United States of America v. Zurich Insurance Company et al

Filing 31

ORDER APPROVING STIPULATION RE: AMENDMENT OF TRIAL DATE AND CASE MANAGEMENT DEADLINES IN LIGHT OF MEDIATION SCHEDULED FOR MARCH 2010. Trial date: February 28, 2011. Non-expert discovery cutoff: September 10, 2010. Expert designation by plaintiff: Oc tober 1, 2010. Expert designation by defendant: October 15, 2010. Expert discovery cutoff: November 5, 2010. Dispositive motion filing date: November 19, 2010. Pretrial Conference: February 15, 2011. Meet and Confer: January 10, 2011. Further Status Conference: September 24, 2010. Signed by Judge Maxine M. Chesney on March 5, 2010. (mmclc1, COURT STAFF) (Filed on 3/5/2010)

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Ethan A. Miller (State Bar No. 155965) David A. Gabianelli (State Bar No. 158170) Ethan H. Seibert (State Bar No. 232262) SQUIRE, SANDERS & DEMPSEY L.L.P. One Maritime Plaza, Suite 300 San Francisco, CA 94111-3492 Telephone: [phone] Facsimile: +1.415.393.9887 Attorneys for Defendants ZURICH AMERICAN INSURANCE COMPANY and STEADFAST INSURANCE COMPANY JOSEPH P. RUSSONIELLO (SBN 44332) United States Attorney JOANN M. SWANSON (SBN 135879) Chief, Civil Division CHARLES M. O'CONNOR (SBN 56320) JONATHAN U. LEE (SBN 148792) Assistant United States Attorneys 450 Golden Gate Avenue, 9th Floor San Francisco, CA 94102 Telephone: [phone] Facsimile: 415-436-6748 ATTORNEYS FOR UNITED STATES OF AMERICA

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SQUIRE, SANDERS & DEMPSEY L.L.P.
One Maritime Plaza, Suite 300 San Francisco, California 941113492

UNITED STATES DISTRICT COURT NORTHERN DISTRICT OF CALIFORNIA SAN FRANCISCO DIVISION

CASE NO. CV08-5005 (MMC) STIPULATION AND [PROPOSED] ORDER RE AMENDMENT OF TRIAL DATE AND CASE MANAGEMENT DEADLINES IN LIGHT OF MEDIATION SCHEDULED FOR MARCH 2010

ZURICH INSURANCE COMPANY, ZURICH AMERICAN INSURANCE COMPANY and STEADFAST INSURANCE COMPANY, Defendant.

STIPULATION AND [PROPOSED] ORDER - CASE NO. CV08-5005 (MMC)

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SQUIRE, SANDERS & DEMPSEY L.L.P.
One Maritime Plaza, Suite 300 San Francisco, California 941113492

WHEREAS, this Court entered a Stipulation and Order Regarding Initial Case Deadlines and Management Issues on December 24, 2008 (Dkt. 8), in which initial case deadlines were postponed approximately 30 days to permit the parties to attend private mediation in January 2009; WHEREAS, the parties to this action attended private mediation on January 23, 2009; WHEREAS, this Court entered a Further Stipulation and Order Regarding Initial Case Management Deadlines and Extension of Time to File a Responsive Pleading on February 5, 2009 (Dkt. 10), in which initial case deadlines were further postponed to permit the parties to this action to attend a further private mediation session in March 2009; and WHEREAS, the parties to this action attended private mediation on March 13, 2009, and continued telephonic discussions with the assistance of the mediator until April 2009; WHEREAS, the parties to this action attended an initial case management conference on June 12, 2009 and the Court entered a Pretrial Preparation Order (Docket #25). By and through their attorneys of record, the parties stipulate as follows: 1. Since late summer 2009, the parties have met and conferred regarding and been engaged in discovery of electronically stored information. The parties negotiated a list of approximately 150 search terms and have been diligently engaged in gathering electronic data responsive to the search terms dating back more than ten years and producing the data after appropriate privilege review. Due to the scope of the data available for searching on both sides, this process has proven more difficult than either party anticipated, and despite the best efforts of the litigants, discovery of electronically stored information has not been completed and will not likely be completed within the next sixty days. The parties have jointly concluded that the case management deadlines cannot realistically be complied with in light of the unforeseen problems with discovery of electronically stored information, which must be completed before resources should be expended on depositions, expert disclosure and expert-related discovery. 2. In September of 2009, counsel began to meet and confer on a possible additional

FURTHER STIPULATION AND [PROPOSED] ORDER RE INITIAL CASE MANAGEMENT DEADLINES AND EXTENSION OF TIME TO FILE A RESPONSIVE PLEADING - CASE NO. CV08-5005 (MMC)

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SQUIRE, SANDERS & DEMPSEY L.L.P.
One Maritime Plaza, Suite 300 San Francisco, California 941113492

mediation effort which would encompass this litigation as well as the parties to United States of America v. California Department of Transportation, Action 090437 PJH. In that action, the United States, including The Presidio Trust, are represented by Bradley O'Brien and Davis Forsythe of the United States Department of Justice, Environmental and Natural Resources Division in San Francisco and Washington, D.C., and California Department of Transportation is represented by Janet Wong of the California Department of Transportation. That action concerns the same pollution at issue in this case. Due to the number of parties and attorneys involved, it has taken some time to coordinate a global mediation. Recently, all parties in both actions agreed to attend a global, two-day mediation on March 11-12, 2010 in San Francisco, California with Timothy Gallagher, Esq. serving as the mediator It is unknown whether additional sessions may be necessary, but given the scope of the issues presented in the two actions, that is a real possibility. 3. In light of the complexity and volume of the electronic discovery issue and the global mediation scheduled for next week, counsel of record in this action believe and agree that the case management deadlines set by the Court in Docket #25 for the trial date, non-expert discovery cutoff, designation of experts, expert discovery cutoff, dispositive motion filing date and pretrial conference will be extremely difficult to comply with and should be postponed by approximately 120 days to permit the parties to focus their resources on resolving this matter at mediation. The postponement will also permit the parties to delay further expenditure of resources on the production of electronically stored information, which has proven to be difficult and burdensome on both parties, until after the global mediation process is complete. 4. Consistent with the foregoing paragraph, the parties agree to the following revised case management schedule, subject to the approval of the Court: a. Trial date: February 28, 2011 -2FURTHER STIPULATION AND [PROPOSED] ORDER RE INITIAL CASE MANAGEMENT DEADLINES AND EXTENSION OF TIME TO FILE A RESPONSIVE PLEADING - CASE NO. CV08-5005 (MMC)

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SQUIRE, SANDERS & DEMPSEY L.L.P.
One Maritime Plaza, Suite 300 San Francisco, California 941113492

b. Non-expert discovery cutoff: September 10, 2010 c. Expert designation by plaintiff: October 1, 2010 d. Expert designation by defendant: October 15, 2010 e. Expert discovery cutoff: November 5, 2010 f. Dispositive motion filing date: November 19, 2010 g. Pretrial Conference: February 15, 2011 at 3:00 p.m. h. Meet and Confer (Civil L.R. 16-10(b)(5)): January 10, 2011 5. The current case management schedule includes a further status conference on June 25, 2010 at 10:30 a.m., which the parties agree should be continued to September 24, 2010. IT IS SO STIPULATED. DATED: March 4, 2010 JOSEPH P. RUSSONIELLO United States Attorney

By:

/s/ Jonathan U. Lee CHARLES M. O'CONNOR JONATHAN U. LEE Assistant U.S. Attorneys COUNSEL FOR PLAINTIFF

DATED:

March 4, 2010

SQUIRE, SANDERS & DEMPSEY L.L.P.

By:

/s/ David A. Gabianelli DAVID A. GABIANELLI

Attorneys for Defendants STEADFAST INSURANCE COMPANY and ZURICH AMERICAN INSURANCE COMPANY

PURSUANT TO STIPULATION, IT IS SO ORDERED. DATED: 5 March __, 2010 HON. MAXINE M. CHESNEY United States District Judge

-3FURTHER STIPULATION AND [PROPOSED] ORDER RE INITIAL CASE MANAGEMENT DEADLINES AND EXTENSION OF TIME TO FILE A RESPONSIVE PLEADING - CASE NO. CV08-5005 (MMC)