(PS)Thacker v. AT&T Mobility, LLC ( 2020 )

1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 UNITED STATES DISTRICT COURT 9 FOR THE EASTERN DISTRICT OF CALIFORNIA 10 11 DAVID C. THACKER, No. 2:20-cv-00255-KJM-CKD PS 12 Plaintiff, 13 v. ORDER 14 AT&T CORPORATION, et al., (ECF Nos. 11, 13, 16) 15 Defendants. 16 17 This matter is before the court following an initial status hearing held on July 8, 2020. 18 Plaintiff, representing himself pro se in this matter, and defendant AT&T,1 represented by Debbie 19 Kirkpatrick, were present at the hearing. The parties have filed a joint status report. (ECF No. 20 15.) Also pending before the court are plaintiff’s motions to amend his complaint, and plaintiff’s 21 motion for a protective order. (ECF Nos. 11, 13, 16.) For the reasons set forth below, the court 22 rules as follows. 23 Plaintiff’s motion for a protective order (ECF No. 13) requests that the court order 24 defendants to “retain and make available for subsequent” discovery a number of documents and 25 responses. It also appears that plaintiff is requesting that the court order these documents 26 produced. (See id.) However, there is no indication that plaintiff has served defendants with a 27 1 Defendant Diversified Consultants, Inc. recently filed for bankruptcy protections (ECF No. 10) 28 and is not actively participating in this case. 1 copy of the requests for production, or that defendants have refused production. Due to plaintiff 2 failing to follow Federal Rules of Civil Procedure 33, 34, and 37, the court DENIES plaintiff’s 3 motion entitled “motion for protective order.” (ECF No. 13.) However, defendants are reminded 4 that they have a duty to preserve evidence that they reasonably should know may be relevant to 5 this litigation. See United States v. Kitsap Physicians Serv., 314 F.3d 995, 1001 (9th Cir.2002); 6 see also In re Napster, Inc. Copyright Litig., 462 F.Supp.2d 1060, 1070 (N.D.Cal.2006) (noting 7 that once a duty to preserve arises, a party must “suspend any existing policies related to deleting 8 or destroying files and preserve all relevant documents relating to the litigation”). 9 Plaintiff has also requested leave to file an amended complaint. (ECF No. 16.) At the 10 hearing on this matter AT&T represented that it does not oppose plaintiff’s motion. Courts are 11 instructed to freely grant leave to file amended pleadings. Fed. R. Civ. P. 15(a). Accordingly, 12 considering the early stage of litigation and the directive to freely grant leave, plaintiff’s motion 13 to amend his complaint (ECF No. 16) is GRANTED. 14 Finally, the parties have proposed the following deadlines, which the court adopts: 15 Fact Discovery cut-off: December 16, 2020 16 Designation of experts: December 16, 2020 17 Designation of rebuttal experts: December 30, 2020 18 Expert discovery cut-off: March 1, 2021 19 Deadline for filing dispositive motions: March 5, 2021 20 The final pretrial conference and jury trial will take place before the assigned district 21 judge, the Hon. Kimberly J. Mueller. The undersigned declines to set final pretrial conference 22 and trial dates at this juncture, however. Instead, the court orders the parties to submit a Notice of 23 Trial Readiness on one of the following timelines: 24 A. After resolution of any pending dispositive motions, the parties are to submit the 25 Notice not later than thirty (30) days after receiving the district court’s ruling(s) on the last 26 filed dispositive motion(s); or 27 B. If the parties do not intend to file dispositive motions, the parties are ordered to file 28 the Notice not later than one hundred twenty (120) days after the close of discovery, and 6MAIS 2 OU VEY INI N INES MUO OPI eA VI 1 the notice must include statements of intent to forgo the filing of dispositive motions. 2 | Inthe Notice of Trial Readiness, the parties are to set forth the appropriateness of special 3 | procedures, their estimated trial length, any request for a jury, their availability for trial, and if the 4 | parties are willing to attend a settlement conference. The Notice shall also estimate how many 5 || court days each party will require to present its case, including opening statements and closing 6 | arguments. The parties’ estimate shall include time necessary for jury selection, time necessary 7 | to finalize jury instructions and instruct the jury. After review of the parties’ Joint Notice of Trial 8 | Readiness, the court will issue an order that sets forth dates for a final pretrial conference and 9 | trial. 10 Accordingly, it is HEREBY ORDERED that: 11 1. Plaintiff's motion for a protective order (ECF No. 13) is DENIED. 12 2. Plaintiff's motion to amend his complaint (ECF No. 16) is GRANTED. Plaintiff’s 13 | proposed First Amended Complaint (ECF No. 12) is the now-operative complaint in this matter. 14 | Plaintiffs initial motion to amend (ECF No. 11) is DENIED as moot. 15 3. The deadlines proposed by the parties are ADOPTED and SET, as set forth above. 16 | Dated: July 9, 2020 CA rd kt / (g—, 7 CAROLYN K.DELANEY 7 18 UNITED STATES MAGISTRATE JUDGE 19 20 | 16.255.0as 21 22 23 24 25 26 27 28