Johnson et al v. Hewlett-Packard Company

Filing 214

ORDER DENYING PLAINTIFFS' OBJECTIONS TO SPECIAL MASTER'S DISCOVERY ORDER NO. 9. Signed by Magistrate Judge Bernard Zimmerman on 5/27/2011. (bzsec, COURT STAFF) (Filed on 5/27/2011)

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1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 UNITED STATES DISTRICT COURT 9 NORTHERN DISTRICT OF CALIFORNIA 10 11 JEFFREY JOHNSON, et al., 12 Plaintiff(s), 13 14 v. HEWLETT-PACKARD COMPANY, 15 Defendant(s). ) ) ) ) ) ) ) ) ) ) No. C09-3596 CRB (BZ) ORDER DENYING PLAINTIFFS’ OBJECTIONS TO SPECIAL MASTER’S DISCOVERY ORDER NO. 9 16 17 Having reviewed the parties’ papers regarding plaintiffs’ 18 objections to Judge Warren’s Discovery Management Order (DMO) 19 No. 9, IT IS HEREBY ORDERED that plaintiffs’ objections are 20 OVERRULED. 21 plaintiffs’ “use of ‘Omega’ is to a computer program or a 22 system of that name, and not to an ‘ecosystem’ of which Omega 23 is merely a part.” 24 object to this Order, which specifically limited the scope of 25 discovery, and Judge Warren has applied this definition of 26 “Omega” throughout the time he has presided over the parties’ 27 /// 28 /// On January 27, 2011, Judge Warren ruled that the Docket No. 137 at 5. 1 Plaintiffs did not 1 discovery disputes.1 2 plaintiffs now object to Judge Warren’s interpretation of 3 “Omega” in DMO No. 9, which was based on his January 27 4 ruling, that objection is untimely. 5 party may file objections to...the master’s [order] no later 6 than 21 days after a copy is served, unless the court sets a 7 different time.”) 8 file their proposed fourth amended complaint, plaintiffs 9 should seek leave from Judge Breyer to ask Judge Warren to 10 Accordingly, to the extent that See FRCP 53(f)(2)(“A Should Judge Breyer permit plaintiffs to review his discovery ruling in light of the amended complaint. 11 Plaintiffs also object to DMO No. 9 to the extent that 12 Judge Warren ruled that because the present complaint only 13 alleges errors by the Calculator, errors by any other part of 14 the compensation system are not relevant. 15 so rule. 16 confirming that defendant was permitted to make redactions 17 consistent with DMO Nos. 3 and 6, and that defendant had 18 averred that it has done so. 19 appear to have been asked to review specific redactions to 20 determine whether they were improper, plaintiffs’ objections DMO No. 9 does not I read Judge Warren’s ruling in DMO No. 9 as simply Since Judge Warren does not 21 22 1 23 24 25 26 27 28 Contrary to plaintiffs’ argument, Judge Warren’s January 27 Order was not a preliminary ruling. In DMO No. 6, posted on March 14, 2011, Judge Warren confirmed that this issue had been resolved in January: “The scope of what is and what isn’t ‘Omega’ has been a central theme in these discovery disputes. In [DMO #3], the Referee, relying on the allegations of the operative Third Amended Complaint, resolved this issue by ruling that Plaintiffs’ use of the term ‘Omega’ is to a computer program or a system by that name, and not to some sort of compensation ‘ecosystem’ of which Omega is merely a part (see, DMO #3 ¶ 5-7). No party appealed from DMO #3.” Docket No. 176 at fn. 2. See also Docket No. 193 at 2-3. 2 1 are misplaced. 2 Dated: May 27, 2011 3 4 Bernard Zimmerman United States Magistrate Judge 5 6 G:\BZALL\-REFS\JOHNSON V. HEWLETT-PACKARD\ORDER DENYING PLAINTIFF'S OBJECTIONS TO SPECIAL MASTER'S ORDER NO. 9.wpd 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 15 16 17 18 19 20 21 22 23 24 25 26 27 28 3

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