Instead, it referred the case to United States District Judge Rita F. Lin to determine whether this case is related to Qin v. KNTV Television LLC, No. 25-cv-00676-RFL.

Background

The court noted that the case has consent issues because unserved defendants appear on the docket without the court’s permission. Under the rule cited by the court, all parties, including unserved defendants, must consent to a magistrate judge’s authority to conduct the case.

The court also explained that it had previously dismissed the entire case with prejudice, addressing only the defendants it considered part of the operative complaint. The Ninth Circuit later vacated that dismissal and sent the case back because some unserved defendants had not consented to magistrate-judge jurisdiction.

Ruling

The court referred this case to Judge Rita F. Lin to determine whether it is related to the lower-numbered case, Qin v. KNTV Television LLC. The court stated that the related-case question would be addressed first. If the cases are found not to be related, the case will be reassigned to a randomly selected district judge. The order also states that the court separately filed a report and recommendation for dismissal in the lower-numbered case, but this order itself is a referral for determining the relationship between the cases.