State Farm Mutual Automobile Insurance Company v. Elite Health Centers Inc. et al

Filing 536

ORDER DENYING STATE FARM'S LETTER REQUEST TO FILE A MOTION TO STAY THE CASE (DE 514) AND Extending the Discovery Deadline for Depositions Only and adjusting remaining Scheduling order dates acoordingly 514 Notice (Other) filed by State Farm Mutual Automobile Insurance Company., ( Fact Discovery (to take depositions only) due by 10/29/2019, Dispositive Motion Cut-off set for 3/16/2020, Final Pretrial Confe rence set for 4/28/2020 02:00 PM before District Judge Avern Cohn), ( Dispositive Motion Cut-off set for 3/16/2020)(Please See Order for additional important dates)--Signed by Magistrate Judge Anthony P. Patti. (MWil) Modified on 7/8/2019 (MWil).

UNITED STATES DISTRICT COURT
EASTERN DISTRICT OF MICHIGAN
SOUTHERN DIVISION
STATE FARM MUTUAL
AUTOMOBILE INSURANCE
COMPANY,
Plaintiff,

Case No. 2:16-cv-13040
District Judge Avern Cohn
Magistrate Judge Anthony P. Patti

v.
ELITE HEALTH CENTERS, INC.,
ELITE CHIROPRACTIC, P.C.,
ELITE REHABILITATION, INC.,
MIDWEST MEDICAL
ASSOCIATES, INC., PURE
REHABILITATION, INC., DEREK
L. BITTNER, D.C., P.C., MARK A.
RADOM, DEREK LAWRENCE
BITTNER, D.C., RYAN MATTHEW
LUKOWSKI, D.C., MICHAEL P.
DRAPLIN, D.C., NOEL H. UPFALL,
D.O., MARK J. JUSKA, M.D.,
SUPERIOR DIAGNOSTICS, INC.,
CHINTAN DESAI, M.D., MICHAEL
J. PALEY, M.D., DEARBORN
CENTER FOR PHYSICAL
THERAPY, L.L.C., MICHIGAN
CENTER FOR PHYSICAL
THERAPY, INC., and JAYSON
ROSETT
Defendants.
_________________________/
ORDER DENYING STATE FARM’S LETTER REQUEST TO FILE A
MOTION TO STAY THE CASE (DE 514), EXTENDING THE DISCOVERY
DEADLINE FOR DEPOSITIONS ONLY, AND ADJUSTING THE
REMAINING SCHEDULING ORDER DATES ACCORDINGLY

This matter is before the Court for consideration of Plaintiff State Farm
Mutual Automobile Insurance Company’s (“State Farm’s”) June 20, 2019 letter
request to move to stay the case pending: (1) a ruling on its motion to compel nonparty Michael Morse’s response to subpoena; and (2) Morse’s document
production if the motion is granted (DE 514), and the Elite Defendants’, Chintan
Desai, M.D.’s and Michael J. Paley, M.D.’s letter responses in opposition (DEs
519, 521, 524). On July 3, 2019, the Court held a telephone conference with
counsel for the parties and non-party Michael Morse to address the letter requests.
State Farm requests leave to move to stay the case, stating that the parties are
scheduling 18 depositions to occur before the current August 30, 2019 discovery
deadline, including the depositions of four defendants, non-party Morse, and two
employees of the Mike Morse Law Firm, but that it wants Morse’s documents
before taking those depositions. (DE 514.) State Farm also seeks a stay to allow it
to consider whether to add parties (presumably Morse) to the case based on
documents produced by Morse. (Id.) The Elite Defendants and Defendants Desai
and Paley strongly oppose State Farm’s request, contending that Morse’s document
production is not relevant to the issues and claims in this case and that adding
Morse or any other person as a party “cannot seriously be entertained by the Court
after nearly three years of litigation.” (DEs 519, 521, 524.)
2

Upon consideration of the letter requests and the July 3rd telephone
conference with counsel for the parties and non-party Morse, State Farm’s letter
request for leave to move to stay the case is DENIED, as the Court recently issued
its opinion and order granting in part and denying in part State Farm’s motion to
compel Michael Morse to produce documents responsive to subpoena, and
ordering production of responsive documents within 30 days (DE 535).
Accordingly, a stay of the case is unnecessary. Rather, to address the parties’
competing concerns, the Court will extend the fact discovery deadline, currently
set for August 30, 2019, an additional 60 days for the limited purpose of taking
depositions only, to October 29, 2019. That extension should allow sufficient
time for the production and review of responsive documents by Morse, even if that
production is temporarily delayed pending an objection to my order. Between the
Court’s recently issued order on the motion to compel Michael Morse (DE 535)
and the 60 day extension given herein for depositions and other deadlines, the
bases of the letter request to seek a stay are essentially moot. The remaining
scheduling order deadlines otherwise remain as set in DE 410, unless adjusted as
set forth below:
Event

Deadline/Date

Fact Discovery
(to take depositions only)

October 29, 2019

3

Plaintiff Expert Reports

December 2, 2019

Defendants Expert Reports

December 31, 2019

Rebuttal Expert Reports

January 16, 2020

Status/Settlement
Conference

TBD

Expert Depositions

February 18, 2020

Motions Relating to
Experts

March 18, 2020

Dispositive Motions

March 16, 2020

Final Pretrial Conference

April 28, 2020 at 2:00 p.m.

Trial

April/May 2020

IT IS SO ORDERED.
Dated: July 8, 2019

s/Anthony P. Patti
Anthony P. Patti
UNITED STATES MAGISTRATE JUDGE

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