L-3 Communications Corporation et al v. Jaxon Engineering & Maintenance, Inc. et al

Filing 356

ORDER granting 354 Joint Emergency Motion to Amend Scheduling Order. Discovery due by 2/20/2013. Dispositive Motions due by 6/28/2013. Additional deadlines as set forth in the attached order. By Magistrate Judge Kathleen M. Tafoya on 8/16/12.(mjgsl, )

IN THE UNITED STATES DISTRICT COURT
FOR THE DISTRICT OF COLORADO
Magistrate Judge Kathleen M. Tafoya
Civil Action No. 10–cv–02868–MSK–KMT

L-3 COMMUNICATIONS CORPORATION, and
L-3 SERVICES, INC.,
Plaintiffs,
v.
JAXON ENGINEERING & MAINTENANCE, INC.,
JONI ANN WHITE,
RANDALL K. WHITE,
SCOTT WHITE,
SUSAN RETTIG,
CHARLES RETTIG,
JAMES YOUNGMAN,
JERRY LUBELL,
KELLY RICE,
JOHN MCCLURE, and
JOHN DOES 1-25, said names being fictitious as such names are unknown at this time,
Defendants.

ORDER

This matter is before the court on the parties’ “Joint Emergency Motion to Amend
Scheduling Order.” (Doc. No. 354, August, 15, 2012.) In their Motion, the parties seek to extend
all current Scheduling Order deadlines, including the dispositive motions deadline, by eight
weeks.

Fed. R. Civ. P. 16(b) provides that a scheduling order “may be modified only for good
cause and with the judge’s consent. Fed. R. Civ. P. 16(b)(4). In addition, District Judge Marcia
S. Krieger’s Trial Preparation Order entered in this case on March 4, 2011 provides that “any
request to extend the dispositive motions deadline beyond the deadline originally set in the initial
Scheduling Order must show exceptional circumstances warranting the extension.” (Trial Prep.
Order, Doc. No. 44 at 2.)
The Scheduling Order originally set the dispositive motions deadline for June 11, 2012.
(See Scheduling Order, Doc. No. 43, filed Mar. 3, 2011.) Thus, if the court were to grant the
parties’ Motion and extend the dispositive motions deadline to June 28, 2012, the dispositive
motions deadline will have been extended cumulatively by over a year.
Nevertheless, the court finds that exceptional circumstances presented in this case
justified the parties’ requested extension of the dispositive motions deadline. The sensitive
nature of this case has caused extraordinary complications in discovery. First, a great deal of
discovery has required pre-approval by either federal agencies, third-party government
contractors, or both. Indeed, three days prior to the original dispositive motions deadline, a
federal agency and its government contractor were still in the process of approving Defendants’
document productions. Second, and relatedly, this case has involved the disclosure of
confidential and highly confidential documents. As a result, discovery in this case has been
exceedingly contentious; indeed, the court has now held at least five motions hearings related to
discovery issues—including a multi-day hearing held on July 10-11, 2012.

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The parties now indicate that they are finally resolving the last remaining issues relating
to their respective document productions. As such, they seek a relatively brief eight-week
extension of the Scheduling Order deadlines to ensure that their document productions are
largely complete prior to conducting a number of currently-scheduled depositions. The court
finds this to be a wise approach to remaining discovery as it will streamline the deposition
process and avoid any need to reopen currently-scheduled depositions based on subsequent
document productions.
Accordingly, the court finds good cause to support the extension of the Scheduling Order
deadlines generally, and exceptional circumstances to support an extension of the dispositive
motions deadline specifically. Therefore, it is
ORDERED that the “Joint Emergency Motion to Amend Scheduling Order” (Doc. No.
354) is GRANTED. The Scheduling Order deadlines are extended as follows:
Fact Discovery Cut-off:

November 30, 2012

Expert Discovery Cut-off:

February 20, 2013

Dispositive Motions Deadline:

June 28, 2013

Disclosure of Affirmative Experts:

December 14, 2012

Disclosure of Rebuttal Experts:

January 16, 2013

Exchange (but do not file) claim terms
to be construed and preliminary claims
constructions:

December 14, 2012

Meet and confer over claim terms
and preliminary claim constructions:

December 19-21, 2012

File claims needing construction
and the opposing construction of
these claims, as limited by the Court:

January 11, 2013
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Parties exchange (but do not file)
Opening Claim Construction Briefs
and supporting evidence:

February 6, 2013

Parties exchange (but do not file)
Responsive Claim Construction Briefs
with supporting evidence:

February 22, 2013

Parties FILE opening Claim Construction
Briefs, Responsive Claim Construction
Briefs and supporting evidence compiled
in a single joint appendix with citations
in Parties’ briefs reflecting citation to
documents in joint appendix:

March 27, 2013

Dated this 16th day of August, 2012.

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