Harper v. Charter Communications, LLC ( 2022 )

1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 UNITED STATES DISTRICT COURT 10 EASTERN DISTRICT OF CALIFORNIA 11 LIONEL HARPER, DANIEL SINCLAIR, Case No. 2:19-cv-00902-WBS-DMC 12 HASSAN TURNER, LUIS VAZQUEZ, 13 and PEDRO ABASCAL, individually and Hon. William B. Shubb on behalf of all others similarly situated ORDER GRANTING STIPULATION AND 14 and all aggrieved employees, JOINT REQUEST TO MODIFY SCHEDULING ORDER 15 Plaintiffs, 16 v. 17 CHARTER COMMUNICATIONS, LLC, 18 Defendant. 19 20 Having read and considered the Stipulation and Joint Request to Modify Scheduling Order 21 (“Stipulation”) submitted by Plaintiffs Lionel Harper, Daniel Sinclair, Hassan Turner, Luis 22 Vazquez, and Pedro Abascal (“Plaintiffs”) and Defendant Charter Communications, LLC 23 (“Charter”) (collectively, the Parties), the Court finds GOOD CAUSE to modify the Status 24 (Pretrial Scheduling) Order, Dkts. 34, 104, 159, 213, and 268, and hereby GRANTS the 25 Stipulation as follows: 26 WHEREAS, on October 9, 2019, the Court issued an initial scheduling order (Dkt. 34 27 1 WHEREAS, subsequently, the Court approved several stipulations and joint requests and 2 modified the dates and deadlines in the Scheduling Order (Dkts. 52, 60, 70, 83, 92, 104, 159, 213, 3 and 268). 4 WHEREAS, on January 26, 2022, the Court stayed all proceedings on Harper’s PAGA 5 claim pending the outcome in Viking River Cruises and referred Charter’s ex parte application to 6 extend the sampling production deadline to Magistrate Judge Cota. Dkt. 261. Magistrate Judge 7 Cota denied the application and another pending motion without prejudice to renewal. Dkt. 265. 8 WHEREAS, Sinclair filed a renewed motion for class certification on January 24, 2022, 9 Charter filed a response on February 23, 2022, and Sinclair filed a reply on March 12, 2022 10 (Dkts. 257, 258, 262, 271, 272, 273, and 281). No hearing on the motion has been held. 11 WHEREAS, Charter filed a motion to file a surreply re Sinclair’s motion for class 12 certification on March 28, 2022, Sinclair filed a response on April 11, 2022, and Charter filed a 13 reply on April 21, 2022 (Dkts. 285, 286, and 287). No hearing on the motion has been held. 14 WHEREAS, on April 4, 2022, the Court denied Plaintiffs’ motion for reconsideration of 15 the order compelling arbitration of Harper’s, Turner’s, Abascal’s, and Vazquez’s individual 16 claims, granted Plaintiffs’ alternative request to certify the order for interlocutory appeal, stayed 17 all proceedings in this case (including Sinclair’s individual and class claims) pending resolution 18 of the interlocutory appeal (Dkts. 275, 277, 283, 284, 288). 19 WHEREAS, Harper, Turner, Abascal, and Vazquez filed in the Ninth Circuit a petition for 20 permission to file interlocutory appeal on May 2, 2022. Dkt. 289. Charter filed an opposition to 21 the petition on May 12, 2022. On June 1, 2022, the California Supreme Court granted a petition 22 for review in Ramirez v. Charter Communications, Inc., 75 Cal. App. 5th 365 (2022). See 23 Ramirez v. Charter Communications, No. S273802, 2022 WL 2037698, at *1 (Cal. June 1, 2022). 24 On June 9, 2022, Charter filed a Rule 28(j) letter informing the Ninth Circuit of the grant of 25 review in Ramirez, and on June 10, 2022, Harper, Turner, Abascal, and Vazquez filed a response 26 letter. On June 14, 2022, the Ninth Circuit denied the petition for permission to appeal. Dkt. 290. 27 1 WHEREAS, on June 15, 2022, the United States Supreme Court issued a decision in 2 Viking River Cruises, Inc. v. Moriana, 142 S. Ct. 1906 (June 15, 2022). The parties have met and 3 conferred and dispute the effect the decision in Viking River Cruises may have on Harper’s 4 PAGA claim. Charter intends to file a motion based on Viking River Cruises, and Harper intends 5 to oppose any such motion. 6 WHEREAS, the Parties have met and conferred and agree that the stay of all case 7 proceedings should be lifted for the limited purposes of (1) hearing Charter’s motion to compel 8 arbitration of, and to dismiss, Harper’s PAGA claim based on Viking River Cruises, (2) hearing 9 Charter’s pending motion for leave to file a surreply, and (3) hearing Sinclair’s renewed motion 10 for class certification. The Parties agree that the stay of all case proceedings, the Ninth Circuit’s 11 denial of the petition for permission to appeal, the California Supreme Court’s grant of review in 12 Ramirez, and the United States Supreme Court’s decision in Viking River Cruises have 13 significantly changed the current scope and timing of this case such that the current schedule 14 should be modified. 15 WHEREAS, the Parties have met and conferred and agree that, for judicial economy, and 16 good cause showing, the Court should approve this Stipulation in its entirety and modify the 17 Scheduling Order in this action as shown below to provide adequate time for the Court to issue 18 decisions on Charter’s motion for leave to file a surreply, Charter’s anticipated motion based on 19 Viking River Cruises, and Sinclair’s renewed motion for class certification; for the Parties to 20 complete fact discovery; for the Parties to prepare expert reports and engage in expert discovery 21 (the scope of which will depend on the Court’s decisions regarding the pending and anticipated 22 motions); and the Parties to prepare and file additional motions following the close of discovery 23 and thereafter prepare for trial. 24 NOW, THEREFORE, based on the foregoing, the Parties hereby STIPULATE AND 25 AGREE and, through their respective counsel, respectfully ask the Court to enter an Order as 26 follows: 27 1 1. The stay of all case proceedings shall remain in place except for the following 2 limited purposes: 3 a. The hearing on Charter’s anticipated motion based on Viking River Cruises 4 shall be set for September 6, 2022 at 1:30 p.m., and the briefing schedule 5 for such motion shall be as follows: 6 i. Motion due on August 2, 2022 7 ii. Response brief due on August 16, 2022 8 iii. Reply brief due on August 26, 2022 9 b. The hearing on Charter’s motion for leave to file a surreply (Dkt. 285) shall 10 be set for September 6, 2022 at 1:30 p.m. 11 c. The hearing on Sinclair’s renewed motion for class certification (Dkt. 257) 12 shall be set for October 3, 2022 at 1:30 p.m. 13 2. A Status Conference shall be held on September 6, 2022 at 1:30 p.m. to discuss 14 whether and to what extent the stay of other court proceedings should be lifted following the 15 Court’s decisions on Charter’s pending and anticipated motions, and any other matters the Court 16 wishes to raise with the Parties. 17 3. The current Scheduling Order (Dkt. 268) is hereby modified as follows: Deadline 18 for Charter to complete its production of additional sampling documents/ESI pursuant to Dkts. 19 112 and 133: The earlier of (i) 14 days after the Court grants Plaintiff Sinclair’s Renewed Motion 20 for Class Certification, if at all, or (ii) 14 days after the stay of Plaintiff Harper’s PAGA claim is 21 lifted, if at all. 22 4. The current dates and deadlines regarding expert discovery, the discovery cut-off, 23 the motions cut-off, the final pretrial conference, and the trial setting are vacated pending 24 decisions on Charter’s motion to compel and dismiss Harper’s PAGA claim based on Viking 25 River Cruises, Charter’s motion for leave to file a surreply, and Sinclair’s renewed motion for 26 class certification. 27 1 5. Once the motions are decided, the parties shall submit a new proposed scheduling 2 | order. 4 IT IS SO ORDERED. rthibbe in ak (hi. 5 Dated: July 14, 2022 WILLIAMB.SHUBB © 6 UNITED STATES DISTRICT JUDGE 8 10 11 12 13 14 15 16 17 18 19 20 21 22 23 24 25 26 27 28 Kc