Kevin Johnson v. Walmart, Inc. ( 2021 )

1 AKIN GUMP STRAUSS HAUER & FELD LLP MICHAEL J. STORTZ (SBN 139386) 2 580 California Street, Suite 1500 San Francisco, CA 94104-1036 3 Email: mstortz@akingump.com Telephone: 415.765.9500 4 Facsimile: 415.765.9501 5 AKIN GUMP STRAUSS HAUER & FELD LLP SHELLY A. KIM (SBN 322231) 6 1999 Avenue of the Stars, Suite 600 Los Angeles, CA 990067-6022 7 Email: shelly.kim@akingump.com Telephone: 310.229.1000 8 Facsimile: 310.229.1001 9 Attorneys for Defendant WALMART INC. 10 11 KENNETH H. YOON (State Bar No. 198443) kyoon@yoonlaw.com 12 STEPHANIE E. YASUDA (State Bar No. 265480) syasuda@yoonlaw.com 13 YOON LAW, APC One Wilshire Boulevard, Suite 2200 14 Los Angeles, California 90017 Telephone: (213) 612-0988 15 Facsimile: (213) 947-1211 16 Attorneys for Plaintiff Kevin Johnson 17 UNITED STATES DISTRICT COURT 18 EASTERN DISTRICT OF CALIFORNIA 19 FRESNO DIVISION 20 21 KEVIN JOHNSON, individually and on Case No. 1:20-cv-01360-DAD-JLT behalf of all others similarly situated 22 STIPULATION TO STAY ACTION PENDING Plaintiff, APPEAL; [PROPOSED] ORDER 23 v. (Doc. 38) 24 WALMART INC., 25 Defendant. 26 27 28 1 TO THE HONORABLE COURT: 2 IT IS HEREBY STIPULATED AND AGREED by and between Plaintiff Kevin Johnson 3 (“Plaintiff”) and Defendant Walmart Inc. (“Defendant”) (together, the “Parties”), through their respective 4 attorneys of record, as follows: 5 WHEREAS, Plaintiff commenced the instant action on September 23, 2020; 6 WHEREAS, on December 11, 2020, Plaintiff filed his Second Amended Complaint (ECF No. 7 19); 8 WHEREAS, on December 28, 2020, Defendant filed its Motion to Compel Arbitration and to 9 Dismiss or Stay this action (ECF No. 20) (“Motion”); 10 WHEREAS, on February 4, 2021, the Court granted the Parties’ stipulation to stay discovery 11 pending final resolution of the Motion (ECF No. 23); 12 WHEREAS, the Court denied the Motion by order dated July 30, 2021 (ECF No. 31) (“Denial 13 Order”); 14 WHEREAS, on August 25, 2021, Defendant timely filed its notice of appeal of the Denial Order 15 (ECF No. 33); 16 WHEREAS, by minute order dated August 26, 2021 (ECF No. 34), the Court directed the Parties 17 to file a stipulation to stay the action pending resolution of the appeal, or submit briefs addressing 18 whether the action should be stayed, and vacated the date for the initial scheduling conference; and 19 WHEREAS, the Parties agree that this action should be stayed pending final resolution of the 20 appeal, insofar as: (a) the appeal will present serious legal questions, including whether Plaintiff’s claims 21 are within the scope of the arbitration provision; (b) Defendant will suffer irreparable injury absent a 22 stay pending appeal; (c) the balance of hardships for Plaintiff is mixed; and (d) the public interest, 23 including the preservation of judicial resources, warrants a stay pending appeal (see Hansen v. Rock 24 Holdings, Inc., No. 2:19-cv-00179, 2020 WL3867652 (E.D. Cal. Jul. 9, 2020) (citing Nken v. Holder, 25 556 U.S. 418, 434 (2009) (setting forth standard for stay pending appeal of order denying motion to 26 compel arbitration)). 27 1 NOW THEREFORE, IT IS HEREBY STIPULATED by and between the Parties that this action 2 shall be stayed in its entirety pending final resolution of Defendant’s appeal. 3 IT IS SO STIPULATED. 4 Dated: September 1, 2021 YOON LAW, APC 5 6 By /s/ Kenneth H. Yoon Kenneth H. Yoon 7 Attorneys for Plaintiff Kevin Johnson 8 Dated: September 1, 2021 AKIN GUMP STRAUSS HAUER & FELD LLP 9 10 By /s/ Michael J. Stortz 11 Michael J. Stortz 12 Attorneys for WALMART INC. 13 14 15 16 17 18 19 20 21 22 23 24 25 26 27 1 [PROPOSED] ORDER 2 Pursuant to the foregoing stipulation, and for good cause shown, the Court ORDERS: 3 1. This action is STAYED in its entirety pending final resolution of Defendant’s appeal. 4 2. Within 14 days of the Court of Appeals issuing a decision on the appeal, the parties 5 SHALL file a joint statement setting forth the status of the matter. 6 IT IS SO ORDERED. 7 8 Dated: September 1, 2021 _ /s/ Jennifer L. Thurston CHIEF UNITED STATES MAGISTRATE JUDGE 9 10 11 12 13 14 15 16 17 18 19 20 21 22 23 24 25 26 27