STIPULATION TO MODIFY SCHEDULING ORDER

DALE A. DROZD, District Judge.

STIPULATION TO MODIFY SCHEDULING ORDER

IT IS HEREBY STIPULATED by and between Plaintiffs Claudine Yvette Kobi and Alexandre Robert Kobi and Defendant United States of America, through their undersigned counsel and subject to Court approval, that the Scheduling Order in the above-captioned case (see ECF Nos. 13, 16, 19) be modified as follows:

1. All fact discovery, with the exception of the depositions of Plaintiffs Claudine Yvette Kobi and Alexandre Robert Kobi and any examination pursuant to Federal Rule of Civil Procedure 35 (to the extent such examinations may be deemed "fact discovery") shall be completed no later than September 20, 2016.

2. Defendant shall file a motion for summary judgment no later than September 20, 2016.

3. The depositions of Plaintiff Claudine Yvette Kobi and Alexandre Robert Kobi and any examination conducted pursuant to Federal Rule of Civil Procedure 35 shall be completed no later than November 22, 2016.

4. The deadline for serving initial expert disclosures shall be January 23, 2017.

5. The deadline for serving rebuttal expert disclosures shall be April 24, 2017.

6. The date of the settlement conference, May 2, 2016, shall remain unchanged.

7. The date of the pretrial conference, July 17, 2017, shall ramain unchanged.

8. The date of the trial, September 12, 2017, shall remain unchanged.

The reasons for this Stipulation are follows:

A. Plaintiffs Claudine and Alexandre Kobi are married persons who are citizens and residents of Novalles, Switzerland. They filed this action on March 26, 2015, alleging claims of negligence and loss of consortium against the United States pursuant to the Federal Tort Claims Act. 8 U.S.C. §§ 1346(b), 2671-80. Their claims arise from the injuries that Ms. Kobi sustained when she was struck by on 85-foot tree limb at Yosemite National Park in May 2013.

B. The parties are nearing completion of fact discovery related to liability and believe that a motion for summary judgment should be filed no later than September 20, 2016, to further the just, expedient, and cost-effective resolution of this action.

C. Ms. Kobi's injuries and the ensuing economic and non-economic damages alleged require not only the expertise of medical and other retained proffessionals, but also the collection, review, and analysis of voluminous records maintained in Switzerland. Such records are predominantly written in the French language, and some records are in German.

D. In addition, the Kobis currently reside in Switzerland and speak only French, and according to their counsel, Ms. Kobi is unable to travel to the United States for deposition or a Rule 35 medical examination because of her current medical conditions.

E. In light of the foregoing, the parties believe that the Scheduling Order in this case should be modified to provide additional time for (1) the taking of Plaintiffs' depositions and any Rule 35 examination, either by way of international travel to Switzerland or other acceptable and mutually agreeable means; and (2) the preparation and exchange of expert reports.

F. This scheduling modification will not affect the dates established for the pretrial conference or trial in this matter.

G. The parties have not previously sought modification of the Scheduling Order.

ORDER

For the reasons set forth above, the Court adopts the parties' proposed schedule.

IT IS SO ORDERED.