Wilson v. Pan Norcal, LLC ( 2020 )

1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 UNITED STATES DISTRICT COURT 9 FOR THE EASTERN DISTRICT OF CALIFORNIA 10 11 SHERYL WILSON, No. 2:18-cv-00660-KJM-KJN 12 Plaintiff, 13 v. STATUS (PRETRIAL SCHEDULING) 14 PAN NORCAL, LLC; TJM PLAZA ORDER GRF2, LLC, 15 Defendant. 16 17 18 19 An initial scheduling conference was held in this case on January 16, 2020. 20 Scottlynn Hubbard, IV appeared for plaintiff; Tudor Jones appeared for defendant. Jacqueline 21 Murphy waived her appearance. 22 Having reviewed the parties’ Joint Status Report filed on January 2, 2020, and 23 discussed a schedule for the case with counsel at the hearing, the court makes the following 24 orders: 25 I. SERVICE OF PROCESS 26 All named defendants have been served and no further service is permitted without 27 leave of court, good cause having been shown. 28 ///// 1 II. ADDITIONAL PARTIES/AMENDMENTS/PLEADINGS 2 The court understands the parties anticipate joinder by an insurer, which will be 3 governed by the Federal Rules. Otherwise, joinder of parties or amendments to pleadings is not 4 permitted without leave of court, good cause having been shown. See Fed. R. Civ. P. 16(b); 5 Johnson v. Mammoth Recreations, Inc., 975 F.2d 604 (9th Cir. 1992). 6 III. JURISDICTION/VENUE 7 Jurisdiction is predicated upon 28 U.S.C. §§ 1331, 1343, and 1367. Jurisdiction and 8 venue are not disputed. 9 IV. DISCOVERY 10 No stay is needed. The parties agree to proceed with discovery. Initial disclosures 11 as required by Federal Rule of Civil Procedure 26(a) shall be completed by January 30, 2020. 12 All discovery shall be completed by June 11, 2021. In this context, “completed” means that all 13 discovery shall have been conducted so that all depositions have been taken and any disputes 14 relative to discovery shall have been resolved by appropriate order if necessary and, where 15 discovery has been ordered, the order has been obeyed. All motions to compel discovery must be 16 noticed on the magistrate judge’s calendar in accordance with the local rules of this court. While 17 the assigned magistrate judge reviews proposed discovery phase protective orders, requests to 18 seal or redact are decided by Judge Mueller as discussed in more detail below. In addition, while 19 the assigned magistrate judge handles discovery motions, the magistrate judge cannot change the 20 schedule set in this order, except that the magistrate judge may modify a discovery cutoff to the 21 extent such modification does not have the effect of requiring a change to the balance of the 22 schedule. 23 V. DISCLOSURE OF EXPERT WITNESSES 24 All counsel are to designate in writing and serve upon all other parties the name, 25 address, and area of expertise of each expert that they propose to tender at trial not later than 26 January 10, 2021. The designation shall be accompanied by a written report prepared and signed 27 by the witness. The report shall comply with Fed. R. Civ. P. 26(a)(2)(B). By February 9, 2021, 28 any party who previously disclosed expert witnesses may submit a rebuttal list of expert 1 witnesses who will express an opinion on a subject covered by an expert designated by an adverse 2 party, if the party rebutting an expert witness designation has not previously retained an expert to 3 testify on that subject. The rebuttal designation shall be accompanied by a written report, which 4 shall also comply with the conditions stated above. 5 Failure of a party to comply with the disclosure schedule as set forth above in all 6 likelihood will preclude that party from calling the expert witness at the time of trial. An expert 7 witness not appearing on the designation will not be permitted to testify unless the party offering 8 the witness demonstrates: (a) that the necessity for the witness could not have been reasonably 9 anticipated at the time the list was proffered; (b) that the court and opposing counsel were 10 promptly notified upon discovery of the witness; and (c) that the witness was promptly made 11 available for deposition. 12 For purposes of this scheduling order, an “expert” is any person who may be used 13 at trial to present evidence under Rules 702, 703 and 705 of the Federal Rules of Evidence, which 14 include both “percipient experts” (persons who, because of their expertise, have rendered expert 15 opinions in the normal course of their work duties or observations pertinent to the issues in the 16 case) and “retained experts” (persons specifically designated by a party to be a testifying expert 17 for the purposes of litigation). A party shall identify whether a disclosed expert is percipient, 18 retained, or both. It will be assumed that a party designating a retained expert has acquired the 19 express permission of the witness to be so listed. Parties designating percipient experts must state 20 in the designation who is responsible for arranging the deposition of such persons. 21 All experts designated are to be fully prepared at the time of designation to render 22 an informed opinion, and give the bases for their opinion, so that they will be able to give full and 23 complete testimony at any deposition taken by the opposing party. Experts will not be permitted 24 to testify at trial as to any information gathered or evaluated, or opinion formed, after deposition 25 taken subsequent to designation. All expert discovery shall be completed by May 9, 2021. 26 ///// 27 ///// 28 ///// 1 VI. MOTION HEARING SCHEDULE 2 All dispositive motions, except motions for continuances, temporary restraining 3 orders or other emergency applications, shall be heard no later than September 17, 2021.1 The 4 court understands that if the parallel workers compensation case is not resolved by this date, the 5 parties may request an extension to the dispositive motions cut-off date. The parties may obtain 6 available hearing dates by checking Judge Mueller’s page on the court’s website. 7 All purely legal issues are to be resolved by timely pretrial motions. Local Rule 8 230 governs the calendaring and procedures of civil motions; the following provisions also apply: 9 (a) The opposition and reply must be filed by 4:00 p.m. on the day due; and 10 (b) When the last day for filing an opposition brief falls on a legal holiday, the 11 opposition brief shall be filed on the last court day immediately preceding the legal holiday. 12 Failure to comply with Local Rule 230(c), as modified by this order, may be deemed consent to 13 the motion and the court may dispose of the motion summarily. Brydges v. Lewis, 18 F.3d 651, 14 652-53 (9th Cir. 1994). 15 The court values the importance of training young attorneys. The parties are 16 encouraged to consider assigning oral argument to a young attorney. If a written request for oral 17 argument is filed before a hearing, stating an attorney of four or fewer years out of law school 18 will argue the oral argument, then the court will ordinarily hold the hearing, although the court’s 19 schedule and calendar may require the hearing to be reset. Otherwise, the court may find it 20 appropriate in some actions to submit a motion without oral argument. 21 The court places a page limit of twenty (20) pages on all moving papers, twenty 22 (20) pages on oppositions, and ten (10) pages for replies. All requests for page limit increases 23 must be made in writing at least fourteen (14) days prior to the filing of the motion. 24 Prior to filing a motion in a case in which the parties are represented by counsel, 25 counsel shall engage in a pre-filing meet and confer to discuss thoroughly the substance of the 26 contemplated motion and any potential resolution. Plaintiff’s counsel should carefully evaluate 27 28 1 Note that this date may not correspond to a law and motion calendar date. 1 the defendant’s contentions as to deficiencies in the complaint and in many instances the party 2 considering a motion should agree to any amendment that would cure a curable defect. Counsel 3 should discuss the issues sufficiently so that if a motion of any kind is filed, including for 4 summary judgment, the briefing is directed only to those substantive issues requiring resolution 5 by the court. Counsel should resolve minor procedural or other non-substantive matters during 6 the meet and confer. A notice of motion shall contain a certification by counsel filing the 7 motion that meet and confer efforts have been exhausted, with a brief summary of meet and 8 confer efforts. 9 The parties are cautioned that failure to raise a dispositive legal issue that could 10 have been tendered to the court by proper pretrial motion prior to the dispositive motion cut-off 11 date may constitute waiver of such issue. 12 VII. SEALING 13 No document will be sealed, nor shall a redacted document be filed, without the 14 prior approval of the court. If a document for which sealing or redaction is sought relates to the 15 record on a motion to be decided by Judge Mueller, the request to seal or redact should be 16 directed to her and not the assigned Magistrate Judge. All requests to seal or redact shall be 17 governed by Local Rules 141 (sealing) and 140 (redaction); protective orders covering the 18 discovery phase of litigation shall not govern the filing of sealed or redacted documents on the 19 public docket. The court will only consider requests to seal or redact filed by the proponent of 20 sealing or redaction. If a party plans to make a filing that includes material an opposing party has 21 identified as confidential and potentially subject to sealing, the filing party shall provide the 22 opposing party with sufficient notice in advance of filing to allow for the seeking of an order of 23 sealing or redaction from the court. 24 VIII. FURTHER SCHEDULING 25 The court will set a Final Pretrial Conference date after the resolution of any 26 dispositive motions, or passage of the dispositive motion cutoff, with a trial date being 27 determined at the pretrial conference. The parties should be prepared to confirm a trial date 28 ///// 1 within 60 to 120 days from the date of the final pretrial conference, and should be available for 2 trial accordingly. 3 IX. SETTLEMENT CONFERENCE 4 No settlement conference is currently scheduled. A settlement conference may be 5 set at the time of the Final Pretrial Conference or at an earlier time at the parties’ request. In the 6 event that an earlier court settlement conference date or referral to the Voluntary Dispute 7 Resolution Program (VDRP) is requested, the parties shall file said request jointly, in writing. 8 Counsel are instructed to have a principal with full settlement authority present at 9 any Settlement Conference or to be fully authorized to settle the matter on any terms. Each judge 10 has different requirements for the submission of settlement conference statements; the appropriate 11 instructions will be sent to you after the settlement judge is assigned. 12 X. MODIFICATION OF STATUS (PRETRIAL SCHEDULING) ORDER 13 The parties are reminded that pursuant to Rule 16(b) of the Federal Rules of Civil 14 Procedure, the Status (Pretrial Scheduling) Order shall not be modified except by leave of court 15 upon a showing of good cause. Agreement of the parties by stipulation alone does not constitute 16 good cause. Except in extraordinary circumstances, unavailability of witnesses or counsel does 17 not constitute good cause. 18 As noted, the assigned magistrate judge is authorized to modify only the discovery 19 dates shown above to the extent any such modification does not impact the balance of the 20 schedule of the case. 21 XI. OBJECTIONS TO STATUS (PRETRIAL SCHEDULING) ORDER 22 This Status Order will become final without further order of the court unless 23 objections are filed within fourteen (14) calendar days of service of this Order. 24 IT IS SO ORDERED. 25 DATED: January 21, 2020. 26 27 28