Nationwide Agribusiness Insurance Company v. Garay et al

Filing 41

STIPULATION and ORDER 40 Continuing Pretrial Dates and Deadlines, signed by Magistrate Judge Jennifer L. Thurston on 11/19/2014. (Hall, S)

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1 2 3 4 5 6 MARC S. HINES (SBN 140065) mhines@hinescarder.com CHRISTINE M. EMANUELSON (SBN 221269) cemanuelson@hinescarder.com BRIAN PELANDA (SBN 278453) bpelanda@hinescarder.com HINES CARDER 3090 Bristol Street, Suite 300 Costa Mesa, California 92626 Tel.: (714) 513-1122 Fax: (714) 242-9529 7 8 Attorneys for Plaintiff, Nationwide Agribusiness Insurance Company 9 10 RICARDO ECHEVERRIA #166049 DANICA DOUGHERTY #273309 CLARE H. LUCICH #287157 SHERNOFF BIDART ECHEVERRIA BENTLEY LLP 600 South Indian Hill Boulevard Claremont, California 91711 Tel.: (909) 621-4935 Fax: (909) 625-6915 SCOTT D. HOWRY #169536 THE LAW OFFICES OF YOUNG WOOLRIDGE, LLP 1800 30th Street, Fourth Floor Bakersfield, California 93301 Tel.: (661) 327-9661 Fax: (661) 327-1087 Attorneys for Defendants and Counterclaimants 11 12 13 UNITED STATES DISTRICT COURT 14 EASTERN DISTRICT OF CALIFORNIA, FRESNO DIVISION 15 16 NATIONWIDE AGRIBUSINESS INSURANCE COMPANY, Plaintiff, 17 18 19 20 21 22 23 v. GERARDO ALANN FELIX GARAY; MARY GARCIA ROJAS; CYNTHIA ANN ROJAS; CHRISTINA MONTECINO; GABRIEL ROJAS; ANITA ROJAS, individually and as Guardian ad Litem for BRANNON JONAH CLAYTON; and DOES 1 to 50, inclusive, Case No. 1:14-CV-00138-AWI-JLT STIPULATION AND JOINT MOTION FOR CONTINUANCE OF PRETRIAL DATES AND DEADLINES WITHOUT CONTINUING THE TRIAL DATE; ORDER THEREON 24 25 Defendants. 26 27 28 MARY GARCIA ROJAS; CYNTHIA ANN ROJAS; CHRISTINA MONTECINO; 1 STIPULATION FOR CONTINUANCE OF PRETRIAL DATES AND DEADLINES 1 2 3 4 5 GABRIEL ROJAS; and ANITA ROJAS, v. NATIONWIDE AGRIBUSINESS INSURANCE COMPANY, Counterdefendant. 6 7 Counterclaimants, Plaintiff NATIONWIDE AGRIBUSINESS INSURANCE COMPANY 8 (“Nationwide”) and Defendants and Counterclaimants GERARDO ALANN 9 FELIX GARAY, MARY GARCIA ROJAS, CYNTHIA ANN ROJAS, 10 CHRISTINA MONTECINO, GABRIEL ROJAS, ANITA ROJAS and 11 BRANNON JONAH CLAYTON (“Defendants”) by and through their counsel of 12 record, hereby stipulate and move the Court to continue all pretrial dates and 13 deadlines in the Scheduling Order [Doc. No. 25] by approximately 90 days 14 without continuing the Pre-trial Conference date (10/7/15) or the Trial date 15 (12/1/15). 16 17 1. On May 19, 2014, the Court held a Scheduling Conference in this case and issued an Order setting forth the following pretrial dates and deadlines: 18  12/01/14 – Rule 26 Expert Disclosure deadline 19  01/02/15 – Rule 26 Rebuttal Expert Disclosure deadline 20  01/05/15 – Non-expert discovery cutoff 21  02/02/15 – Expert discovery cutoff 22  02/09/15 – Non-dispositive motion filing deadline 23  03/09/15 – Non-dispositive motion hearing deadline 24  03/16/15 – Dispositive motion filing deadline 25  05/04/15 – Dispositive motion hearing deadline 26  10/07/15 – Pre-trial Conference 27  12/01/15 – Trial 28 2 STIPULATION FOR CONTINUANCE OF PRETRIAL DATES AND DEADLINES 1 2. By way of this Stipulation, the Parties hereby jointly request that the 2 Court continue all of the foregoing pretrial dates and deadlines as follows, without 3 continuing the dates set for the Pre-trial Conference or the Trial: 4  02/27/15 – Rule 26 Expert Disclosure deadline 5  03/27/15 – Rule 26 Rebuttal Expert Disclosure deadline 6  04/03/15 – Non-expert discovery cutoff 7  05/01/15 – Expert discovery cutoff 8  05/11/15 – Non-dispositive motion filing deadline 9  06/12/15 – Non-dispositive motion hearing deadline 10  06/16/15 – Dispositive motion filing deadline 11  08/07/15 – Dispositive motion hearing deadline 12 13 14 3. As set forth above the present discovery cut-off deadline in this case is scheduled to occur nearly 11 months prior to the trial date. 4. To date, the Parties have diligently conducted discovery in this case 15 and believe that a continuance of the pretrial dates and deadlines is necessary to 16 complete both percipient and expert witness discovery. A summary of the 17 discovery conducted to date is set forth below. 18 5. Nationwide served Defendants with Interrogatories and Requests for 19 Production of Documents on July 15, 2014. Defendants’ served responses to 20 Nationwide’s Interrogatories and Requests for Production on August 18, 2014. 21 6. Defendants served Nationwide with Requests for Production of 22 Documents on July 24, 2014, and with Interrogatories on September 3, 2014. 23 Nationwide served responses to Defendants’ Requests for Production on August 24 26, 2014, and served verified responses to Defendants’ Interrogatories on October 25 6, 2014. 26 7. 27 The Parties have collectively subpoenaed documents from all of the following entities: (1) HFS Enterprises; (2) JSA Company; (3) the California 28 3 STIPULATION FOR CONTINUANCE OF PRETRIAL DATES AND DEADLINES 1 Department of Motor Vehicles; (4) Vicente Trucking; (5) Walter Mortensen 2 Insurance Agency; (6) Copart, Inc.; and (7) Peerless Insurance Company. 3 8. On September 25, 2014, Nationwide noticed the FRCP 30(b)(6) 4 deposition of JSA Company to take place on October 15, 2014. Approximately 5 one week prior to the deposition, an attorney representing JSA Company advised 6 Nationwide’s counsel that JSA Company’s deposition would have to be postponed 7 indefinitely because the person most knowledgeable at the company had recently 8 suffered from a serious brain injury and was recovering in the hospital. As of the 9 date of this Stipulation, JSA Company’s counsel has still not advised either of the 10 Parties as to when JSA Company will be able to offer a witness for examination 11 pursuant to Nationwide’s Rule 30(b)(6) deposition notice. The Parties agree that 12 JSA Company is a material witness in this case and that its deposition is 13 important, but at this point it appears unlikely that the Parties will be able to take 14 JSA Company’s deposition prior to the current discovery cut-off deadline of 15 January 5, 2015. The Parties anticipate that JSA Company’s testimony may 16 reveal facts that necessitate further discovery and depositions, and therefore good 17 cause exists to continue the present discovery cut-off deadline by approximately 18 90 days to April 3, 2015. 19 20 21 22 23 24 25 26 27 28 9. On October 15, 2014, the Parties took the deposition of John Antongiovanni, Jr. 10. On October 29, 2014, the Parties took the deposition of Vicente Felix Acosta. 11. On October 31, 2014, the Parties took the FRCP Rule 30(b)(6) deposition of Walter Mortensen Insurance Agency. 12. On November 12 and November 13, 2014, the Parties took five depositions of the California Department of Motor Vehicles. 13. On November 17, 2014, the Parties took the deposition of Julie Schuetz. Due to the length of Mrs. Schuetz's deposition, the Parties were unable to 4 STIPULATION FOR CONTINUANCE OF PRETRIAL DATES AND DEADLINES 1 start the deposition of Jonathan Schuetze also originally noticed for November 17, 2 2014. Mr. Schuetz is not available until January 2014 and a confirmed date for 3 Mr. Schuetz's deposition has not been set. Mrs. Schuetz's testimony revealed 4 additional facts that necessitate further discovery and the Parties anticipate that 5 Mr. Schuetz's testimony may similarly reveal facts that necessitate further 6 discovery and depositions, and therefore good cause exists to continue the present 7 discovery cut-off deadline by approximately 90 days to April 3, 2015. 8 9 10 14. Defendants have also noticed the FRCP 30(b)(6) deposition of Copart, Inc. to take place on December 2, 2014. 15. Good cause also exists to continue all remaining pretrial dates and 11 deadlines along with the present discovery cut-off deadline to accommodate the 12 additional discovery that the Parties anticipate will need to be conducted. 13 14 15 16. The Parties have not previously requested a continuance of any dates in the Court’s Scheduling Order. 17. Furthermore, continuing the pretrial dates and deadlines as requested 16 above will not interfere with the dates the Court set for the Pretrial Conference or 17 for the trial. 18 18. Therefore, the Parties respectfully request and jointly move the Court 19 continue all of the pretrial dates and deadlines in this matter as set forth above in 20 Paragraph 2. 21 22 Dated: November 18, 2014 SHERNOFF BIDART ECHEVERRIA BENTLEY LLP 23 THE LAW OFFICES OF YOUNG WOOLRIDGE, LLP 24 25 26 27 28 By: /s/ Ricardo Echeverria Ricardo Echeverria Scott Howry Danica Dougherty 5 STIPULATION FOR CONTINUANCE OF PRETRIAL DATES AND DEADLINES 1 Clare H. Lucich Attorneys for Defendants GERARDO GARAY, MARY ROJAS, CYNTHIA ROJAS, CHRISTINA MONTECINO, GABRIEL ROJAS, ANITA ROJAS, & BRANNON JONAH CLAYTON 2 3 4 5 6 Dated: November 18, 2014 HINES CARDER 7 8 9 10 11 12 By: /s/ Brian Pelanda Marc S. Hines Christine Emanuelson Brian Pelanda Attorney for Defendant NATIONWIDE AGRIBUSINESS INSURANCE COMPANY 13 14 15 16 17 18 19 20 21 22 23 24 25 26 27 28 6 STIPULATION FOR CONTINUANCE OF PRETRIAL DATES AND DEADLINES 1 ORDER 2 When scheduling the case, the Court relied upon the dates provided by the 3 parties in their joint report but modified them to accommodate the Court and 4 counsel. For example, the reason there was a long gap between the hearing on the 5 motion for summary judgment and the pretrial conference was to accommodate 6 counsels’ trial schedule and to give the Court sufficient time to decide the intended 7 cross-motions for summary judgment. Though the Court will GRANT the 8 requested modification to the case schedule, the parties are advised that this may 9 mean that the Court will have insufficient time to decide dispositive motions. If 10 that occurs, the pretrial conference date and the trial date be continued by the 11 Court. 12 13 Nevertheless, good cause appearing, the Court GRANTS the stipulation and amends the scheduling order as follows: 14 1. The parties SHALL disclose all experts no later than 2/27/15; 15 2. The parties SHALL disclose all rebuttal experts no later than 3/2715; 16 3. All non-expert discovery SHALL be completed no later than 4/3/15; 17 4. All expert discovery SHALL be completed no later than 5/1/15; 18 5. Any nondispositive motions SHALL be filed no later than 5/11/15 and 19 20 21 22 heard no later than 6/12/15; 6. Any dispositive motions SHALL be filed no later than 6/16/2015 and heard no later than 8/10/15; No other modifications to the case schedule are authorized. 23 24 25 IT IS SO ORDERED. Dated: November 19, 2014 /s/ Jennifer L. Thurston UNITED STATES MAGISTRATE JUDGE 26 27 28 7 STIPULATION FOR CONTINUANCE OF PRETRIAL DATES AND DEADLINES

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