Amezcua v. J.C. Penney Properties, Inc. et al

Filing 13

STATUS (PRETRIAL SCHEDULING) ORDER signed by District Judge Kimberly J. Mueller on 9/19/17. Initial disclosures shall have been completed by 9/8/2017. All discovery shall be completed by 7/20/2018. Designation of Expert Witnesses due by 9/14/2018 , and rebuttal expert disclosures due by 10/12/2018. All dispositive motions, except motions for continuances, temporary restrainingorders or other emergency applications, shall be heard no later than 12/21/2018. This matter is REFERRED to VDRP for the convening of a VDRP session to take place in March 2018. (Kastilahn, A)

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1 2 3 4 5 6 7 UNITED STATES DISTRICT COURT 8 FOR THE EASTERN DISTRICT OF CALIFORNIA 9 10 MARIA AMEZCUA, 11 Plaintiff, 12 13 No. 2:17-cv-0865 KJM EFB v. STATUS (PRETRIAL SCHEDULING) J.C. PENNEY PROPERTIES, INC., et al., 14 ORDER Defendants. 15 16 An initial scheduling conference was held in this case on August 31, 2017. Mark 17 18 Ketcherside appeared for plaintiff; Taylor Rhoan appeared for defendants. Having reviewed the parties’ Joint Status Report filed on August 24, 2017, and 19 20 discussed a schedule for the case with counsel at the hearing, the court makes the following 21 orders: 22 I. SERVICE OF PROCESS All named defendants have been served and no further service is permitted without 23 24 leave of court, good cause having been shown. 25 II. 26 ADDITIONAL PARTIES/AMENDMENTS/PLEADINGS No further joinder of parties or amendments to pleadings is permitted without 27 leave of court, good cause having been shown. See Fed. R. Civ. P. 16(b); Johnson v. Mammoth 28 Recreations, Inc., 975 F.2d 604 (9th Cir. 1992). 1 1 III. JURISDICTION/VENUE 2 Jurisdiction is predicated upon 28 U.S.C. § 1332(a)(1). Jurisdiction and venue are 3 not disputed. 4 IV. 5 DISCOVERY Initial disclosures as required by Federal Rule of Civil Procedure 26(a) shall have 6 been completed by September 8, 2017. All discovery shall be completed by July 20, 2018. In 7 this context, “completed” means that all discovery shall have been conducted so that all 8 depositions have been taken and any disputes relative to discovery shall have been resolved by 9 appropriate order if necessary and, where discovery has been ordered, the order has been obeyed. 10 All motions to compel discovery must be noticed on the magistrate judge’s calendar in 11 accordance with the local rules of this court. While the assigned magistrate judge reviews 12 proposed discovery phase protective orders, requests to seal or redact are decided by Judge 13 Mueller as discussed in more detail below. In addition, while the assigned magistrate judge 14 handles discovery motions, the magistrate judge cannot change the schedule set in this order, 15 except that the magistrate judge may modify a discovery cutoff to the extent such modification 16 does not have the effect of requiring a change to the balance of the schedule. 17 V. 18 DISCLOSURE OF EXPERT WITNESSES All counsel are to designate in writing, file with the court, and serve upon all other 19 parties the name, address, and area of expertise of each expert that they propose to tender at trial 20 not later than September 14, 2018. The designation shall be accompanied by a written report 21 prepared and signed by the witness. The report shall comply with Fed. R. Civ. P. 26(a)(2)(B). 22 By October 12, 2018, any party who previously disclosed expert witnesses may submit a 23 supplemental list of expert witnesses who will express an opinion on a subject covered by an 24 expert designated by an adverse party, if the party supplementing an expert witness designation 25 has not previously retained an expert to testify on that subject. The supplemental designation 26 shall be accompanied by a written report, which shall also comply with the conditions stated 27 above. 28 ///// 2 1 Failure of a party to comply with the disclosure schedule as set forth above in all 2 likelihood will preclude that party from calling the expert witness at the time of trial. An expert 3 witness not appearing on the designation will not be permitted to testify unless the party offering 4 the witness demonstrates: (a) that the necessity for the witness could not have been reasonably 5 anticipated at the time the list was proffered; (b) that the court and opposing counsel were 6 promptly notified upon discovery of the witness; and (c) that the witness was promptly made 7 available for deposition. 8 9 For purposes of this scheduling order, an “expert” is any person who may be used at trial to present evidence under Rules 702, 703 and 705 of the Federal Rules of Evidence, which 10 include both “percipient experts” (persons who, because of their expertise, have rendered expert 11 opinions in the normal course of their work duties or observations pertinent to the issues in the 12 case) and “retained experts” (persons specifically designated by a party to be a testifying expert 13 for the purposes of litigation). A party shall identify whether a disclosed expert is percipient, 14 retained, or both. It will be assumed that a party designating a retained expert has acquired the 15 express permission of the witness to be so listed. Parties designating percipient experts must state 16 in the designation who is responsible for arranging the deposition of such persons. 17 All experts designated are to be fully prepared at the time of designation to render 18 an informed opinion, and give the bases for their opinion, so that they will be able to give full and 19 complete testimony at any deposition taken by the opposing party. Experts will not be permitted 20 to testify at trial as to any information gathered or evaluated, or opinion formed, after deposition 21 taken subsequent to designation. All expert discovery shall be completed by November 16, 22 2018. 23 VI. MOTION HEARING SCHEDULE 24 All dispositive motions, except motions for continuances, temporary restraining 25 orders or other emergency applications, shall be heard no later than December 21, 2018.1 The 26 ///// 27 28 1 Note that this date may not correspond to a law and motion calendar date. 3 1 parties may obtain available hearing dates by checking Judge Mueller’s page on the court’s 2 website. 3 4 All purely legal issues are to be resolved by timely pretrial motions. Local Rule 230 governs the calendaring and procedures of civil motions; the following provisions also apply: 5 (a) The opposition and reply must be filed by 4:00 p.m. on the day due; and 6 (b) When the last day for filing an opposition brief falls on a legal holiday, the 7 opposition brief shall be filed on the last court day immediately preceding the legal holiday. 8 Failure to comply with Local Rule 230(c), as modified by this order, may be deemed consent to 9 the motion and the court may dispose of the motion summarily. Brydges v. Lewis, 18 F.3d 651, 10 11 652-53 (9th Cir. 1994). The court values the importance of training young attorneys. The parties are 12 encouraged to consider assigning oral argument to a young attorney. If a written request for oral 13 argument is filed before a hearing, stating an attorney of four or fewer years out of law school 14 will argue the oral argument, then the court will ordinarily hold the hearing, although the court’s 15 schedule and calendar may require the hearing to be reset. Otherwise, the court may find it 16 appropriate in some actions to submit a motion without oral argument. 17 The court places a page limit of twenty (20) pages on all moving papers, twenty 18 (20) pages on oppositions, and ten (10) pages for replies. All requests for page limit increases 19 must be made in writing at least fourteen (14) days prior to the filing of the motion. 20 Prior to filing a motion in a case in which the parties are represented by counsel, 21 counsel shall engage in a pre-filing meet and confer to discuss thoroughly the substance of the 22 contemplated motion and any potential resolution. Plaintiff’s counsel should carefully evaluate 23 the defendant’s contentions as to deficiencies in the complaint and in many instances the party 24 considering a motion should agree to any amendment that would cure a curable defect. Counsel 25 should discuss the issues sufficiently so that if a motion of any kind is filed, including for 26 summary judgment, the briefing is directed only to those substantive issues requiring resolution 27 by the court. Counsel should resolve minor procedural or other non-substantive matters during 28 the meet and confer. A notice of motion shall contain a certification by counsel filing the 4 1 motion that meet and confer efforts have been exhausted, with a brief summary of meet and 2 confer efforts. 3 The parties are cautioned that failure to raise a dispositive legal issue that could 4 have been tendered to the court by proper pretrial motion prior to the dispositive motion cut-off 5 date may constitute waiver of such issue. 6 VII. 7 SEALING No document will be sealed, nor shall a redacted document be filed, without the 8 prior approval of the court. If a document for which sealing or redaction is sought relates to the 9 record on a motion to be decided by Judge Mueller, the request to seal or redact should be 10 directed to her and not the assigned Magistrate Judge. All requests to seal or redact shall be 11 governed by Local Rules 141 (sealing) and 140 (redaction); protective orders covering the 12 discovery phase of litigation shall not govern the filing of sealed or redacted documents on the 13 public docket. The court will only consider requests to seal or redact filed by the proponent of 14 sealing or redaction. If a party plans to make a filing that includes material an opposing party has 15 identified as confidential and potentially subject to sealing, the filing party shall provide the 16 opposing party with sufficient notice in advance of filing to allow for the seeking of an order of 17 sealing or redaction from the court. 18 VIII. 19 SETTLEMENT CONFERENCE The parties have expressed interest in a settlement conference after some initial 20 discovery has been completed, and are amenable to a settlement conference convened by a 21 member of the court’s Voluntary Dispute Resolution Panel (VDRP). Accordingly, this matter is 22 referred to the court’s ADR Coordinator, Sujean Park, for the convening of a VDRP session to 23 take place in March 2018. A principal with full settlement authority for each party shall appear 24 at the VDRP session. 25 26 27 28 In the event no VDRP panelist is available during the time frame set forth above, the case will be referred to another judge of this court for settlement. The parties are reminded to promptly notify the court if they settle this case prior to the scheduled VDRP conference date. 5 1 IX. 2 FURTHER SCHEDULING The court will set a Final Pretrial Conference date after the resolution of any 3 dispositive motions, or passage of the dispositive motion cutoff, with a trial date being 4 determined at the pretrial conference. The parties should be prepared to confirm a trial date 5 within 60 to 120 days from the date of the final pretrial conference, and should be available for 6 trial accordingly. 7 X. 8 MODIFICATION OF STATUS (PRETRIAL SCHEDULING) ORDER The parties are reminded that pursuant to Rule 16(b) of the Federal Rules of Civil 9 Procedure, the Status (Pretrial Scheduling) Order shall not be modified except by leave of court 10 upon a showing of good cause. Agreement of the parties by stipulation alone does not constitute 11 good cause. Except in extraordinary circumstances, unavailability of witnesses or counsel does 12 not constitute good cause. 13 As noted, the assigned magistrate judge is authorized to modify only the discovery 14 dates shown above to the extent any such modification does not impact the balance of the 15 schedule of the case. 16 XI. 17 18 19 20 OBJECTIONS TO STATUS (PRETRIAL SCHEDULING) ORDER This Status Order will become final without further order of the court unless objections are filed within fourteen (14) calendar days of service of this Order. IT IS SO ORDERED. DATED: September 19, 2017. 21 22 UNITED STATES DISTRICT JUDGE 23 24 25 26 27 28 6

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