Al-Kudsy v. Vons Companies Inc. ( 2024 )

1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 UNITED STATES DISTRICT COURT 9 SOUTHERN DISTRICT OF CALIFORNIA 10 11 MARTHA AL-KUDSY, et al., Case No.: 3:23-cv-01065-GPC-AHG 12 Plaintiffs, ORDER GRANTING JOINT 13 v. MOTION TO CONTINUE CERTAIN CASE MANAGEMENT DEADLINES 14 VONS COMPANIES INC., et al., 15 Defendants. [ECF No. 22] 16 17 18 Before the Court is the parties’ joint motion to modify the scheduling order. ECF 19 No. 22. The parties seek an order from the Court extending certain case management 20 deadlines. Id. 21 Parties seeking to continue deadlines in the scheduling order must demonstrate good 22 cause. FED. R. CIV. P. 16(b)(4) (“A schedule may be modified only for good cause and with 23 the judge’s consent”); ECF No. 20 at 8 (First Amended Scheduling Order, stating that 24 “[t]he dates [] set forth herein will not be modified except for good cause shown”); see also 25 Chmb.R. at 2 (stating that any request for continuance requires “[a] showing of good cause 26 for the request”). 27 “Good cause” is a non-rigorous standard that has been construed broadly across 28 procedural and statutory contexts. Ahanchian v. Xenon Pictures, Inc., 624 F.3d 1253, 1259 1 (9th Cir. 2010). The good cause standard focuses on the diligence of the party seeking to 2 amend the scheduling order and the reasons for seeking modification. Johnson v. Mammoth 3 Recreations, Inc., 975 F.2d 604, 609 (9th Cir. 1992) (“[T]he focus of the inquiry is upon 4 the moving party’s reasons for seeking modification. . . . If that party was not diligent, the 5 inquiry should end.”) (internal citation omitted). 6 Here, the expert disclosure deadline is May 20, 2024, the expert discovery cutoff is 7 June 10, 2024, and the deadline to file pretrial motions is July 8, 2024. ECF No. 20 at 5. In 8 their joint motion, the parties have represented to the Court that they “have a[ settlement 9 conference] scheduled for June 5, 2024, and are desirous of avoiding potentially significant 10 expert-related costs and other legal fees in advance of that settlement conference; [and] 11 have recently completed fact-related discovery and are conferring to streamline the need 12 for experts or the scope of any dispositive motions, and would benefit from additional time 13 to continue those meet and confer discussions.” ECF No. 22 at 2; ECF No. 22-1 at 2. As 14 such, the parties seek to continue rebuttal expert deadlines to July 5, continue the expert 15 discovery cutoff to July 25, and continue the pretrial motions deadline to July 23. ECF 16 No. 22 at 4. 17 The Court appreciates that the parties are working together, and the Court finds good 18 cause to GRANT the parties’ joint motion (ECF No. 22) as follows: 19 1. The date for exchange of rebuttal experts shall be by July 5, 2024. The written 20 designations shall include the name, address and telephone number of the expert and a 21 reasonable summary of the testimony the expert is expected to provide. The list shall also 22 include the normal rates the expert charges for deposition and trial testimony. 23 2. Any party shall supplement its disclosure regarding contradictory or rebuttal 24 evidence under Fed. R. Civ. P. 26(a)(2)(D) and 26(e) by July 5, 2024. 25 3. All expert discovery shall be completed by all parties by July 25, 2024. The 26 parties shall comply with the same procedures set forth in the paragraph governing fact 27 discovery. See ECF No. 15 at 1–2. Failure to comply with this section or any other 28 discovery order of the court may result in the sanctions provided for in Fed. R. Civ. P. 37, 1 |/including a prohibition on the introduction of experts or other designated matters in 2 || evidence. 3 4. All other pretrial motions, including those addressing Daubert issues related 4 ||to dispositive motions must be filed by July 23, 2024.' Pursuant to Honorable 5 ||Gonzalo P. Curiel’s Civil Pretrial & Trial Procedures, all motions for summary judgment 6 || shall be accompanied by a separate statement of undisputed material facts. Any opposition 7 a summary judgment motion shall include a response to the separate statement of 8 ||undisputed material facts. Counsel for the moving party must obtain a motion hearing date 9 || from the law clerk of the judge who will hear the motion. Motion papers MUST be filed 10 served the same day of obtaining a motion hearing date from chambers. A briefing 11 |}schedule will be issued once a motion has been filed. The period of time between the date 12 || you request a motion date and the hearing date may vary. Please plan accordingly. Failure 13 ||to make a timely request for a motion date may result in the motion not being heard. 14 5. All other dates, deadlines, procedures, and requirements set forth in the 15 || Court’s First Amended Scheduling Order (ECF No. 20) remain in place.’ 16 IT IS SO ORDERED. 17 || Dated: May 16, 2024 Mp Moe H. olan yh 18 Honorable Allison H. Goddard 19 United States Magistrate Judge 20 || ——___ 21 ||! The Court notes that this deadline is two days earlier than the parties’ requested expert 97 ||discovery cutoff. However, the parties requested these deadlines in their motion and reinforced their request in their proposed order. Email to Chambers (May 15, 2024, at 23 PM) (proposed order, with expert discovery cutoff as July 25 and pretrial motion deadline as July 23); ECF No. 22 at 2, 4 (same). 25 Of note, the Court confirms that its September 11, 2024, Mandatory Settlement 5 Conference remains on calendar. Compare ECF No. 22 (parties’ motion, stating that “this 6 Court scheduled a Mandatory Settlement Conference for June 5, 2024, essentially 27 ||expediting the Mandatory Settlement Conference previously scheduled for September 11, 28 2024.) with ECF No. 21 (scheduling a settlement conference for June 5, 2024, and not vacating the September Mandatory Settlement Conference).