Arthur J. Gallagher & Co. v. Petree ( 2020 )

1 ANTHONY J. DECRISTOFORO, SBN 166171 anthony.decristoforo@ogletree.com 2 DANIEL E. RICHARDSON, SBN 289327 daniel.richardson@ogletree.com 3 OGLETREE, DEAKINS, NASH, 4 SMOAK & STEWART, P.C. 500 Capitol Mall, Suite 2500 5 Sacramento, CA 95814 Telephone: 916.840.3150 6 Facsimile: 916.840.3159 7 Attorneys for Plaintiff 8 ARTHUR J. GALLAGHER & CO. 9 GREGORY R. DE LA PEÑA (SBN 126626) ROBERT CARROLL (SBN 314345) 10 Email: rcarroll@dlphlaw.com 11 DE LA PEÑA & HOLIDAY LLP One Embarcadero Center, Suite 2860 12 San Francisco, California 94111 Telephone: (415) 268-8000 13 Facsimile: (415) 268-8180 14 Attorneys for Defendant 15 ROBERT PETREE 16 UNITED STATES DISTRICT COURT 17 EASTERN DISTRICT OF CALIFORNIA 18 19 SACRAMENTO DIVISION 20 ARTHUR J. GALLAGHER & CO., CASE NO. 2:18-CV-03274-JAM-KJN 21 Plaintiff, ASSIGNED TO THE HONORABLE 22 JOHN A. MENDEZ v. 23 JOINT STIPULATION AND ORDER TO ROBERT PETREE and DOES 1-25, inclusive, MODIFY SCHEDULING ORDER, TO 24 ALLOW FILING OF FIRST AMENDED COMPLAINT, AND TO CONTINUE 25 Defendants. TRIAL 26 Complaint Filed: 12/27/2018 27 Trial Date: 08/03/2020 the Plaintiff Arthur J. Gallagher (“GALLAGHER”) and Defendant Robert Petree (collectively, the 1 2 “Parties”) hereby stipulate and ask the Court to grant GALLAGHER leave to file a first amended 3 complaint, and for the Court to Order that the deadlines in the scheduling order entered on March 4 25, 2019 (ECF No. 9) be continued pursuant to the Court’s provided dates below, or as soon 5 thereafter as is convenient for the Court. Specifically, the Parties stipulate and request the Court 6 order as follows: 7 8 1.) That GALLAGHER be permitted leave to amend its complaint and file a First Amended Complaint, in the form attached hereto as Exhibit A (“First Amended Complaint”), as requested in 9 GALLAGHER’s “Motion to Modify Scheduling Order and For Leave To Amend The Complaint” 10 (“GALLAGHER MOTION”). 11 2.) That the March 25, 2019 STATUS (Pre-Trial Scheduling) ORDER (ECF No.9, 12 hereinafter “SCHEDULING ORDER”) be amended to allow for the filing and service of a first 13 amended complaint as requested in the GALLAGHER MOTION. 14 3.) That the SCHEDULING ORDER be modified to extend the dispositive motion deadline 15 to November 10, 2020, with hearing on such motions taking place on December 8, 2020 at 1:30 16 p.m. 17 4.) That the SCHEDULING ORDER be modified to extend the discovery cut-off to October 18 23, 2020. 19 5.) That the SCHEDULING ORDER be modified to extend the deadline for expert witness disclosures to July 21, 2020, and for supplemental disclosure and disclosure of rebuttal experts 20 under Fed. R. Civ. Pc. 26(a)(2)(c) be extended to September 4, 2020. 21 6.) That the SCHEDULING ORDER be modified to continue the pre-trial conference to 22 January 29, 2021 at 10:00 a.m. Joint pretrial statement will be due January 22, 2021. 23 7.) That the SCHEDULING ORDER be modified to continue jury trial in this matter to 24 March 1, 2021. 25 26 27 Civ. P. 15(a)(2). “[A] court may at any time, on just terms add or drop a party.” Fed. R. Civ. P. 21. 1 2 “The district court is given broad discretion in supervising the pretrial phase of litigation.” Johnson 3 v. Mammoth Recreations, Inc., 975 F. 2d 604, 607 (9th Cir. 1992) (citation and internal quotation 4 marks omitted). Rule 16(b) provides that “[a] schedule may be modified only for good cause and 5 with the judge’s consent.” Fed. R. Civ. P. 16(b)(4). “The schedule may be modified “if it cannot 6 reasonably be met despite the diligence of the party seeking the extension.” Zikovic v. Southern 7 California Edison Co., 302 F. 3d 1080, 1087. (9th Cir. 2002) (quoting Johnson, 975 F.2d at 607.) 8 Good cause exists for the relief sought by this stipulation and proposed Order. The 9 10 GALLAGHER MOTION - which seeks leave for GALLAGHER to amend its Complaint to join 11 HUB International Services Inc. (“HUB”) as a defendant, assert trade secret misappropriation 12 claims against Defendant Robert Petree and HUB, and assert additional claims against Defendant 13 Robert Petree based upon new evidence obtained by GALLAGHER through discovery- seeks relief 14 that will significantly expand the scope of discovery and other pre-trial preparation for existing 15 parties, and will bring HUB into highly complex litigation without sufficient time to prepare for 16 trial. Existing parties would be prejudiced without an opportunity to adequately prepare for trial, 17 18 participate in discovery, and engage in any necessary motion practice in light of new allegations 19 and claims raised in the GALLAGHER MOTION, and HUB would be prejudiced by an inability to 20 participate in deposition and other discovery currently calendared to take place in February 2020. 21 Existing parties will be prejudiced if their personnel are required to appear at deposition at currently 22 noticed dates, and then again once HUB appears. Finally, an order granting the relief sought by this 23 stipulation and proposed order would render further briefing, hearing, or determination on the 24 25 GALLAGHER MOTION unnecessary, and would be the most efficient use of this Court’s and the 26 existing parties’ resources. Parties consulted this Court prior to filing the stipulation, and the relief 27 requested is pursuant to dates of extension provided by this Court. 1 2 3 For these reasons, the parties ask the Court to grant the relief sought in the above stipulation 4 pursuant to the court’s instructions. In the event that the Court does not find good cause to grant any 5 portion of the relief sought by this application Defendant Robert Petree reserves all rights with 6 respect to any opposition to or motion filed in response to the GALLAGHER MOTION. 7 Respectfully Submitted, 8 Dated: February 4, 2020 DE LA PEÑA & HOLIDAY, LLP 9 10 11 By____________________________________ 12 Gregory R. de la Peña Robert Carroll III 13 Attorney for Defendant ROBERT PETREE 14 15 Dated: February 4, 2020 OGLETREE, DEAKINS, NASH, SMOAK & STEWART P.C. 16 17 By____________________________________ Anthony J. DeCristoforo 18 Daniel Richardson 19 Attorneys for Plaintiff ARTHUR J. GALLAGHER & CO. 20 IT IS SO ORDERED. 21 22 1.) That GALLAGHER’s First Amended Complaint is deemed filed with this Court as of 23 the date of this Order. 24 2.) That the March 25, 2019 STATUS (Pre-Trial Scheduling) ORDER (ECF No.9) be amended to allow for service of the First Amended Complaint on HUB. 25 3.) That the SCHEDULING ORDER be modified to extend the dispositive motion deadline 26 to November 10, 2020, with hearing on such motions taking place on December 8, 2020 at 1:30 27 p.m. 1 4.) That the SCHEDULING ORDER be modified to extend the discovery cut-off to October 2 23, 2020. 5.) That the SCHEDULING ORDER be modified to extend the deadline for expert witness 3 disclosures to July 21, 2020, and for supplemental disclosure and disclosure of rebuttal experts 4 under Fed. R. Civ. Pc. 26(a)(2)(c) be extended to September 4, 2020. 5 6.) That the SCHEDULING ORDER be modified to continue the pre-trial conference to 6 January 29, 2021 at 10:00 a.m. Joint pretrial statement will be due January 22, 2021. 7 7.) That the SCHEDULING ORDER be modified to continue jury trial in this matter to 8 March 1, 2021. 9 10 DATED: 2/6/2020 /s/ John A. Mendez_________________ HON. JOHN A. MENDEZ 11 UNITED STATES DISTRICT JUDGE 12 13 14 41698465.1 15 41707524.1 16 17 18 19 20 21 22 23 24 25 26 27