Areas USA SJC, LLC v. Mission San Jose Airport, LLC et al

Filing 112

ORDER by Magistrate Judge Howard R. Lloyd Denying 92 Plaintiff's Motion to Exclude Defendants' Expert Witnesses (hrllc1, COURT STAFF) (Filed on 11/1/2012)

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*E-filed: November 1, 2012* 1 2 3 4 5 NOT FOR CITATION 6 IN THE UNITED STATES DISTRICT COURT 7 FOR THE NORTHERN DISTRICT OF CALIFORNIA 8 SAN JOSE DIVISION 9 AREAS USA SJC, LLC, Plaintiff, For the Northern District of California United States District Court 10 v. 11 12 ORDER DENYING PLAINTIFF’S MOTION TO EXCLUDE DEFENDANTS’ EXPERT WITNESSES MISSION SAN JOSE AIRPORT, LLC; ET AL., 13 No. C11-04487 HRL Defendants. ____________________________________/ [Dkt. 92] 14 15 16 17 18 19 20 21 22 23 24 25 26 27 28 Areas USA SJC, LLC (“Areas”) moves the Court for an order barring defendants Mission San Jose Airport, LLC and Mission Yogurt, Inc. (collectively “Mission”) from presenting any expert witness testimony from Stanley Jackson, Dan Ludwig, Rod Tafoya, or Mark Schafer. Mission opposes the motion. The matter is deemed submitted without oral argument. See Civ. L. R. 7-1(b). Upon consideration of the moving and responding papers, Areas’ motion is denied. As a basis for its motion, Areas claims that Mission failed to provide expert reports for these witnesses, as required by Rule 26(a)(2)(B) of the Federal Rules of Civil Procedure. Mission counters that Rule 26(a)(2)(C), not Rule 26(a)(2)(B), governs these witnesses and that Rule 26(a)(2)(C) does not require the submission of expert reports. Rule 26(a)(2)(B) requires a witness to provide a written report “if the witness is one retained or specially employed to provide expert testimony in the case or one whose duties as the party’s employee regularly involve giving expert testimony.” Fed. R. Civ. P. 26(a)(2)(B). The parties do not dispute that Jackson and Ludwig work for Legends Group and that Mission hired Legends Group as a project manager before this litigation began. These individuals were therefore not retained to provide expert testimony and their duties do not regularly involve giving expert testimony. The same goes for Tafoya and Schafer, who work for 1 Mission itself. Accordingly, the expert testimony of these individuals is governed by Rule 2 26(a)(2)(C), which requires a disclosure, but no written reports. Areas does not dispute the 3 sufficiency of Mission’s disclosures under Rule 26(a)(2)(C). As Mission’s expert disclosures did 4 not run afoul of any duty to provide written reports, Areas’ motion to exclude witnesses on that 5 basis is DENIED. 6 7 8 IT IS SO ORDERED. Dated: November 1, 2012 HOWARD R. LLOYD UNITED STATES MAGISTRATE JUDGE 9 For the Northern District of California United States District Court 10 11 12 13 14 15 16 17 18 19 20 21 22 23 24 25 26 27 28 2 1 C11-04487 HRL Notice will be electronically mailed to: 2 Karin Bohmholdt Scott Bertzyk Denise Mayo Daniel Rockey Meryl Macklin 3 4 5 bohmholdtk@gtlaw.com bertzyks@gtlaw.com mayod@gtlaw.com daniel.rockey@hro.com meryl.macklin@bryancave.com Counsel are responsible for distributing copies of this document to co-counsel who have not registered for e-filing under the court’s CM/ECF program. 6 7 8 9 For the Northern District of California United States District Court 10 11 12 13 14 15 16 17 18 19 20 21 22 23 24 25 26 27 28 3

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