Lake v. City of Vallejo ( 2020 )

1 CLAUDIA M. QUINTANA City Attorney, SBN 178613 2 BY: TIMOTHY R. SMYTH 3 Assistant City Attorney, SBN 258661 CITY OF VALLEJO, City Hall 4 555 Santa Clara Street, P.O. Box 3068 Vallejo, CA 94590 5 Tel: (707) 648-4545 6 Fax: (707) 648-4687 Email: timothy.smyth@cityofvallejo.net 7 Attorneys for Defendants, CITY OF VALLEJO, VALLEJO POLIC EDEPARTMENT 8 9 WENDY H. CHAU ESQ., SBN 278801 LAW OFFICES OF WENDY H. CHAU 10 580 California Street, Suite 1200 San Francisco, CA 94101 11 Telephone: (415) 539-6116 12 Facsimile: (888) 958-1953 Email: info@attorneychau.com 13 Attorney for Plaintiff 14 UNITED STATES DISTRICT COURT 15 EASTERN DISTRICT OF CALIFORNIA, SACRAMENTO DIVISION 16 17 JOSEPH LAKE, Case No: 2:19-cv-01439-KJM-KJN 18 Plaintiff, 19 STIPULATION FOR PROTECTIVE vs. ORDER AND ORDER 20 CITY OF VALLEJO, et al. 21 Defendants. 22 23 24 IT IS HEREBY STIPULATED BY ALL PARTIES to this action by and through their 25 attorneys of record, that in order to protect the confidentiality of the records described below, 26 any of said records disclosed are subject to a protective order and designated as “Confidential 27 Material” as follows: 28 Case No. 2:19-cv-01439-KJM-KJN STIPULATION FOR PROTECTIVE ORDER AND ORDER 1 1. “Confidential material” which qualifies for protection under this agreement and 2 under Federal Rule of Civil Procedure 26(c) and for which public disclosure is 3 likely to result in particularized harm and violate privacy interests recognized by 4 law, includes, but is not limited to, the following information (regardless of how it 5 is generated, stored or maintained) or tangible things: 6 a. Personnel file records of any peace officer; 7 b. Medical records. 8 c. Social security numbers and similar sensitive identifying 9 information (unless redacted by order or by agreement of all 10 parties). 11 d. Any relevant citizen complaints and internal affairs investigations, 12 including allegations of excessive force or alleged dishonesty 13 against any to-be-named City Officers within the last five years. 14 e. Police records which would potentially disclose confidential 15 informant information, or in any way compromise an ongoing 16 criminal investigation. 17 2. Confidential material may not be disclosed except as set forth in paragraphs 3- 5. 18 3. Confidential Material may be disclosed only to the following persons: 19 a. Counsel for any party to this action. 20 b. Paralegal, stenographic, clerical and secretarial personnel regularly 21 employed by counsel referred to in 3(a); 22 c. Court personnel including stenographic reporters engaged in such 23 proceedings as are necessarily incidental to preparation for the trial 24 of this action; 25 d. Any outside expert or consultant retained in connection with this 26 action, and not otherwise employed by either party; 27 28 Case No. 2:19-cv-01439-KJM-KJN STIPULATION FOR PROTECTIVE ORDER AND ORDER 1 e. Any “in house” expert designated by defendants to testify at trial in 2 this matter; 3 f. Witnesses, other than the plaintiffs herein, who may have the 4 documents disclosed to them during deposition proceedings; the 5 witnesses may not leave the depositions with copies of the 6 documents, and shall be bound by the provisions of paragraph 5; 7 g. Any Neutral Evaluator or other designated ADR provider; 8 h. Parties to this action; and 9 i. The jury, should this matter go to trial. 10 4. Each person to whom disclosure is made, with the exception of counsel who are 11 presumed to know of the contents of this protective order, shall, prior to disclosure: (1) be 12 provided with a copy of this order by the person furnishing him/her such material, and (2) agree 13 on the record or in writing that she/he has read the protective order and that she/he understand 14 the provisions of the protective order. Such person must also consent to be subject to the 15 jurisdiction of the United States District Court, Eastern District of California, with respect to any 16 proceeding relating to the enforcement of this order. Defendant City of Vallejo and the named 17 defendant herein shall be entitled to retain possession of the original writings described above. 18 Nothing in this paragraph 4 is intended to prevent officials or employees of the City of Vallejo or 19 other authorized government officials or any other persons from having access to the documents 20 if they would have had access in the normal course of their job duties or rights as a citizen. 21 Further, nothing in this order prevents a witness from disclosing events or activities personal to 22 them, i.e., a witness can disclose to others previous information given to the City of Vallejo with 23 respect to what she/he saw, heard, or otherwise sensed. 24 5. At the conclusion of the trial and of any appeal or upon other termination of this 25 litigation, all Confidential Material received under the provision of this order (including any 26 copies made) shall be delivered back to the City of Vallejo. Provisions of this order insofar as 27 28 Case No. 2:19-cv-01439-KJM-KJN STIPULATION FOR PROTECTIVE ORDER AND ORDER 1 they restrict disclosure and use of the material shall be in effect until all Confidential Material 2 (including all copies thereof) are returned to defendants. 3 6. Should a party intend to file Confidential Material with the court, as an exhibit to 4 a pleading or otherwise, that party must first notify all other parties (through their attorneys), in 5 writing and filed with the court, no less than fourteen days before the intended filing date, giving 6 any such party reasonable notice and an opportunity to apply to the court for an order to file the 7 material under seal. No document shall be filed under seal unless a party secures a court order 8 allowing the filing of a document under seal in accordance with the provisions of E.D. Local 9 Rule 141. 10 7. Nothing in this order shall preclude a party from showing or disclosing any 11 documents, e.g., deposition transcript, pleading or brief, which otherwise contain Confidential 12 Material as defined in paragraph 1, as long as such document has been redacted so as to prevent 13 disclosure of such Confidential Material. 14 8. The foregoing is without prejudice to the right of any party (a) to apply to the 15 Court for a further protective order relating to any Confidential Material or relating to discovery 16 in this litigation; (b) to apply to the Court for an order removing the Confidential Material 17 designation from any document; and (c) to apply to the Court for an order compelling production 18 of documents or modification of this order or for any order permitting disclosure of Confidential 19 Materials beyond the terms of this order. 20 9. Upon receipt of this Protective Order and disclosure of the Confidential Material, 21 it will be presumed that plaintiffs know the contents of this Protective Order, understand the 22 provisions of this Protective Order and consent to be subject to the jurisdiction of the United 23 States District Court, Eastern District, with respect to any proceeding relating to the enforcement 24 of this Protective Order. 25 10. Confidential Material disclosed may be used in the litigation of this action only, 26 and not for any other purpose. 27 28 Case No. 2:19-cv-01439-KJM-KJN STIPULATION FOR PROTECTIVE ORDER AND ORDER 1 11. Violation of the terms of this Protective Order MAY SUBJECT a party to any and 2 all permissible SANCTIONS, including dismissal. 3 4 DATED: January 9, 2020 Respectfully Submitted, 5 6 /s/ Timothy R. Smyth TIMOTHY R. SMYTH 7 Assistant City Attorney Attorney for Defendants, 8 CITY OF VALLEJO, et al. 9 10 DATED: January 9, 2020 /s/ Wendy H. Chau 11 WENDY H, CHAU Attorney for Plaintiffs 12 13 14 ORDER 15 The Court has reviewed the parties’ stipulated protective order, which comports with the 16 relevant authorities and the Court’s applicable local rule. See L.R. 141.1(c);1 see also Phillips ex 17 18 1 The Court’s Local Rules instruct the parties, when requesting a protective order, to 19 include in their submission: 20 (1) A description of the types of information eligible for protection under the 21 order, with the description provided in general terms sufficient to reveal the 22 nature of the information (e.g., customer list, formula for soda, diary of a troubled child); 23 (2) A showing of particularized need for protection as to each category of information proposed to be covered by the order; and 24 (3) A showing as to why the need for protection should be addressed by a court 25 order, as opposed to a private agreement between or among the parties. 26 Local Rule 141.1(c). 27 28 Case No. 2:19-cv-01439-KJM-KJN STIPULATION FOR PROTECTIVE ORDER AND ORDER 1 rel. Estates of Byrd v. Gen. Motors Corp., 307 F.3d 1206, 1210 (9th Cir. 2002) (Generally, the 2 || public can gain access to litigation documents and information produced during discovery unless > || the party opposing disclosure shows ‘good cause’ why a protective order is necessary.”) Therefore, the Court GRANTS the request subject to the following clarification. ° The parties’ intent as to the duration of this protective order is unclear. (See, e.g., □□ 9 of ° the stipulation, supra.) This Court’s Local Rules indicate that once this action is closed, “unless ’ otherwise ordered, the Court will not retain jurisdiction over enforcement of the terms of any ° protective order filed in that action.” L.R. 141.1(f). Courts in the district generally do not agree to retain jurisdiction after closure of the case, and the Court will not do so here. See, e.g., MD 4 Helicopters, Inc. v. Aerometals, Inc., 2017 WL 495778 (E.D. Cal., February 03, 2017). Based this rationale, the Court will not retain jurisdiction over this protective order once the action is 13 closed. |[1T IS SO ORDERED. 15 Dated: January 21, 2020 17 KENDALL J. NE UNITED STATES MAGISTRATE JUDGE lake.1439 20 21 22 23 24 25 26 27 28 || Case No. 2:19-cv-01439-KJM-KJN STIPULATION FOR PROTECTIVE ORDER 6 AND ORDER