Watson v. DOT Transportation, Inc. ( 2022 )

1 Jennifer Kramer, Cal. State Bar No. 203385 Email: jennifer@employmentattorneyla.com 2 Ashley Cruz, Cal. State Bar No. 306235 Email: ashley@employmentattorneyla.com 3 Adrian Hernandez, Cal. State Bar No. 325532 4 Email: adrian@employmentattorneyla.com HENNIG KRAMER RUIZ & SINGH, LLP 5 3600 Wilshire Blvd., Suite 1908 Los Angeles, CA 90010 6 Telephone: (213) 310-8301 7 Attorneys for Plaintiff 8 JOSHUA WATSON 9 Tyler M. Paetkau, Cal. State Bar No. 146305 Email: tyler.paetkau@huschblackwell.com 10 Olga Savage, Cal. State Bar No. 252009 Email: olga.savage@huschblackwell.com 11 HUSCH BLACKWELL, LLP 12 1999 Harrison St., Suite 700 Oakland, CA 94612 13 Telephone: (510) 768-0650 14 Attorneys for Defendants DOT TRANSPORTATION, INC. AND DOT FOODS, INC. 15 16 UNITED STATES DISTRICT COURT FOR THE EASTERN DISTRICT OF CALIFORNIA 17 JOSHUA WATSON, an individual, and on Case No.: 2:21-cv-01303-MCE-AC 18 behalf of others similarly situated, 19 JOINT STIPULATION AND ORDER TO Plaintiffs, CONTINUE ALL DISCOVERY 20 vs. DEADLINES. 21 DOT TRANSPORTATION, INC., a Judge: Hon. Morrison C. England, Jr Delaware Corporation; DOT FOODS, INC., Courtroom: 7 22 an Illinois Corporation; and DOES 1 through 23 50, Inclusive, [Complaint Filed: June 15, 2021] 24 Defendants. 25 26 27 1 This Joint Stipulation to Continue All Discovery Deadlines is entered into between 2 Plaintiff Joshua Watson, on the one hand, and DOT TRANSPORTATION, INC. and DOT 3 FOODS, INC., on the other hand (collectively, the “Parties”), by and through their counsel for 4 record, with respect to the following facts: 5 RECITALS 6 1. On about June 15, 2021, Plaintiff Joshua Watson filed Case No.: 34-2021- 7 00302568 against Defendants in the Superior Court of the State of California for 8 the County of Sacramento. 9 2. On about July 23, 2021, Defendants removed Plaintiff’s civil action to the United 10 States District Court for the Eastern District of California, where it was assigned to 11 the Honorable Morrison C. England, Jr., as Case No.: 2:21-cv-01303-MCE-AC. 12 Case No.: 2:21-cv-01303-MCE-AC is a class-action and PAGA lawsuit filed on 13 behalf of employees working for Defendants from June 15, 2017 to the present who 14 were previously or are currently employed as truck drivers, as well as all other non- 15 exempt, hourly-paid employees with similar titles or job duties. 16 3. On about August 23, 2021, Plaintiff filed his First Amended Complaint (“FAC”) to 17 allege penalties under the Private Attorneys General Act (“PAGA”), Labor Code § 18 2698 et seq. 19 4. On about September 14, 2021, Defendants filed their answer to Plaintiff’s FAC. 20 5. On about September 20, 2021, the Parties conferred pursuant to Fed. R. Civ. P. 21 26(f). On about October 12, 2021, the Parties served their Initial Disclosures 22 pursuant to Fed. R. Civ. P. 26(a)(1). 23 6. On about January 26, 2021, Plaintiff noticed the depositions of Dot Foods, Inc. 24 (Person Most Qualified) and Dot Transportation, Inc. (Person Most Qualified). 25 Plaintiff also propounded the following written discovery on Defendant Dot 26 Transportation, Inc.: Plaintiff Joshua’s Watson’s Request for Production of 27 Documents (Set One) to Defendant Dot Transportation, Inc. and Plaintiff Joshua’s Watson’s Interrogatories (Set One) to Defendant Dot Transportation, Inc. 1 7. On about January 27, 2022, Plaintiff propounded the following discovery on 2 Defendant Dot Foods, Inc.: Plaintiff Joshua Watson’s Request for Production of 3 Documents (Set One) to Defendant Dot Foods, Inc. and Plaintiff Joshua Watson’s 4 Interrogatories (Set One) to Defendant Dot Foods, Inc. 5 8. On about February 22, 2022, Defendants requested an extension to March 11, 2022 to respond to Plaintiff’s discovery requests, which Plaintiff granted. On about 6 March 10, 2022, Defendants requested a further extension to March 18, 2022 to 7 respond to Plaintiff’s discovery requests, which Plaintiff also granted. On March 8 18, 2022, Defendants served their responses to Plaintiff’s discovery requests. 9 Defendants intend to propound written discovery shortly, and the Parties are in the 10 process of meeting and conferring regarding discovery matters, deposition dates 11 and a proposed notice procedure for putative class members under Belaire-West 12 Landscape, Inc. v. Superior Court, 149 Cal. App. 4th 554 (2007). 13 9. On about April 28, 2022, the Parties filed the Joint Stipulation and Proposed 14 Protective Order Regarding Confidential Information. 15 10. On about June, 1, 2022, Plaintiff emailed Defendants to meet and confer regarding 16 a proposed notice procedure for putative class members under Belaire-West 17 Landscape, Inc. v. Superior Court, 149 Cal. App. 4th 554 (2007), to be 18 administered by a third-party administrator. 19 11. In or about July 2022, this case transferred from Defendants’ counsel Tyler Paetkau 20 and Olga Savage’s former firm, Procopio, Cory, Hargreaves & Savitch LLP, to 21 their current firm, Husch Blackwell, LLP. 22 12. On about July 28, 2022, the Parties met and conferred to discuss outstanding 23 discovery matters, as well as the present stipulation to revise this Court’s 24 scheduling order to ensure that both Parties have ample time to conduct outstanding 25 discovery. The Parties agreed that, in light of the current state of the discovery and 26 the transfer of the case, additional time is needed for both Parties to complete pre- 27 certification and merits discovery. 1 13. During the July 28, 2022 meet and confer call, the Parties agreed to an extension of 2 the current discover deadlines, in accordance with the schedule set forth below. 3 Plaintiff believes the proposed extension will provide sufficient time for Plaintiff to 4 conduct the outstanding discovery needed for Plaintiff’s Motion of Class 5 Certification, including completion of the Belaire West notice process, conducting the PMQ depositions of Defendants Dot Foods, Inc. and Dot Transportation, Inc., 6 along with any additional written discovery and depositions of percipient witnesses. 7 Defendants believes the proposed extension will provide sufficient time for 8 Defendants to conduct the deposition of Plaintiff Joshua Watson and propound any 9 written discovery. 10 STIPULATION 11 In light of the foregoing facts, the Parties agree as follows: 12 1. The fact discovery deadline should be continued until January 12, 2023. 13 2. The expert witness disclosure deadline should be continued until March 13, 2023. 14 3. The rebuttal expert witness disclosure deadline should be continued until April 12, 15 2023. 16 4. If the parties do not intend to file dispositive motions, the deadline to file the Joint 17 Notice of Trial Readiness should be continued until May 12, 2023, or else not later 18 than thirty (30) days after receiving this Court’s ruling on the last filed dispositive 19 motion(s). 20 5. The dispositive motion hearing deadline should be continued until July 11, 2023. 21 IT IS SO STIPULATED, THROUGH COUNSEL OF RECORD. 22 Respectfully submitted, 23 24 Dated: August 22, 2022 HUSCH BLACKWELL, LLP 25 By: _/s/ Olga Savage___________________ 26 Tyler M. Paetkau 27 Olga Savage Attorneys for Defendants 1 || Dated: August 22, 2022 HENNIG KRAMER RUIZ & SINGH LLP 2 By: _/s/ Adrian Hernandez 3 Jennifer Kramer Ashley Cruz 4 Adrian Hernandez Attorneys for Plaintiff 6 7 ORDER 8 Having reviewed the above Stipulation and Proposed Order to Continue All Discovery 9 |} Deadlines, the Court finds that good cause exists for the entry of this Order. Accordingly, the 10 || parties’ Stipulation is GRANTED, and the deadlines are modified as follows: 11 1. The fact discovery deadline should be continued until January 12, 2023. 12 2. The expert witness disclosure deadline should be continued until March 13, 2023. 13 3. The rebuttal expert witness disclosure deadline should be continued until April 12, 14 2023. 15 4. If the parties do not intend to file dispositive motions, the deadline to file the Joint 16 Notice of Trial Readiness should be continued until May 12, 2023, or else not later U7 than thirty (30) days after receiving this Court’s ruling on the last filed dispositive motion(s). 18 (s) 19 5. The dispositive motion hearing deadline should be continued until July 11, 2023. IT IS SO ORDERED. 20 21 . Dated: August 22, 2022 22 AS SN 3 . _ AMX’ MORRISON GC. ENGLA JR) (_) SENIOR UNITED STATES DISTRICT JUDGE 25 26 27 28 &