Young v. Sun Life and Health Insurance Company

Filing 28

ORDER AFTER INFORMAL TELEPHONIC CONFERENCE RE: DISCOVERY, signed by Magistrate Judge Jennifer L. Thurston on 4/7/2017. (Hall, S)

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1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 UNITED STATES DISTRICT COURT 9 EASTERN DISTRICT OF CALIFORNIA 10 11 VICKI YOUNG, 12 Plaintiff, 13 14 vs. SUN LIFE AND HEALTH INSURANCE COMPANY, Case No. 1:16-cv-00822-LJO-JLT ORDER AFTER INFORMAL TELEPHONIC CONFERENCE RE: DISCOVERY (Doc. 27) 15 Defendants. 16 17 18 At the request of the plaintiff, the Court held an informal conference re: discovery dispute on April 7, 2017. At the conference, the parties agreed: 19 1. The depositions of the two employees of the defendant would not go forward at this 20 time. Rather, the plaintiff may propound1 up to ten questions to each employee directed toward 21 discovering the nature, extent and effect of the alleged conflict of interest. The plaintiff may not 22 ask questions about the specifics of how and why the decisions were made or whether the 23 decisions were correct. 24 The defendant agreed to provide substantive responses to questions on the relevant topic. 25 After the employees provide these responses, if the plaintiff feels the responses fail to be 26 responsive, counsel must meet and confer (and counsel SHALL make meeting and conferring a 27 28 1 The Court anticipates that the interrogatories will be propounded within one week. 1 priority in their schedule), but, in the event they cannot resolve the dispute, the plaintiff SHALL 2 seek a timely teleconference with the Court; 3 2. The deposition of the independent medical examiner will go forward on a date that 4 is convenient to counsel, the doctor and the Court. The Court will be available by telephone 5 during the deposition to rule, as necessary, on the propriety of questions asked and objections 6 made. Toward this end, the Court clarifies that the plaintiff may ask questions limited to the issue 7 of conflict of interest/bias. The plaintiff may not ask questions about why the doctor came to 8 his/her medical opinions in the plaintiff’s particular case. 9 3. Once the date for the doctor’s deposition is known, counsel may renew their 10 stipulation to amend the case schedule. The renewed stipulation should propose reasonable dates 11 for the remaining case deadlines. 12 13 14 15 16 17 18 19 20 21 22 23 24 25 26 27 28 IT IS SO ORDERED. Dated: April 7, 2017 /s/ Jennifer L. Thurston UNITED STATES MAGISTRATE JUDGE

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