Douglas et al v. Town of Portola Valley et al

Filing 30

ORDER to continue CMC re 29 Stipulation filed by West Bay Sanitary District Initial Case Management Conference set for 6/4/2010 08:30 AM in Courtroom 8, 19th Floor, San Francisco.. Signed by Judge Charles R. Breyer on 3/24/2010. (be, COURT STAFF) (Filed on 3/24/2010)

1 Anthony P. Condotti, SBN 149886 Barbara H. Choi, SBN 156088 2 ATCHISON, BARISONE, CONDOTTI & KOVACEVICH A Professional Corporation 3 333 Church Street Santa Cruz, CA 95060 4 Telephone: [phone] Facsimile: [phone] 5 Attorneys for Defendant 6 WEST BAY SANITARY DISTRICT 7 8 9 10 11 MICHAEL DOUGLAS, an individual; LISA DOUGLAS, an individual; MICHAEL 12 DOUGLAS, as Trustee of the Douglas Family Trust; LISA DOUGLAS, as Trustee of the 13 Douglas Family Trust, 14 15 vs. Plaintiffs, CASE NO. C09-04788-CRB STIPULATION TO CONTINUE CASE MANAGEMENT CONFERENCE: DECLARATION OF BARBARA H. CHOI IN SUPPORT; [PROPOSED] ORDER [Civ. Local Rule 6-2; 7-12] UNITED STATES DISTRICT COURT NORTHERN DISTRICT OF CALIFORNIA

TOWN OF PORTOLA VALLEY, a public 16 entity; WEST BAY SANITARY DISTRICT; CHRISTOPHER BUJA, an individual; 17 GEORGE MADER, an individual; SPANGLE ASSOCIATES, a corporation; LUIS MEJIA, 18 an individual; SAUSAL CREEK ASSOCIATES; and DOES 1 through 50, 19 Defendants. 20 21 22

Plaintiffs, Michael and Lisa Douglas, as individuals and as Trustees of the Douglas Family Trust,

23 and Defendants Town of Portola Valley, George Mader, West Bay Sanitary District, Christopher Buja, 24 Luis Mejia, and Sausal Creek Associates, parties to the above-entitled action by and through their 25 attorneys of record, hereby agree and stipulate to continue the following date: 26 1. Case Management Conference from March 26, 2010 to (approximately 60 days) at least

27 30 days after notice of the Court's ruling on the pending Motions to Dismiss the First Amended 28
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1 Complaint separately filed by defendants, 1)Town of Portola Valley, George Mader, and Spangle 2 Associates; 2)West Bay Sanitary District; and 3) Christopher Buja. The hearing on these three separate 3 Motions to Dismiss are set for hearing on April 16, 2010. 4 Good cause exists to continue the Case Management Conference date of March 26, 2010. In

5 order to adhere to this deadline, Defendants would have had to meet and confer and file an ADR 6 Certification by March 5th. Initial disclosures and a joint case management conference statement would 7 have had to be filed by March 19th. Due to plaintiffs' recent filing of their First Amended Complaint, 8 with some of the Defendants responding by way of a Motion to Dismiss, and with another Defendant, 9 Luis Mejia, having an agreement with Plaintiffs to a continuance to respond for 60 days until May1, 10 2010, the case is not yet at issue to conduct a Case Management Conference. It is premature at this time 11 to expend the court's and parties' resources to proceed with filing a joint statement and preparing initial 12 disclosures to meet the existing Case Management Conference date. Continuing the Case Management 13 Conference will promote case efficiency and judicial economy. The Court's ruling on the Motions to 14 Dismiss may eliminate some, if not all, of the legal issues posed in the First Amended Complaint. As 15 such, the Court's ruling may directly impact what issues the parties will need to address for a future 16 Case Management Conference and related initial disclosures. In addition, Plaintiffs are still in the 17 process of serving Defendant Sausal Creek Associates, making it judicially economical to extend the 18 Case Management Conference date. 19 This Court approved an earlier stipulation to continue the original Case Management Conference

20 date due to the pendency of a motion to dismiss the original complaint in this action. This new 21 stipulation is also based on necessity and on good cause. 22 Good cause, therefore, exists to: 1) continue the Case Management Conference date of March

23 26, 2010, to approximately 60 days, to at least June 4, 2010. It is anticipated that this will allow 24 sufficient time for the parties to receive notice of the Court's ruling on the pending motions to dismiss, 25 to allow the lapse of the 60 day continuance for a response given by plaintiffs to some of the defendants, 26 to meet and confer with counsel, and to prepare a joint statement, file an ADR Certification, and file 27 initial disclosures prior to the new Case Management Conference date. 28
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It is so stipulated by the parties below. This Stipulation will be signed in counterparts and copies

2 thereof are considered as valid as the original. 3 4 5 6 Dated: March 18, 2010 7 8 9 10 11 12 Dated: March 18, 2010 13 14 15 16 17 18 Dated: March 19, 2010 19 20 21 22 23 24 25 26 27 28
-3STIPULATION TO CONTINUE CASE MANAGEMENT CONFERENCE AND TIME TO RESPOND TO COMPLAINT; DECLARATION OF BARBARA H. CHOI IN SUPPORT; [PROPOSED] ORDER - C09-04788-CRB

ATCHISON, BARISONE, CONDOTTI & KOVACEVICH

By:

_______________/S/_____________________ BARBARA H. CHOI Attorneys for Defendant WEST BAY SANITARY DISTRICT

JORGENSON, SIEGEL, McCLURE & FLEGEL, LLP

By:

_____________/S/_______________________ JOHN FLEGEL Attorneys for Defendants TOWN OF PORTOLA VALLEY, GEORGE MADER, and SPANGLE ASSOCIATES

KERR & WAGSTAFFE LLP

By:

_____________/S/_______________________ IVO LABAR Attorneys for Defendant CHRISTOPHER BUJA

HOWREY LLP Dated: March 18, 2010 By: ___________/S/_________________________ TERESA M. CORBIN Attorneys for Defendant LUIS MEJIA

1 2 3 Dated: March 19, 2010 4 5 6 7 8

KASS & KASS LAW OFFICES By: ___________/S/_________________________ BRADLEY MARK KASS Attorneys for Plaintiffs MICHAEL DOUGLAS and LISA DOUGLAS

DECLARATION OF BARBARA H. CHOI I, Barbara H. Choi declare as follows: 1. I am an attorney at law duly admitted to practice before this Court and am an associate in

9 the law firm of Atchison, Barisone, Condotti & Kovacevich, attorney of record herein for defendant, 10 West Bay Sanitary District ("District"). I have personal knowledge of the matters herein and if called, 11 can competently testify regarding the matters stated herein in support of this stipulation. 12 2. On or about the end of February, 2010, Plaintiffs' counsel, Bradley Kass, contacted me

13 asking if I would agree to a temporary stay of the pleadings and court deadlines in this case for 60 days 14 to try to informally resolve the issues raised in the original Complaint and First Amended Complaint 15 against the District. He informed me that defendant Town of Portola Valley had agreed to his proposal 16 and that he was making a similar request of all defendants in the action. If all parties consented, he 17 stated that he would prepare and file a stipulation to seek court approval. I advised him that I would be 18 interested in the temporary stay and hoped that the time could be used effectively to dispose of the 19 claims against the District. In view of the proposal and the time needed to effectuate it, Plaintiffs' 20 counsel agreed that that the upcoming deadline of March 10, 2010 for responding to the First Amended 21 Complaint was no longer applicable to defendant West Bay Sanitary District. 22 3. Shortly thereafter on March 2, 2010, I spoke to Teresa Corbin, Luis Mejia's attorney for

23 purposes of this stipulation only. She advised me that she had also agreed to Mr. Kass' proposal and 24 that he had agreed to continue the response due date for her client for 60 days. 25 4. In the ensuing days, the parties who had agreed to the continuance awaited Mr. Kass to

26 prepare and forward the stipulation. 27 28
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5.

On March 5, attorney for defendant, Christopher Buja, notified all parties that his client

2 was not agreeing to the proposed stipulation and was proceeding with filing a motion to dismiss the 3 following week. Shortly thereafter, Nicolas Flegel, the Town of Portola Valley's attorney, also notified 4 the parties that his client was proceeding with filing a motion to dismiss, rather than agreeing to the 5 stipulation. 6 6. Concerned that I had not yet received the proposed stipulation for a continuance of the

7 court proceedings from Mr. Kass, I notified Mr. Kass that the District was also filing a motion to dismiss 8 so that it could be heard on the same date as the others on April 16. Mr. Kass contacted me stating that 9 his delay in preparing the stipulation was due to his awaiting defendant Christopher Buja's response to 10 his proposal. Since he had finally received that, he was intending to proceed with preparing the 11 stipulation when he received news that the Town of Portola Valley and then West Bay Sanitary District 12 were also filing motions to dismiss. 13 7. In view of the pending motions to dismiss filed by five of the defendants and plaintiffs'

14 agreement with another defendant to an extension of time to respond to the First Amended Complaint, 15 the parties to this stipulation agree and jointly request that the Case Management Conference be 16 continued. Thus parties can avoid expending their resources and not prepare a joint statement nor initial 17 disclosures until after the Court's ruling on the pending motions to dismiss, which may possibly narrow 18 the legal issues. I was also informed by Mr. Kass that he has not yet been able to successfully serve 19 defendant Sausal Creek Associates. 20 8. On March 18, 2010, I forwarded this Stipulation to Plaintiffs' counsel, to counsel for

21 Defendants' Town of Portola Valley, George Mader and Spangle Associates, counsel for Defendant 22 Chris Buja, and counsel for Defendant Luis Mejia for their review and approval. I submit this 23 Stipulation to the Court based on the approval of all of these parties for the requested continuance of the 24 Case Management Conference, as reflected by their signatures to this Stipulation. 25 26 27 Dated: March 18, 2010 28 By: _____________/S/_______________________ BARBARA H. CHOI I declare under penalty of perjury that the foregoing is true and correct.

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ORDER PURSUANT TO STIPULATION, IT IS SO ORDERED, that there is good cause to continue the

3 Case Management Conference from March 26, 2010 to June 4, 2010 at 8:30 a.m. 4

6 7 8 9 10

UNIT ED

5 Dated: ________________________ March 24, 2010

_____________________________ Charles R. Breyer United States District Court DERED R Judge

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I, Barbara H. Choi, hereby attest that the faxed/scanned signatures of John Flegel, Ivo Labar, E

D I S document 11 Teresa M. Corbin, and Bradley Mark Kass are affixed to the original of this T R I C T and that said
12 original document is located in the Offices of Atchison, Barisone, Condotti & Kovacevich, 333 Church 13 Street, Santa Cruz, CA 95060. 14 15 16 17 Dated: March 22, 2010 18 19 20 21 22 23 24 25 26 27 28
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