Aviles v. Proctor & Gamble Company ( 2022 )

| |) ANDREW SOUKUP (admitted pro hac vice) asoukup@cov.com 2 | COVINGTON & BURLING LLP 3 || One CityCenter 850 Tenth Street NW 4 || Washington, D.C. 20001 Telephone: (202) 662-5066 5 6 AMY S. HEATH (SBN 312516) aheath@cov.com 7 || COVINGTON & BURLING LLP Salesforce Tower 8 || 415 Mission Street, Suite 5400 San Francisco, CA 94105-2533 9 || Telephone: (415) 591-6000 10 Attorneys for Defendant 11 || The Procter & Gamble Company 12 || Additional counsel listed on signature page. 13 UNITED STATES DISTRICT COURT 14 FOR THE EASTERN DISTRICT OF CALIFORNIA 1S SACRAMENTO DIVISION 16 17 EILEEN AVILES, SHELBY COOPER, TANYA _. COOPER, JACOB COOPER, and PATRICIA Civil Case No.: 2:21-cv-02108-KJM-AC 18 DONADIO, individually and on behalf of all others 9 |] Similarly situated, JOINT STIPULATION TO STAY CASE Plaintiff PENDING JUDICIAL PANEL ON 20 aun’; MULTIDISTRICT LITIGATION’S >] RESOLUTION OF PENDING MOTION v. TO TRANSFER 22 THE PROCTER & GAMBLE COMPANY, Initial Case Management Conference: 23 Defendant. March 24, 2022, 2:30 P.M. (Mueller, C.J.) 24 25 26 27 28 JOINT STIPULATION TO STAY CASE PENDING JUDICIAL PANEL ON MULTIDISTRICT LITIGATION’S 1 WHEREAS, on November 12, 2021, Plaintiffs Eileen Aviles, Shelby Cooper, Tanya Cooper, 2 || Jacob Cooper, and Patricia Donadio (“Plantiffs”) filed the above-captioned putative class action 3 || complaint (the “Complaint’”) against Defendant The Procter & Gamble Company (“P&G”) asserting 4 || claims based on allegations that certain P&G aerosol antiperspirant sprays contained benzene, see ECF 5 || No. 1; 6 WHEREAS, P&G has waived service of the Complaint, and P&G’s deadline to respond to the 7 || Complaint currently is January 18, 2022, see ECF No. 7; 8 WHEREAS, the Court has set an initial status conference for March 24, 2022 at 2:30 P.M., see 9 || ECF No. 6; 10 WHEREAS, the deadline for the Parties to complete their Rule 26(f) conference is March 3, 11 || 2022, see ECF No. 6; 12 WHEREAS, as of the date of filing this stipulation, there were thirteen other actions in eight 13 || other districts asserting claims related to the alleged presence of benzene in certain P&G aerosol 14 || products; 15 WHEREAS, under the Multidistrict Litigation Act, “[w]hen civil actions involving one or more 16 || common questions of fact are pending in different districts, such actions may be transferred to any 17 || district for coordinated or consolidated pretrial proceedings,” 28 U.S.C. § 1407(a); 18 WHEREAS, on December 13, 2021, P&G filed with the Judicial Panel on Multidistrict 19 || Litigation (““JPML”) a Motion for Transfer of Actions Pursuant to 28 U.S.C. § 1407 for Centralized 20 || Pretrial Proceedings, see ECF No. 11, seeking to create a Multidistrict Litigation (“MDL”) proceeding 21 || and to transfer this action and ten others asserting similar benzene-related claims against P&G to the 22 || Southern District of Florida for centralized pretrial proceedings, see ECF No. 13; 23 WHEREAS, on December 14, 2021, the JPML issued a briefing schedule for P&G’s Motion for 24 || Transfer, with responses to the Motion for Transfer due on January 4, 2022 and replies due on January 25 || 11, 2022, see In re Procter & Gamble Aerosol Products Marketing & Sales Practices Litigation, MDL 26 || No. 3025, ECF No. 3, and the Panel is expected to render a decision shortly after its hearing on the 27 || Motion for Transfer, see John G. Heyburn II, A View from the Panel: Part of the Solution, 82 Tul. L. 28 || Rev. 2225, 2242 (2008) (“The Panel’s rules already require a tight briefing schedule prior to oral JOINT STIPULATION TO STAY CASE PENDING JUDICIAL PANEL ON MULTIDISTRICT LITIGATION’S RESOLUTION OF PENDING MOTION TO TRANSFER 1 || argument on all § 1407 transfer motions. The Panel prepares extensively for oral argument and usually 2 || reaches a decision on each case during its conference immediately afterwards... .”); 3 WHEREAS, this action was recently filed and there has been little activity in the case; 4 WHEREAS, courts in this district often stay civil actions when the issue of transfer is before the 5 || JPML, see Weaver v. Pfizer, Inc., 2014 WL 2002212 (E.D. Cal. May 15, 2014) (granting motion to stay 6 || pending decision by the JPML); JBR, Inc. v. Keurig Green Mountain, Inc., 2014 WL 1767701, at *3 7 || (E.D. Cal. May 2, 2014) (same); Franklin v. Prospect Mortg., LLC, 2013 WL 6423389, at *3 (E.D. Cal. 8 || Dec. 9, 2013) (same); Gordillo vy. Bank of Am., N.A., 2010 WL 148699, at *2 (E.D. Cal. Jan. 14, 2010) 9 || (same); 10 WHEREAS, Plaintiffs and P&G agree that the interest of efficiency for the Parties and the Court 11 || would be best served by staying this case until the JPML rules on the pending Motion for Transfer. 12 || Absent a stay, the Court and the Parties would face case management obligations and deadlines. In light 13 || of the likelihood that there will be an MDL consolidating these actions for the purpose of pretrial 14 || proceedings, a stay is prudent to avoid duplication of pretrial efforts by the Parties, any waste of judicial 15 || resources, the risk of conflicting rulings, and to promote just and efficient conduct of these actions; 16 WHEREAS, P&G is (or soon will be) seeking similar stays 1n all other similar cases in which it 17 || has been served involving claims related to the alleged presence of benzene in certain P&G aerosol 18 || products; 19 THEREFORE, the Parties respectfully request that this Court stay the action pending the 20 || decision of the JPML in Jn re Procter & Gamble Aerosol Products Marketing & Sales Practices 21 || Litigation, MDL No. 3025, and vacate all deadlines, including Defendant’s obligation to respond to the 22 || Complaint and the March 24, 2022 initial status conference and associated deadlines. If the JPML does 23 || not centralize these cases, the parties will file a status report within 14 days of the JPML’s ruling. 24 It is so stipulated. 25 26 27 28 JOINT STIPULATION TO STAY CASE PENDING JUDICIAL PANEL ON MULTIDISTRICT LITIGATION’S RESOLUTION OF PENDING MOTION TO TRANSFER 1 DATED: December 17, 2021 COVINGTON & BURLING LLP 2 By: /s/ Andrew Soukup 3 Andrew Soukup (admitted pro hac vice) 4 asoukup@cov.com COVINGTON & BURLING LLP 5 One CityCenter 850 Tenth Street NW 6 Washington, D.C. 20001 7 Telephone: (202) 662-5066 8 Amy S. Heath (SBN 312516) aheath@cov.com 9 COVINGTON & BURLING LLP Salesforce Tower 10 415 Mission Street, Suite 5400 San Francisco, CA 94105-2533 Telephone: (415) 591-6000 Attorneys for Defendant The Procter & Gamble 13 Company. 14 DATED: December 17, 2021 MILBERG COLEMAN BRYSON 15 PHILLIPS GROSSMAN PLLC 16 By: /s/Alex R. Straus (as authorized on 12/17/21) 17 Alex R. Straus (SBN 321366) 18 Email: astraus@milberg.com 19 MILBERG COLEMAN BRYSON PHILLIPS GROSSMAN PLLC 20 280 South Beverly Drive Beverly Hills, CA 90212 21 Tel.: (917) 471-1894 Fax: (310) 496-3176 22 3 Nick Suciu I* MILBERG COLEMAN BRYSON 24 PHILLIPS GROSSMAN PLLC nsuciu@milberg.com 25 6905 Telegraph Rd., Suite 115 Bloomfield Hills, MI 48301 26 Tel.: (313) 303-3472 27 28 JOINT STIPULATION TO STAY CASE PENDING JUDICIAL PANEL ON MULTIDISTRICT LITIGATION’S RESOLUTION OF PENDING MOTION TO TRANSFER Jennifer Czeisler* Email: jczeisler@milberg.com Virginia Ann Whitener* 3 Email: gwhitener@milberg.com Russell Busch* 4 Email: rbusch@milberg.com MILBERG COLEMAN BRYSON 5 PHILLIPS GROSSMAN PLLC 6 800 S. Gay Street, Suite 1100 Knoxville, TN 37929 7 Tel.: (865) 247-0080 8 *Pro Hac Vice application forthcoming 9 Attorneys for Plaintiffs Eileen Aviles, Shelby Cooper, Tanya Cooper, Jacob Cooper, and 10 . Patricia Donadio 11 12 13 14 ORDER GRANTING STIPULATION 15 Pursuant to the stipulation of the Parties, this case is stayed pending the decision of the JPML in 16 || In re Procter & Gamble Aerosol Products Marketing & Sales Practices Litigation, MDL No. 3025, and 17 || all deadlines, including Defendant’s obligation to respond to the Complaint and the March 24, 2022 18 || initial status conference and associated deadlines, are vacated. If the JPML does not centralize these 19 || cases, the parties shall file a status report within 14 days of the JPML’s ruling. 20 IT IS SO ORDERED. 21 || DATED: January 5, 2022. 22 /\ (] 23 AT Wal X ¢ 04 CHIEF NT] ED STATES DISTRICT JUDGE 25 26 27 28 JOINT STIPULATION TO STAY CASE PENDING JUDICIAL PANEL ON MULTIDISTRICT LITIGATION’S RESOLUTION OF PENDING MOTION TO TRANSFER