Montgomery v. United Air Lines, Inc. et al

Filing 9

Order re Venue Discovery. Case Management Statement due by 3/17/2015. Further Case Management Conference set for 3/24/2015 10:00 AM in Courtroom 4, 17th Floor, San Francisco. Signed by Judge Vince Chhabria on 2/20/2015. (knm, COURT STAFF) (Filed on 2/20/2015)

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UNITED STATES DISTRICT COURT

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NORTHERN DISTRICT OF CALIFORNIA

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KENNETH MONTGOMERY,

Case No. 15-cv-00459-VC

Plaintiff,
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v.

ORDER RE VENUE DISCOVERY

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UNITED AIR LINES, INC., et al.,

Re: Dkt. No. 8

Defendants.
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There is a threshold question whether this case is properly venued in the Northern District

United States District Court
Northern District of California

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of California. The plaintiff alleges venue is proper under 42 U.S.C. § 2000e-5(f)(3) because the

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records related to the positions at Dulles Airport for which he applied are maintained and

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administered in Dublin, CA. But there is a fact question about whether the relevant records are (or

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were, at the time the plaintiff filed suit) truly "maintained and administered" in Dublin within the

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meaning of the statute. The plaintiff proposes serving six interrogatories and one request for

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production of documents to help reach resolution of this question. Given the need to resolve the

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venue question at the outset, the Court orders that discovery may proceed, with the plaintiff being

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permitted to serve some variation (hopefully a less sloppy variation) of the proposed six

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interrogatories and one request for production. However, no further discovery will be permitted

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without leave of the Court. The plaintiff shall serve these discovery requests no later than

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February 27, 2015. The responses are due no later than March 20, 2015. (The defendant is

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already on notice of what is being requested and can begin preparations to respond as early as

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today.)

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Because there are 23 similar cases in this district (assigned to 11 different judges) and

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because the same venue question is presented in a chunk of these cases, the parties are encouraged

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to agree that the venue discovery conducted in this case may be used in the other cases.

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A further case management conference is scheduled for March 24, 2015 at 10:00 a.m. The

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defendant is not required to answer or otherwise respond to the fifth amended complaint until

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some time after the case management conference. If the defendant intends to continue to contest

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venue after discovery on the issue is complete, the Court is inclined to order that the defendant file

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a motion to transfer venue in early April.

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IT IS SO ORDERED.
Dated: February 20, 2015
______________________________________
VINCE CHHABRIA
United States District Judge

United States District Court
Northern District of California

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