Watson v. DOT Transportation, Inc. ( 2023 )

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 TO CONTINUE Plaintiffs, ALL DISCOVERY DEADLINES. 20 vs. Judge: Hon. Morrison C. England, Jr 21 DOT TRANSPORTATION, INC., a Courtroom: 7 Delaware Corporation; DOT FOODS, INC., 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. This is the third stipulation the parties are submitting to continue discovery 7 deadlines. 8 2. On about January 26, 2022, Plaintiff noticed the Rule 30(b)(6) depositions of Dot 9 Foods, Inc. (Person Most Qualified) and Dot Transportation, Inc. (Person Most 10 Qualified). Plaintiff also propounded the following written discovery on Defendant 11 Dot Transportation, Inc.: Plaintiff Joshua’s Watson’s Request for Production of 12 Documents (Set One) to Defendant Dot Transportation, Inc. and Plaintiff Joshua’s 13 Watson’s Interrogatories (Set One) to Defendant Dot Transportation, Inc. 14 3. On about January 27, 2022, Plaintiff propounded the following discovery on 15 Defendant Dot Foods, Inc.: Plaintiff Joshua Watson’s Request for Production of 16 Documents (Set One) to Defendant Dot Foods, Inc. and Plaintiff Joshua Watson’s 17 Interrogatories (Set One) to Defendant Dot Foods, Inc. 18 4. After agreed-upon extensions of their response deadlines, Defendants provided 19 written responses and a document production. 20 5. On about June, 1, 2022, Plaintiff emailed Defendants to meet and confer regarding 21 a proposed notice procedure for putative class members under Belaire-West 22 Landscape, Inc. v. Superior Court, 149 Cal. App. 4th 554 (2007), to be 23 administered by a third-party administrator. 24 6. On or about July 2022, this case transferred from Defendants’ counsel Tyler 25 Paetkau and Olga Savage’s former firm, Procopio, Cory, Hargreaves & Savitch 26 LLP, to their current firm, Husch Blackwell, LLP. 27 7. On about July 28, 2022, the Parties met and conferred to discuss outstanding discovery matters, as well as the Parties’ first stipulation to revise this Court’s 1 scheduling order. The Parties agreed that, in light of the state of the discovery and 2 the transfer of the case, additional time was needed for both Parties to complete 3 pre-certification and merits discovery. The parties continued to meet and confer 4 regarding the proposed stipulation to extend discovery deadlines and filed their first 5 Stipulation to Extend the Discovery Deadlines on August 12, 2022. The Court approved the Stipulation on August 22, 2022. 6 8. Between approximately August 18, 2022 and October 2022, the Parties met and 7 conferred regarding the terms of the Belaire West Notice Procedure. 8 9. On or about October 12, 2022, Plaintiff’s counsel contacted the agreed-upon third- 9 party administrator CPT Group to initiate the Belaire West Notice procedure 10 pending approval of the Stipulation and Order by this Court. On October 18, 2022, 11 the Parties’ filed the Stipulation and Proposed Order Regarding the Belaire West 12 Notice Process and the Belaire West Notice and Postcard. The Stipulation and 13 Proposed Order was approved by this Court on October 24, 2022. 14 10. As to Plaintiff’s January 26, 2022 Rule 30(b)(6) deposition notices, Defendants 15 provided dates of availability for these depositions on or about November 23, 2022. 16 The dates provided were in January of 2023. 17 11. On December 2, 2022, Defendants provided the putative class list with contact 18 information to CPT. On December 6, 2022, CPT Group completed the mailing of 19 Belaire Notice and Postcard. On January 12, 2023, CPT Group provided the list of 20 non-respondents to counsel pursuant to Belaire West. 21 12. On December 12, 2022, Defendants served their Request for Production of 22 Documents, Set One, to Plaintiff. On December 13, 2022, Plaintiff served on 23 Defendants Plaintiff’s Request for Production of Documents (Set Two) and 24 Plaintiff’s Interrogatories (Set Two), along with Plaintiff’s Amended Rule 30(b)(6) 25 Deposition Notices. After mutual extensions of time, the parties served their 26 discovery responses on February 2, 2023. 27 13. On January 17, 2023, Plaintiff took the Rule 30(b)(6) deposition of Defendant Dot Transportation Inc.’s designee as to Topics 2-10. Between January and February 1 2023, the parties met and conferred regarding the availability of Defendants’ 2 designees as to Topic 1 of the Rule 30(b)(6) deposition. 3 14. On February 21, 2023, Defendant provided dates for Defendants’ Rule 30(b)(6) 4 depositions as to Topic 1. On March 20, 2023, and March 28, 2023, Plaintiff took 5 the Rule 30(b)(6) depositions as to Topic 1 of Defendant Dot Foods Inc. and Dot Transportation, Inc., respectively. 6 15. On April 14, 2023, Defendants took the deposition of Plaintiff Joshua Watson. 7 16. Between May and June 2023, the Parties met and conferred regarding Defendants’ 8 discovery responses. On June 5, 2023, the Parties agreed to a pause on formal 9 discovery in order to set up a joint mediation in the Watson matter and Mark- 10 Waterhouse .v. Dot Transportation Inc., et al., Case No. CV-22-004102 (Stanislaus 11 County Superior Court). 12 17. Between June 9, 2023, and July 31, 2023, the Parties in both the Watson and Mark- 13 Waterhouse matters met and conferred regarding mediator selection and the 14 Parties’ availability for mediation. Joint mediation in both the Watson and Mark- 15 Waterhouse matter is scheduled for December 5, 2023. 16 18. Given the timing of discovery in this case, and the need to complete mediation on 17 December 5, 2023, the Parties agreed to an additional Joint Stipulation to Continue 18 Discovery Deadlines in the Watson matter, to allow the Parties sufficient time to 19 prepare for mediation and if necessary, continue litigation. 20 19. The Parties agreed to an extension of the current discovery deadlines, in accordance 21 with the schedule set forth below. Plaintiff believes the proposed extension will 22 provide sufficient time for Plaintiff to conduct the outstanding discovery needed for 23 Plaintiff’s Motion of Class Certification, should mediation prove unsuccessful. 24 Defendants believe the proposed extension will provide sufficient time for 25 Defendants to conduct the deposition of any other necessary witnesses, and to 26 complete any written discovery. 27 /// /// 1 2 STIPULATION 3 In light of the foregoing facts, the Parties agree as follows: 4 1. The fact discovery deadline should be continued until April 3, 2024. 5 2. The expert witness disclosure deadline should be continued until June 4, 2024. 3. The rebuttal expert witness disclosure deadline should be continued until July 5, 6 2024. 7 4. If the parties do not intend to file dispositive motions, the deadline to file the Joint 8 Notice of Trial Readiness should be continued until August 5, 2024, or else not 9 later than thirty (30) days after receiving this Court’s ruling on the last filed 10 dispositive motion(s). 11 5. The dispositive motion hearing deadline should be continued until October 1, 2024. 12 13 14 IT IS SO STIPULATED, THROUGH COUNSEL OF RECORD. 15 Respectfully submitted, 16 17 Dated: October 4, 2023 HUSCH BLACKWELL, LLP 18 By: _/s/ Olga Savage___________________ Tyler M. Paetkau 19 Olga Savage 20 Attorneys for Defendants 21 Dated: October 4, 2023 HENNIG KRAMER RUIZ & SINGH LLP 22 By: _/s/ Adrian Hernandez_____________ 23 Jennifer Kramer 24 Ashley Cruz Adrian Hernandez 25 Attorneys for Plaintiff 26 27 1 ORDER 2 Having reviewed the above Stipulation and Proposed Order to Continue All Discovery 3 || Deadlines, and finding it supported by good cause, IT IS HEREBY ORDERED that the requests 4 || set forth therein are GRANTED. 5 IT IS SO ORDERED. 6 || Dated: October 4, 2023 7 AK rLASX xX: ; Malis 10 11 12 13 14 15 16 17 18 19 20 21 22 23 24 25 26 27 28