Diaz v. City of Merced ( 2024 )

1 William L. Schmidt, SBN 206870 Email: legal.schmidt@gmail.com 2 WILLIAM L. SCHMIDT, ATTORNEY AT LAW, P.C. PO Box 25001 3 Fresno, CA 93729 4 Tel: 559.261.2222 5 Attorney for Plaintiff : Armando Diaz 6 7 UNITED STATES DISTRICT COURT 8 EASTERN DISTRICT OF CALIFORNIA, FRESNO DIVISION 9 10 ARMANDO DIAZ, No. 1:23-CV-00065-JLT-SKO 11 Plaintiff, STIPULATION TO MODIFY v. SCHEDULING ORDER; ORDER 12 The CITY OF MERCED, CODY MCCOMB, NICOLAS DEJON, 13 DOMINIC SAELEE, and DOES 1-15, inclusive, 14 15 Defendants. 16 17 Pursuant to Local Rule 143 the parties stipulate and ask the Court to Order that the 18 scheduling order entered on February 5, 2024 (ECF No. 14) be modified by extending the 19 discovery deadlines. The court granted one 60-day modification of discovery deadlines 20 previously. (ECF 14) 21 “The district court is given broad discretion in supervising the pretrial phase of litigation.” 22 Johnson v. Mammoth Recreations, Inc., 975 F.2d 604, 607 (9th Cir. 1992) (citation and internal 23 quotation marks omitted. Rule 16(b) provides that “[a] schedule may be modified only for good 24 cause and with the judge’s consent.” Fed. R. Civ. P. 16(b)(4). “The schedule may be modified ‘if 25 it cannot reasonably be met despite the diligence of the party seeking the extension. ‘” Zivkovic 26 v. Southern California Edison Co., 302 F.3d 1080, 1087 (9th Cir. 2002) (quoting Johnson, 975 27 F.2d at 607). 28 1 2 The parties have been diligent in their discovery efforts and as a result have determined 3 mediation at this time is prudent. 4 The plaintiff’s deposition was taken on December 12, 2023, and Defendants McComb, 5 Saelee, and Dejon’s depositions were taken on February 13, 2024. Defendants subpoenaed 6 records from the Sheriff’s office and medical records related to the Plaintiff’s arrest. 7 Plaintiff issued Request for Production of Documents and Special Interrogatories to all 8 Defendants and answers were timely received. Pending are recent Requests for Admission 9 directed to Defendants and deposition of two witnesses by Defendants set for May 7, 2024 10 (Guadalupe Valencia) and May 15, 2024 (Florence Baker). 11 Discovery has been proceeding in a timely and constructive manner, however recent 12 analysis of bodycam video produced by Defendants warrants further analysis by Plaintiff’s video 13 expert which will take at least 2 weeks. Most relevant to this request is the anticipation of 14 successful settlement negotiations. Counsel for the parties have agreed to two potential mediators 15 and given ongoing discussions, the parties are optimistic that settlement can be reached. 16 Good cause exists for this extension. The parties have been diligent in conducting 17 discovery, including written discovery, depositions, expert retention, and setting further 18 depositions. The parties expect to participate in private mediation within 45 days. 19 The parties met and conferred on this issue and propose to modify the scheduling order as 20 follows: 21 Non-Expert Discovery Deadline: 22 June 24, 2024 (was May 24, 2024 [ECF 14]) 23 Expert disclosures Deadline: 24 July 24, 2024 (was June 24, 2024 [ECF 14]) 25 Rebuttal Expert Disclosures Deadline: 26 August 23, 2024 (was July 24, 2024 [ECF 14]) 27 Expert Discovery to close on: 28 September 2, 2024 (was August 2, 2024 [ECF 14]) 1 2 Non-Dispositive Motion Deadlines: 3 Filing September 2, 2024, (was August 5, 2024 [ECF 14]) 4 Hearing: TBD (was September 11, 2024) 5 Dispositive Motion Deadlines: 6 October 2, 2024, (was September 2, 2024, [ECF 11) 7 Hearing TBD (was October 7, 2024) 8 Deadline to Provide Proposed Settlement Conference Dates 9 November 13, 2024 (no change) 10 Pre-Trial Conference 11 December 2, 2024, at 1:30 p.m. (no change) 12 Courtroom 4 13 Trial 14 February 11, 2025, at 8:30 a.m. (no change) 15 Courtroom 4, 5-6 Trial Days 16 17 Dated: 5/2/24 18 WILLIAM L. SCHMIDT, ATTORNEY AT LAW, P.C. 19 /s/William L. Schmidt William L. Schmidt, 20 Attorney for Plaintiff 21 Armando Diaz 22 23 Dated: 5/2/24 LONGYEAR & LAVRA, LLP 24 /s/Denny Yu 25 Denny Yu Attorneys for Defendants, 26 City of Merced, Cody McComb, 27 Nicholas de Jong and Dominic Saelee 28 1 ORDER 2 The Court has reviewed the parties above Stipulation to Modify Scheduling Order (Doc. 3 15). Accordingly, IT IS HEREBY ORDERED that the deadlines in this case are amended as 4 5 follows:1 6 Previous Deadline Amended Deadline Non-Expert Discovery May 24, 2024 June 24, 2024 7 Deadline 8 Expert Disclosure Deadline June 24, 2024 July 24, 2024 9 Rebuttal Expert Disclosures July 24, 2024 August 23, 2024 Deadline 10 Expert Discovery Deadline August 2, 2024 September 2, 2024 Non-Dispositive Motion Filing: August 5, 2024 Filing: September 9, 2024, 11 Hearing: September 11, 2024 Hearing: October 16, 2024 12 Dispositive Motion Filing: September 2, 2024 Filing: October 2, 2024, Hearing: October 7, 2024 Hearing: November 6, 2024 13 Deadline to Provide Proposed November 13, 2024 December 3, 2024 Settlement Conferences Dates 14 Pre-Trial Conference December 2, 2024, at 1:30 p.m. January 6, 2025, at 1:30 p.m. 15 Courtroom 4 Courtroom 4 Trial February 11, 2025, at 8:30 a.m. March 3, 2025, at 8:30 a.m. 16 Courtroom 4 Courtroom 4 17 18 19 IT IS SO ORDERED. 20 Dated: May 6, 2024 /s/ Sheila K. Oberto . 21 UNITED STATES MAGISTRATE JUDGE 22 23 24 25 26 27 1 The parties did not request new dates for their pre-trial conference and trial, but the Court has entered new dates to 28 accommodate District Judge Thurston’s schedule.