ABC Industrial Laundry, LLC v. Federal Insurance Company

Filing 68

ORDER Granting 67 Stipulation to Extend Deadlines to Disclose Experts. New deadline: 8/31/2018. Signed by Magistrate Judge Cam Ferenbach on 7/9/2018. (Copies have been distributed pursuant to the NEF - SLD)

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1 2 3 4 5 6 7 JAMES P.C. SILVESTRI, ESQ. Nevada State Bar No. 3603 BRIAN W. GOLDMAN, ESQ. Nevada State Bar No. 6317 PYATT SILVESTRI 701 Bridger Avenue, Suite 600 Las Vegas, Nevada 89101 T. (702) 383-6000 F. (702) 477-0088 jsilvestri@pyattsilvestri.com bgoldman@pyattsilvestri.com Attorney for Defendant FEDERAL INSURANCE COMPANY 8 UNITED STATES DISTRICT COURT 9 DISTRICT OF NEVADA 10 11 12 ABC INDUSTRIAL LAUNDRY. LLC, a Nevada limited liability company, dba UNIVERSAL LAUNDRY and SUPPLY, 13 Plaintiff, 14 vs. 15 FEDERAL INSURANCE COMPANY, an Indiana corporation; NATIONWIDE MUTUAL INSURANCE COMPANY, an Ohio corporation, 16 17 CASE NO.: 2:15-cv-00869-RFB-VCF THE PARTIES’ STIPULATION AND (PROPOSED) ORDER TO EXTEND THE DEADLINES TO DISCLOSE EXPERTS Defendants. 18 19 Pursuant to LR 6-1 and LR 26-4, the Parties, by their counsel of record, 20 hereby stipulate and request that this Court amend the current Scheduling Order of 21 January 19, 2018 [Doc. 62] to extend the deadline to disclose expert witnesses until 22 August 31, 2018 for the reasons outlined herein.1 23 In support of this Stipulation and Request, the Parties state as follows: 24 Plaintiff ABC INDUSTRIAL LAUNDRY, LLC (“ABC”) is a commercial 25 laundry that specializes in laundering linens from high end resorts in Las Vegas, 26 27 28 Pyatt Silvestri 701 E. Bridger Avenue Suite 600 Las Vegas, Nevada 89101 (702) 383-6000 The parties intend to participate in a discussion within the next seven days to explore the feasibility and timing of mediation and remaining discovery. Thereafter, the parties will submit a proposed Stipulation for the Court’s review and approval. 1 1 1 NV. This case is an action by ABC against FEDERAL INSURANCE COMPANY 2 (“Federal”) 3 (“Nationwide”) stemming from a loss suffered by one of ABC’s customers related 4 to the alleged negligence of ABC’s chemical supplier. ABC alleges that there is 5 coverage for the loss within Policies from both insurers. Both insurers deny that 6 coverage exists. The case involves multiple complex insurance coverage issues 7 and requires significant discovery of numerous party witnesses as well as 8 numerous third-party witnesses. and NATIONWIDE MUTUAL INSURANCE COMPANY 9 Further complicating matters, ABC also has litigation pending against the 10 Belgium based chemical manufacturer, Christeyns Laundry Technology, in Clark 11 County District Court (the “state court action”). There is extensive overlap in the 12 need for testimony between the two cases, and the Parties to this case and the state 13 court action have been communicating several times per week to coordinate 14 discovery efforts for the sake of efficiency and economy. 15 The summary of the activity in this case to date is as follows: 16 1. On June 29, 2015, the Court granted the Proposed Discovery Plan and 17 Scheduling Order of ABC and Defendant Federal setting expert disclosures 18 deadlines of November 6, 2015 and December 7, 2015, and a discovery cut-off 19 date of February 5, 2016 [Doc. 9]. At that time, Defendant Nationwide was not a 20 party to the case. 21 2. On December 11, 2015, ABC and Federal filed a Stipulation and 22 Order to Extend Discovery (First Request) requesting an extension of the discovery 23 cut-off dates to allow ABC to amend its Complaint to add Nationwide as an 24 additional defendant to the case [Doc. 10]. 25 3. On December 14, 2015, the Court granted ABC’s and Federal’s 26 Stipulation an Order to Extend Discovery (First Request), setting a new close of 27 discovery deadline of June 5, 2016 [Doc. 12]. 28 Pyatt Silvestri 701 E. Bridger Avenue Suite 600 Las Vegas, Nevada 89101 (702) 383-6000 2 1 4. On December 15, 2015, the Court granted ABC’s and Federal’s 2 Stipulation to Permit Plaintiff to File an Amended Complaint [Doc. 13] and ABC 3 filed its First Amended Complaint adding Nationwide as a defendant on the same 4 date [Doc. 14]. 5 5. 6 7 Nationwide first appeared in this case on January 22, 2016, when it filed its Answer to ABC’s First Amended Complaint [Doc. 19]. 6. On February 18, 2016, the Parties filed a Stipulation and Proposed 8 Order to Amend the Discovery Plan and Scheduling Order (Second Request) 9 because of Nationwide’s recent appearance in the case to allow time for the Parties 10 to engage in discovery. On February 19, 2016, the Court granted the Parties’ 11 stipulation and entered an Order extending the deadlines and dates, setting a new 12 discovery cut-off date of January 6, 2017 [Doc. 22]. 13 7. On September 13, 2016, the Parties filed a Stipulation and Proposed 14 Order to Amend the Discovery Plan and Scheduling Order (Third Request) 15 because the Parties needed additional time to coordinate and complete depositions 16 of necessary fact witnesses and were awaiting responses to numerous document 17 subpoenas served on various Non-Parties believed to have relevant and discovery 18 information relating to the claims in this case. On September 22, 2016, the Court 19 granted the Parties’ Stipulation and Proposed Order to Amend Discovery Plan and 20 Scheduling Order (Third Request), setting a May 5, 2017 close of discovery 21 deadline, and deadlines of February 7, 2017 to disclose experts and March 7, 2017 22 to disclose rebuttal experts [Doc. 31]. The Court also granted the Parties’ proposed 23 Stipulated Protective Order [Doc. 30]. 24 8. On January 17, 2017, the Parties filed a Stipulation and Proposed 25 Order to Amend the Discovery Plan and Scheduling Order (Fourth Request) 26 because the Parties needed additional time to coordinate and complete depositions 27 of necessary fact witnesses, the Parties believed, among other things, were 28 necessary for their respective experts to formulate opinions in this case. Pyatt Silvestri 701 E. Bridger Avenue Suite 600 Las Vegas, Nevada 89101 (702) 383-6000 3 On 1 January 18, 2017, the Court granted the Parties’ Stipulation and Proposed Order to 2 Amend Discovery Plan and Scheduling Order (Fourth Request), setting an October 3 6, 2017 close of discovery deadline, and deadlines of June 6, 2017 to disclose 4 experts and July 7, 2017 to disclose rebuttal experts [Doc. 37]. 5 9. On May 16, 2017, the Parties filed a Stipulation and Proposed Order 6 to Amend the Discovery Plan and Scheduling Order (Fifth Request) because the 7 Parties needed additional time to coordinate and complete depositions of necessary 8 fact witnesses the Parties believed, among other things, were necessary for their 9 respective experts to formulate opinions in this case. On May 17, 2017, the Court 10 granted the Parties’ Stipulation and Proposed Order to Amend Discovery Plan and 11 Scheduling Order (Fifth Request), setting a January 1, 2018 close of discovery 12 deadline, and deadlines of September 6, 2017 to disclose experts and October 6, 13 2017 to disclose rebuttal experts [Doc. 50]. 14 10. On October 25, 2017, the Parties participated in hearing regarding 15 Stipulation for Extension of Time [Doc. 56] before Magistrate Judge Cam 16 Ferenbach [Doc. 58]. 17 11. On January 30, 2018, the Court approved the Parties’ Discovery Plan 18 and Scheduling Order setting an October 15, 2018 close of discovery deadline, and 19 deadlines of July 17, 2018 to disclose experts and August 16, 2018 to disclose 20 rebuttal experts [Doc. 63]. 21 22 23 12. The discovery that has been completed to date includes: a. Exchange of Fed. R. Civ. P. 26(a)(1) Initial Disclosures, including documents, and supplemental disclosures; 24 b. The Parties have exchanged written discovery, including requests 25 for admissions, requests for production of documents, and 26 interrogatories; 27 c. A stipulated protective order was entered on September 22, 2016, 28 to facilitate the discovery and production of documents deemed Pyatt Silvestri 701 E. Bridger Avenue Suite 600 Las Vegas, Nevada 89101 (702) 383-6000 4 1 confidential, proprietary or otherwise trade secret by the 2 producing party, including certain Non-Parties who have indicated 3 they cannot produce documents in response to document 4 subpoenas without a protective order in place; 5 d. Defendants Nationwide and Federal have identified their 6 respective Fed. R. Civ. P. 30(b)(6) witnesses in response to 7 categories presented by ABC, and the Parties are working to 8 coordinate scheduling of the various depositions; 9 10 e. To date, document subpoenas have been served on the following Non-Parties: 11 1. Christeyns Laundry Technology, LLC; 12 2. Companion Commercial Insurance Company; 13 3. International Textile Analysis Laboratory; 14 4. Liberty Mutual Insurance Company; 15 5. Nationwide 16 Union Fire Insurance Company of Pittsburgh, PA. 17 6. Rimkus Consulting Group, Inc.; 18 7. Sobel Westex Quality Control; 19 8. Textile Solutions, LLC; 20 9. Universal Garment Wash & Dye, LLC; 21 10. Wynn Las Vegas, LLC; 22 11. Brown & Brown Northwest; 23 12. Exponent Failure Analysis Associates; 24 13. CHEM-BAC Laboratories, Inc.; and 25 14. Frank Campagna, Swarts & Swarts. 26 f. Over 125,000 pages of documents have been produced by ABC in 27 response to discovery served by Federal and Nationwide. 28 addition, in response to the subpoenas above, the Parties have Pyatt Silvestri 701 E. Bridger Avenue Suite 600 Las Vegas, Nevada 89101 (702) 383-6000 5 In 1 received more than 130,000 additional pages of documents from 2 Non-Parties. 3 g. Defendants Nationwide and Federal, upon the agreement of ABC, 4 visually inspected ABC’s commercial laundry facility and 5 laundering equipment located at 240 Spectrum Boulevard, Las 6 Vegas, Nevada, and samplings of the Wynn Las Vegas, LLC’s 7 affected linens or other goods identified to be in ABC’s 8 possession. 9 h. On April 11, 2017, all Parties, through their attorneys, met at 10 ABC’s facilities to distribute and obtain samples of linens for 11 further testing and analysis by the Parties and/or their respective 12 experts and/or consultants. The testing is now underway. 13 i. On August 15, 2017 and August 16, 2017, the Parties proceeded in 14 Boston, MA, with the deposition of Rudi Moors, person most 15 knowledgeable for Christeyns Laundry Technology. 16 j. On March 9, 2018 and April 13, 2018, the Parties proceeded with 17 the deposition of FRCP 30(b)(6) witnesses of non-party, Wynn Las 18 Vegas, LLC. 19 13. The discovery that is anticipated and remains to be completed is: 20 a. Additional non-party document subpoenas identified as necessary; 21 b. Additional exchange of written discovery; 22 c. Depositions of fact witnesses (discussed below); and 23 d. Expert disclosures and depositions. 24 14. Additionally, on February 17, 2017, Federal filed a Motion for 25 Summary Judgment on ABC’s claims against Federal (“MSJ”) [Doc. 38]. 26 Pursuant to approval of the Court, ABC filed its opposition to Federal’s Motion for 27 Summary Judgment on March 31, 2017 [Doc. 43], and Federal filed its reply to the 28 Pyatt Silvestri 701 E. Bridger Avenue Suite 600 Las Vegas, Nevada 89101 (702) 383-6000 6 1 opposition on April 28, 2017 [Doc. 46]. 2 2017. 3 15. The Motion was heard on August 24, The Parties have been working diligently to exchange discovery and 4 documents, and to identify and coordinate the depositions each party believes are 5 necessary in preparation for trial. To allow the Parties more time to complete this 6 discovery, and coordinate and complete the depositions discussed below, and 7 because of the approaching expert disclosure deadline for which the Parties’ 8 experts will need deposition testimony to formulate their opinions, the Parties 9 request a short continuance of the current deadlines for the following reasons: 10 a. The case involves complex insurance coverage questions 11 involving both property and liability claims under policies of 12 insurance issued by different insurers (Federal and Nationwide), 13 as well as allegations by ABC relating to Federal’s and 14 Nationwide’s handling of ABC’s claims. 15 Parties intend to conduct discovery on at least the following 16 subjects: 17 (1) Accordingly, the the factual and legal basis for ABC’s breach of contract, 18 tortious breach of the duty of good faith and fair dealing, and 19 breach of statutory duties (NRS §686A.310) claims; 20 (2) claimed damages, including alleged consequential damages; 21 22 the factual and legal basis, extent, amount, and nature of ABC’s (3) facts surrounding the damage to Wynn’s linens and other goods 23 alleged by ABC, upon information and belief, to have resulted 24 from the negligence on the part of Christeyns Laundry 25 Technology USA (“Christeyns”); 26 (4) claimed damage to its products; 27 28 facts surrounding the lawsuit filed by Wynn against ABC for (5) Federal’s and Nationwide’s affirmative defenses in this matter; Pyatt Silvestri 701 E. Bridger Avenue Suite 600 Las Vegas, Nevada 89101 (702) 383-6000 7 and 1 2 (6) the investigation of and response by Federal and Nationwide to 3 ABC’s respective claims submitted under the policies of 4 insurance which are at issue in this litigation. 5 b. On August 15 and August 16, 2017, the Parties finally 6 proceeded with the Fed. R. Civ. P. 30(b)(6) deposition of non- 7 party Christeyns Laundry Technology USA (“Christeyns”) in 8 Boston, MA. 9 managed and coordinated the laundry chemical formulation and 10 injection into the laundry system in ABC Industrial Laundry, 11 LLC’s (“ABC”) commercial laundry facility, and who ABC 12 contends is responsible for the damage to the Wynn Las Vegas, 13 LLC’s (“Wynn”) linens and other goods at issue in this case. In 14 addition to Christeyns being a material fact witness in this case, 15 ABC has sued Christeyns in state District Court, Clark County 16 (docketed as case no. A-15-720810-C). 17 engaged in lengthy meet and confer discussions to coordinate 18 Mr. Moors’ deposition to occur at the same time for both cases 19 in Boston, MA (where Christeyns’ North America subsidiary 20 and counsel are located). Christeyns is the company ABC contends The Parties have 21 Initially, Christeyns had previously agreed to produce Mr. Moors for 22 deposition in Las Vegas and the deposition was set for February 15, 2017 in Las 23 Vegas. However, just days prior to this scheduled deposition, a dispute arose 24 between ABC and Christeyns over Christeyns’ production of documents. The 25 deposition was reset for March 15, 2017, and just two (2) business days before the 26 deposition was to commence, Christeyns attempted to retract certain documents 27 from production upon the assertion of privilege, which resulted in the need for 28 ABC to continue Christeyns’ deposition and engage in a meet and confer on the Pyatt Silvestri 701 E. Bridger Avenue Suite 600 Las Vegas, Nevada 89101 (702) 383-6000 8 1 document production issues that arose. The deposition finally proceeded in 2 Boston, MA, on August 15 and August 16, 2017. 3 c. Additional depositions anticipated include: 4 (1) ABC’s principals and employees, Ran Brisman, Avi Cohen, 5 and Jim Smail; 6 (2) 7 requested by ABC, for which Federal currently estimates designating 8 three; witnesses in response to the categories served by ABC, two of 9 whom are in Southern California, and the third is in Northern 10 California, and Nationwide has identified four witnesses in response 11 to the categories served by ABC, two of whom are located in 12 Northern California, one is located in Southern California, and the 13 fourth is located in Columbus, Ohio; and 14 (3) 15 Plaintiff’s former management team, Moshe Levy, Kobi Levy, and 16 Yhuda Levy. 17 16. Federal and Nationwide Fed. R. Civ. Pro. 30(b)(6) witnesses deposition subpoenas have been issued for the depositions of The Parties have been working diligently to coordinate the depositions 18 each party believes are necessary in preparation for trial, and specifically expert 19 disclosures. 20 produced more than 45,000 documents as a supplemental response to Federal 21 Insurance Company’s Subpoena dated July 15, 2016. The Parties are continuing to 22 complete the discovery outlined above. 23 17. However, on June 7, 2018 Non-Party Wynn Las Vegas, LLC For the reasons set forth above, and because good cause exists, the 24 Parties hereby agree and stipulate to, and request the following proposed new 25 schedule for disclosing experts and rebuttal experts be entered by the Court: 26 Event 27 Disclosure of Experts 28 18. Current Deadline 7/17/18 8/31/18 If the Court is not inclined to grant this request based on the above, or Pyatt Silvestri 701 E. Bridger Avenue Suite 600 Las Vegas, Nevada 89101 (702) 383-6000 New Deadline 9 1 requires additional information, the Parties request a Scheduling Conference at the 2 Court’s convenience. 3 Dated: June 26, 2018. 4 LAW OFFICES OF STEVEN J. PARSONS HINES HAMPTON, LLP /s/ Steven J. Parsons STEVEN J. PARSONS, ESQ. Nevada Bar No. 363 /s/ Christine Emanuelson CHRISTINE M. EMANUELSON Nevada Bar No. 10143 Attorney for Plaintiff, ABC INDUSTRIAL LAUNDRY, LLC PYATT SILVESTRI Attorney for Defendant, NATIONWIDE MUTUAL INSURANCE COMPANY REMPFER MOTT LUNDY, PLLC /s/ Brian Goldman BRIAN W. GOLDMAN Nevada Bar. No. 6317 /s/ Joseph Mott JOSEPH N. MOTT Nevada Bar No. 12455 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 Attorney for Defendant, FEDERAL INSURANCE COMPANY 13 Attorney for Plaintiff, ABC INDUSTRIAL LAUNDRY, LLC ORDER 14 15 IT IS SO ORDERED. 16 Dated: July 9 , 2018. U.S. MAGISTRATE JUDGE 17 18 19 /// /// 20 21 /// 22 /// 23 /// 24 25 /// 26 /// 27 /// 28 Pyatt Silvestri 701 E. Bridger Avenue Suite 600 Las Vegas, Nevada 89101 (702) 383-6000 10 ATTESTATION OF CONCURRENCE IN FILING 1 2 I hereby attest and certify that on, June 26, 2018, I received concurrence 3 from Plaintiff’s counsel, Steven J. Parsons and Joseph N. Mott, as well as 4 Nationwide Mutual Insurance Company’s counsel, Christine Emanuelson, to file 5 this document with their electronic signatures attached. I certify under penalty of perjury under the laws of the United States of 6 7 America that the foregoing is true and correct. June 26, 2018. 8 /s/ Brian W. Goldman BRIAN W. GOLDMAN Nevada Bar No. 6317 9 10 11 /// 12 13 /// 14 /// 15 /// 16 /// 17 18 /// 19 /// 20 /// 21 /// 22 23 /// 24 /// 25 /// 26 /// 27 28 /// Pyatt Silvestri 701 E. Bridger Avenue Suite 600 Las Vegas, Nevada 89101 (702) 383-6000 11 CERTIFICATE OF MAILING 1 2 I hereby certify that on the 26th day of June, 2018, I electronically filed the 3 4 5 6 foregoing document or paper with the Clerk of the Court using the CM/ECF System which will send notification of such filing to the e-mail addresses denoted on the attached Electronic Mail Notice List, and I hereby certify that I have mailed 7 8 the foregoing document or paper via the United States Postal Service to the non- 9 CM/ECF participants indicated on the attached Manual Notice List. 10 I certify under penalty of perjury under the laws of the United States of 11 12 13 14 15 16 17 18 19 20 21 22 23 America that the foregoing is true and correct. Executed on June 26, 2018. Steven J. Parsons, Esq. 10091 Park Run Drive, Suite 200 Las Vegas, NV 89145-8868 T. (702) 384-9900 F: (702) 384-5900 Attorney for Plaintiff ABC INDUSTRIAL LAUNDRY, LLC Christine Emanuelson, Esq. Whitney C. Wilcher, Esq. 1601 Diamond Oaks Court Las Vegas, NV 89117 T. (702) 933-7829 F: (702) 974-1709 Attorney for Defendant, NATIONWIDE MUTUAL INSURANCE COMPANY and 24 25 26 27 ... ... ... 28 Pyatt Silvestri 701 E. Bridger Avenue Suite 600 Las Vegas, Nevada 89101 (702) 383-6000 12 1 2 3 4 5 Joseph N. Mott, Esq. Rempfer Mott Lundy, PLLC 10091 Park Run Dr., Suite 200 Las Vegas, NV 89145-8868 T: (702) 825-5303 F: (702) 825-4413 Attorney for Plaintiff ABC INDUSTRIAL LAUNDRY, LLC 6 7 /s/Susan Clokey Susan Clokey 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 15 16 17 18 19 20 21 22 23 24 25 26 27 28 Pyatt Silvestri 701 E. Bridger Avenue Suite 600 Las Vegas, Nevada 89101 (702) 383-6000 13

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