Garcia v. County of Stanislaus ( 2024 )

1 Sanjay S. Schmidt (SBN 247475) LAW OFFICE OF SANJAY S. SCHMIDT 2 1388 Sutter Street, Suite 810 San Francisco, CA 94109 3 T: (415) 563-8583 F: (415) 223-9717 4 ss@sanjayschmidtlaw.com 5 T. Kennedy Helm, IV (SBN 282319) HELM LAW OFFICE, PC 6 644 40th Street, Suite 305 Oakland, CA 94609 7 T: (510) 350-7517 F: (5l0) 350-7359 8 kennedy@helmlawoffice.com 9 Attorneys for Plaintiff, JOSE ALBERTO GARCIA 10 11 IN THE UNITED STATES DISTRICT COURT 12 EASTERN DISTRICT OF CALIFORNIA 13 14 JOSE ALBERTO GARCIA, ) Case No.: 1:21-cv-00331-MCE-DB 15 ) Plaintiff, ) EIGHTH STIPULATION AND 16 v. ) ORDER TO CONTINUE ) SCHEDULING ORDER 17 COUNTY OF STANISLAUS, a municipal ) DEADLINES FOR EXPERT corporation; Stanislaus County Sheriff's Deputies ) DISCOVERY AND THE FILING 18 RICHARD JOHNSON, individually, JESSUE ) OF DISPOSITIVE MOTIONS 19 CORRAL, individually, and WADE CARR, ) ONLY (ECF NOS. 24, 32, 42, 46, individually; Stanislaus County Sheriff's ) 48, 54, 57, 61) 20 Sergeants JOSHUA SANDOVAL, individually, ) and THOMAS LETRAS, individually; and, ) 21 DOES 1-30, Jointly and Severally, ) ) 22 Defendants. ) 23 ) 24 Plaintiff, by and through his counsel, T. Kennedy Helm, IV, of Helm Law Office, PC, and 25 Sanjay S. Schmidt, of the Law Office of Sanjay S. Schmidt; and Defendants, by and through their 26 27 1 counsel, Jill B. Nathan, of Rivera Hewitt Paul LLP, hereby respectfully stipulate and request as 2 follows: 3 RECITALS 4 A. This is the Parties’ eighth request for an extension of pretrial dates. (See ECF Nos. 24, 5 32, 42, 46, 48, 54, 57, 61). This request concerns allowing Defendants to disclose a replacement 6 use-of-force expert and the deadlines for the completion of expert discovery and the dispositive 7 motion filing deadline. All other discovery has been completed. 8 B. On September 27, 2023, pursuant to the then-operant scheduling order (ECF No. 57), the 9 Parties timely exchanged expert disclosures. Defendants disclosed use-of-force expert Brad 10 Smith, as indicated in the accompanying Declaration of Jill B. Nathan in Support of the Parties’ 11 Stipulation and (Proposed) Order to Continue the Scheduling Order Deadlines, at ¶¶ 4–5. 12 C. On January 17, 2024, Ms. Nathan contacted Mr. Smith to request availability for 13 Plaintiff’s counsel to take his deposition, seeking dates in February or March, given the current 14 expert discovery cutoff of March 14, 2024. See ECF No. 62, 5:14; Nathan Decl., ¶ 6. 15 D. Unfortunately, Mr. Smith informed Ms. Nathan on January 17, 2024 that his health had 16 deteriorated and that he was not sure he would “be around” in March. See Nathan Decl., ¶ 7. On 17 February 7, 2024, Mr. Smith informed Ms. Nathan that a recent surgery did not have a good 18 outcome, and that he was withdrawing from this case. See Nathan Decl., ¶ 7; see also the 19 accompanying Declaration of Brad Smith, at ¶ 5. 20 E. Defendants have begun searching for a use-of-force expert to replace Mr. Smith. See 21 Nathan Decl., ¶ 8. 22 F. Given Defendants’ need to find a replacement expert, who must then review the case 23 materials and write a Rule 26 report, the Parties submit that good cause exists to set a deadline of 24 June 15, 2024 for Defendants to disclose a replacement expert for Mr. Smith. 25 G. Because Defendants need time to find a replacement expert who must then review the 26 case materials and write a Rule 26 report, the Parties further submit that good cause exists to 27 1 continue the deadline for the completion of expert discovery, currently set for March 14, 2024 2 (ECF No. 62), to July 15, 2024. 3 H. Continuing the deadline for completion of expert discovery to July 15, 2024 will require 4 a corresponding continuance for the deadline to file dispositive motions, currently set for 5 May 2, 2024. ECF No. 62, 5:15–16. To allow the Parties sufficient time to review the expert 6 deposition transcripts, the Parties request an additional approximately three-month extension of 7 the deadline to file dispositive motions, from May 2, 2024 to August 26, 2024. 8 I. The Parties further agree that, pursuant to Local Rule 230(b), the Defendants will notice 9 the dispositive motion hearing not less than sixty-five (65) days after filing of the motion. 10 However, the parties explicitly stipulate to modify the otherwise applicable briefing schedule 11 under Local Rule 230(c), such that Plaintiff shall have 30 days to file his opposition. 12 J. Counsel for the Parties have met-and-conferred, and the Parties have agreed that neither 13 side would be prejudiced by allowing Defendants to disclose a replacement expert for Mr. Smith, 14 or by extending the expert discovery cutoff date, and the successive deadline for filing 15 dispositive motions. 16 STIPULATION 17 Given the foregoing, and the approaching deadline for the cutoff of expert discovery 18 (March 14, 2024), the Parties respectfully submit that good cause exists to continue the expert 19 discovery cutoff and the dispositive motion filing deadline (May 2, 2024) in the operant 20 scheduling order, ECF No. 62. See Johnson v. Mammoth Recreations, Inc., 975 F.2d 604, 609 21 (9th Cir. 1992) (“Rule 16(b)’s ‘good cause’ standard primarily considers the diligence of the 22 party seeking the amendment. The district court may modify the pretrial schedule ‘if it cannot 23 reasonably be met despite the diligence of the part[ies] seeking the extension.’”). 24 The Parties respectfully request that the Court grant the Parties’ stipulation by allowing 25 Defendants to disclose a replacement use-of-force expert, and by extending the deadlines for 26 expert discovery identified in its Scheduling Order, ECF No. 62, as follows, and stipulate that the 27 1 briefing schedule set forth in the following chart be applicable and override the otherwise 2 applicable schedule under Local Rule 230(c): 3 Matter Current Deadline (ECF No. New Deadline 4 62, unless otherwise noted) 5 Completion of Expert September 27, 2023 (ECF No. June 15, 2024 6 Disclosures 57) 7 Completion of Expert Discovery March 14, 2024 July 15, 2024 8 Dispositive Motion Filing May 2, 2024 August 26, 2024 9 Deadline 10 Deadline to File Opposition to 30 days after filing of 30 days after the filing of 11 Motion for Summary Judgment dispositive motion, or by June dispositive motions, or by 12 3, 2024 September 25, 2024 13 Deadline to File Reply to 10 days after filing of October 7, 2024 14 Opposition to Motion for Opposition, or by June 10, 15 Summary Judgment 2024 16 IT IS SO STIPULATED. 17 Respectfully submitted, 18 19 Dated: February 14, 2024 LAW OFFICE OF SANJAY S. SCHMIDT HELM LAW OFFICE, PC 20 /s/ T. Kennedy Helm, IV 21 SANJAY S. SCHMIDT 22 T. KENNEDY HELM, IV Attorneys for Plaintiff 23 Dated: February 14, 2024 RIVERA HEWITT PAUL LLP 24 25 /s/ Jill B. Nathan* JILL B. NATHAN 26 Attorneys for Defendants 27 *Pursuant to Local Rule 131(e), counsel has authorized submission of this document on counsel’s 1 behalf. 2 ORDER 3 The Court, having considered the Parties’ stipulation, and good cause appearing, rules as 4 follows: 5 The Court finds the Parties have shown good cause for the relief their Stipulation requests. 6 THEREFORE, the relief that the Parties request is GRANTED, and the operative Scheduling 7 Order (ECF Nos. 24, 32, 46, 48 54, 61) is modified as follows: 8 Matter Current Deadline (ECF No. New Deadline 9 62, unless otherwise noted) 10 Completion of Expert September 27, 2023 (ECF No. June 15, 2024 11 Disclosures 57) 12 Completion of Expert Discovery March 14, 2024 July 15, 2024 13 Dispositive Motion Filing May 2, 2024 August 26, 2024 14 Deadline 15 Deadline to File Opposition to 30 days after filing of 30 days after the filing of 16 Motion for Summary Judgment dispositive motion, or by June dispositive motions, or by 17 3, 2024 September 25, 2024 18 Deadline to File Reply to 10 days after filing of October 7, 2024 19 Opposition to Motion for Opposition, or by June 10, 20 Summary Judgment 2024 21 The parties are ordered to file a Joint Notice of Trial Readiness not later than thirty (30) 22 days after receiving this Court's ruling on the last filed dispositive motion or thirty (30) days 23 following the dispositive motion deadline if no dispositive motions are filed. The parties are to set 24 forth in their Notice of Trial Readiness, the appropriateness of special procedures, whether this 25 case is related to any other case(s) on file in the Eastern District of California, the prospect for 26 settlement, their estimated trial length, any request for a jury, and their availability for trial. 27 1 || After review of the parties' Joint Notice of Trial Readiness, the Court will issue an order that sets 2 || forth new dates for a final pretrial conference and trial. 3 IT IS SO ORDERED. 4 || Dated: February 29, 2024 A ates LE rlASX ° SENIOR UNITED STATES URTRICT JUDGE 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 15 16 17 18 19 20 21 22 23 24 25 26 27 Eighth Stipulation and Order to Continue Scheduling Order Deadlines for Close of Expert Discovery and Filing of Dispositive Motions Only