Vertical Tank, Inc. v. BakerCorp

Filing 45

ORDER AFTER INFORMAL TELECONFERENCE re Discovery Dispute; ORDER SETTING FURTHER CONFERENCE, signed by Magistrate Judge Jennifer L. Thurston on 6/7/2019. Further Discovery Conference set for 6/17/2019 at 01:30 PM before Magistrate Judge Jennifer L. Thurston. (Hall, S)

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UNITED STATES DISTRICT COURT

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EASTERN DISTRICT OF CALIFORNIA

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VERTICAL TANK, INC.,

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Plaintiff,

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v.

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BAKERCORP,

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Case No.: 1:18-cv-00145 LJO LJT
ORDER AFTER INFORMAL
TELECONFERENCE RE DISCOVERY
DISPUTE; ORDER SETTING FURTHER
CONFERENCE
(Doc. 43)

Defendant.

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The Court held an informal teleconference with counsel to attempt to resolve disputes over

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production requests propounded by the plaintiff. (Doc. 44) The conference was not successful,

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except that plaintiff’s counsel agrees that he received the defendant’s document retention policy.

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Thus, the Court will set a further conference on June 17, 2019 at 1:30 p.m. In advance of that

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conference, the defense will conduct additional investigation and will complete other tasks. The

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Court ORDERS:

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1.

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No later than June 13, 2019, the defense SHALL:
a.

Provide a list to plaintiff’s counsel, by referencing the Bates number, of the

documents that respond to each category of request;
b.

Contact the successor entity to AFC (the contractor it hired to design the

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accused tanks) to determine whether it has retained responsive documents, including those held

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electronically. The defense SHALL request informal production of these records and request that
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production occur immediately;

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c.

Have communication with the IT staff of BakerCorp to determine:
i.

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Whether the legacy computer system can be searched, and

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documents/emails recovered for the relevant period, which the Court understands is November 2012

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through July 2013. If BakerCorp indicates that the system cannot be searched, the defense SHALL

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obtain an in-depth explanation;
ii.

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Whether any of the records BakerCorp maintains electronically,

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whether in the nature of accounting, financial, marketing or other category of data, can be searched—

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and as necessary correlated with other data, to discover the persons/entities who leased any of the

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accused tanks and the amount the person/entity paid for the lease of the tanks;
d.

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Investigate to determine whether it is wieldy to access the hardcopy version

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of the pertinent rental agreements maintained in the defendant’s warehouse. If the relevant rental

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agreements cannot be easily identified, the defense counsel SHALL determine the number of

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hardcopy lease agreements which would need to be searched to discover the responsive documents.

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2.

The Court sets a further informal conference re: discovery dispute on June 17, 2019

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at 1:30 p.m. Counsel will appear via teleconference by dialing [phone] and entering access

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code 1652736. No later than 8 a.m. on June 17, 2019, counsel SHALL lodge reports via email to

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[e-mail], indicating the status of the dispute and the extent to which they

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believe the dispute has been resolved.

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IT IS SO ORDERED.
Dated:

June 7, 2019

/s/ Jennifer L. Thurston
UNITED STATES MAGISTRATE JUDGE

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