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 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 second stipulation the parties are submitting to continue discovery 7 deadlines. 8 2. On about January 26, 2022, Plaintiff noticed the depositions of Dot Foods, Inc. 9 (Person Most Qualified) and Dot Transportation, Inc. (Person Most Qualified). 10 Plaintiff also propounded the following written discovery on Defendant Dot 11 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 Notice 12 Process and the Belaire West Notice and Postcard. The Stipulation and Proposed 13 Order was approved by this Court on October 24, 2022. 14 10. On December 2, 2022, Defendants provided the putative class list with contact 15 information to CPT. On December 6, 2022, CPT Group completed the mailing of 16 Belaire Notice and Postcard. Pursuant to the Order, subject employees receiving a 17 Belaire notice will have thirty (30) calendar days from the date on the Belaire 18 notice to opt-out, or until January 5, 2023. 19 11. As to Plaintiff’s January 26, 2022 Rule 30(b)(6) deposition notices, Defendants 20 provided dates of availability for these depositions on or about November 23, 2022. 21 The dates provided are in January of 2023. Defendants’ counsel also requested 22 dates for Plaintiff’s deposition. 23 12. Given the timing of discovery in this case, the need to complete the Belaire West 24 privacy notice procedure and the Parties’ ongoing conferral regarding the scope of 25 both pre-certification discovery and merits discovery (in the event that a class is 26 certified), Defendant’s counsel suggested a further extension of the discovery 27 deadlines. 1 13. Shortly thereafter, the Parties agreed to an extension of the current discovery 2 deadlines, in accordance with the schedule set forth below. Plaintiff believes the 3 proposed extension will provide sufficient time for Plaintiff to conduct the 4 outstanding discovery needed for Plaintiff’s Motion of Class Certification, 5 including completion of the Belaire West notice process, conducting the Rule 30(b)(6) 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 any other 9 necessary witnesses, and to complete any 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 December 5, 2023. 13 2. The expert witness disclosure deadline should be continued until February 5, 2024. 14 3. The rebuttal expert witness disclosure deadline should be continued until March 6, 15 2024. 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 April 5, 2024, 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 June 3, 2024. 21 IT IS SO STIPULATED, THROUGH COUNSEL OF RECORD. 22 Respectfully submitted, 23 24 Dated: December 19, 2022 HUSCH BLACKWELL, LLP 25 By: _/s/ Olga Savage___________________ 26 Tyler M. Paetkau 27 Olga Savage Attorneys for Defendants 1 Dated: December 19, 2022 HENNIG KRAMER RUIZ & SINGH LLP 2 By: _/s/ Adrian Hernandez_____________ 3 Jennifer Kramer 4 Ashley Cruz Adrian Hernandez 5 Attorneys for Plaintiff 6 7 8 ORDER 9 Having reviewed the above Stipulation and Proposed Order to Continue All Discovery 10 Deadlines, IT IS HEREBY ORDERED that the Court finds that good cause exists for the entry of 11 this Order. 12 IT IS SO ORDERED. 13 DATED: December 19, 2022 14 15 16 17 18 19 20 21 22 23 24 25 26 27