STIPULATION IN SUPPORT OF ADMINISTRATIVE MOTION TO CONTINUE TRIAL DATE AND STAY CASE PENDING MEDIATION AND ORDER AS MODIFIED

VINCE CHHABRIA, District Judge.

Pursuant to Rule 7-12 of the Civil Local Rules of the Northern District of California, Plaintiff Gilbane Federal f/k/a ITSI Gilbane Company and Defendants United Infrastructure Projects FZCO, United Infrastructure Projects SAL (Offshore) Lebanon and United Infrastructure Projects Djibouti SARL hereby submit the following stipulation and request for enlargement of trial and pretrial deadlines and for a limited stay of the lawsuit pending mediation.

After meeting and conferring to identify a mediator with construction experience, and with the assistance of the Court's ADR Unit, Richard Warren has been appointed as a mediator. However, because of Mr. Warren's schedule, mediation cannot occur until the first two weeks of October 2015. The parties intend to engage in the limited exchange of documents in advance of mediation, but otherwise do not wish to incur additional litigation costs in the interim, which would frustrate the possibility of settlement. Nor do the parties wish to compress pretrial preparation into a short period of time at the end of 2015. Accordingly, the parties respectfully request that the Court issue a revised scheduling order that extends the trial and pretrial deadlines by approximately three months, which is roughly equal to the difference between when mediation was originally scheduled to occur (in July 2015) and when in will actually occur (in October 2015).

In addition, the parties request that the case be stayed pending mediation, with a limited exception: that any party may apply to the Court for an order compelling production of documents under FRCP 34 to the extent that the parties have agreed in writing to produce certain categories of documents voluntarily in advance of mediation. In any such case, any motion to compel production of documents shall not exceed five pages, and any opposition brief shall not exceed five pages. No reply brief shall be permitted. If, by July 1, 2015, the parties fail to reach agreement with respect to the limited categories of documents to be voluntarily produced prior to mediation, the parties may pursue any discovery allowed under FRCP 34, but the stay shall remain in place in all other respects through mediation.

Following completion of mediation, the stay shall be lifted and litigation may proceed in accordance with the Federal Rules of Civil Procedure and the Court's April 21, 2015 scheduling order. But it should be noted that Gilbane no longer intends to file a motion to disqualify Defendants' counsel. Also, the parties note that although they requested a two-week trial in their joint case management conference statement, the Court ordered that trial be completed in four days. The parties request that the Court consider a compromise of allowing 7 court days for trial. Below is the parties' proposed amended pretrial and trial schedule:

(The parties note that the issue of whether the trial shall be a jury trial is one that is still pending and that the Defendants may file a motion on the issue).

PURSUANT TO STIPULATION, IT IS SO ORDERED.