Impey v. Office Depot, Inc.

Filing 176

ORDER GRANTING IN PART AND DENYING IN PART re 154 motion to continue; the Court Orders that trial of this matter shall be limited to ten court days. The allocation and schedule of these ten court days will be determined at the pre-trial conference . Trial shall begin on September 6, 2011 as scheduled. On September 6, jury selection will be conducted and opening statements will be presented, but no client representatives or other witnesses need to be present and no witness testimony will be ta ken. There will be no trial on September 7, and witness testimony will begin on September 8. This will allow witnesses and client representatives to travel two days after the Labor Day holiday if they prefer, and will provide ten days for trial and two days for jury deliberation with Judge Laporte available. Should the jury deliberate beyond September 22 when the Court becomes unavailable, another judge will accept the verdict. Signed by Magistrate Judge Elizabeth D. Laporte on 7/20/2011. (awb, COURT STAFF) (Filed on 7/20/2011)

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1 2 3 4 5 6 7 UNITED STATES DISTRICT COURT 8 NORTHERN DISTRICT OF CALIFORNIA 9 DANIEL IMPEY, 11 For the Northern District of California United States District Court 10 Plaintiff, No. C-09-01973 EDL 12 v. 13 ORDER GRANTING IN PART AND DENYING IN PART MOTION TO CONTINUE TRIAL THE OFFICE DEPOT, INC. 14 15 16 Defendant. _____________________________/ On February 9, 2011, this case was set for a pre-trial conference on August 9 and trial on 17 September 6. On July 14, Defendant moved for a continuance of the trial date to either September 12 18 or October 17. This Court agreed to decide the motion on shortened time on the papers, and ordered 19 the parties to address exactly how much time they anticipate needing for trial, and whether they 20 would consider stipulating to have another judge of this District take the jury's verdict if 21 deliberations continue past September 22, when the Court becomes unavailable. 22 Defendant seeks a continuance of the trial date, which has been set for over five months, 23 because it is the day after Labor Day and an attorney assigned to the case on April 1 has pre-existing 24 travel plans. While Defendant states some confusion about whether the trial was going to proceed on 25 September 6 due to communications with the clerk’s office, the Court never ordered a continuance 26 of the September 6 trial date, trial was always set for the day after Labor Day, and the attorney with 27 the conflict was substituted in on April 1, well after the trial date was set. Thus, Defendant’s 28 showing of good cause for a continuance at this late date is weak. 1 Plaintiff opposes the motion because he believes trial will take a minimum of 10 and perhaps 2 15 days for trial and because he has listed 22 witnesses in his pre-trial papers. The Court set a 10 3 day limit on trial in its case management order after consultation with the parties, no good cause has 4 been shown for increasing the length of trial and the Court does not believe that more than 10 days is 5 required to try this case. Regarding Plaintiff’s witnesses, Defendant points out that nine of 6 Plaintiff’s witnesses are listed on the same topic so some of them may well be excluded as 7 duplicative. Further, of the remaining 13 witnesses, 11 overlap with Defendant’s witnesses so this 8 will cut down on the time required. 9 In light of the foregoing, the Court Orders that trial of this matter shall be limited to ten court days. The allocation and schedule of these ten court days will be determined at the pre-trial 11 For the Northern District of California United States District Court 10 conference. Trial shall begin on September 6, 2011 as scheduled. On September 6, jury selection 12 will be conducted and opening statements will be presented, but no client representatives or other 13 witnesses need to be present and no witness testimony will be taken. There will be no trial on 14 September 7, and witness testimony will begin on September 8. This will allow witnesses and client 15 representatives to travel two days after the Labor Day holiday if they prefer, and will provide ten 16 days for trial and two days for jury deliberation with Judge Laporte available. Should the jury 17 deliberate beyond September 22 when the Court becomes unavailable, another judge will accept the 18 verdict. 19 20 IT IS SO ORDERED. 21 22 23 Dated: July 20, 2011 24 _______________________________________ 25 ELIZABETH D. LAPORTE United States Magistrate Judge 26 27 28

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