STIPULATION AND ORDER FOLLOWING MODIFIED SCHEDULING CONFERENCE

BARBARA A. McAULIFFE, District Judge.

The Court, having held a modified scheduling conference with the Parties1 pursuant to Federal Rules of Civil Procedure ("FRCP"), Rule 16, hereby ORDERS as follows:

Written Discovery

Written discovery shall commence consistent with the limitations set forth in the FRCP, including but not limited to (1) interrogatories; (2) requests for production; (3) third party requests for production; and (4) motion practice related to such written discovery, and may commence effective January 1, 2014, prior to the issuance of an FRCP 16(b) scheduling order, except that written discovery will not be propounded to or from Cal Water unless and until (a) the case becomes at issue to Cal Water, in which case discovery may be directed to Cal Water by a party and Cal Water may direct such discovery as it deems necessary to all other parties in the case, or (b) is dismissed from the action, in which case discovery may be directed to Cal Water as a third party.

Depositions

Deposition discovery consistent with the rules of the FRCP, including but not limited to party representative depositions, expert depositions, and third party depositions, shall not commence until the case is at issue as to Cal Water or Cal Water has been finally dismissed from the action, and the Court has completed a FRCP 16(b) scheduling conference and issued a FRCP 16(b) scheduling order. Coppola, Smith, Laster, Nash, Martin, and/or Visalia may move the Court for permission to seek specific deposition discovery upon a showing of good cause, or all Parties may stipulate to conducting specific deposition discovery. Notwithstanding the foregoing, if and when Cal Water answers a then operative complaint, Cal Water shall have the right to re-depose any deponent deposed in this case prior to Cal Water filing such answer.

Investigatory Field Work

Investigatory field work may proceed prior to the completion of a FRCP 16(b) scheduling conference and issuance of a FRCP 16(b) order solely with respect to work plans of Parties approved by the regulatory agency, the Department of Toxic Substances Control ("DTSC"), in charge of oversight for the groundwater contamination in the City of Visalia. Such investigatory field work shall be conducted pursuant to the FRCP, including but not limited to the request and response provisions of FRCP 34(a)(2). Results from such investigatory field work shall be shared with all Parties.

All Parties reserve their rights to assert evidentiary objections to any and all such investigatory field work and results pursuant to the FRCP and the Federal Rules of Evidence ("FRE"). All Parties reserve their rights to conduct future discovery, investigation, and testing, including duplicate testing, consistent with the FRCP and FRE and/or any directives of the DTSC. Parties whose property is subject to investigatory field work hereunder reserve their right under law to object to any further testing or collection of data on the basis, among other objections, that such work has already been conducted.

Investigatory field work on Visalia property shall be subject to the City's permitting process and regulations, as applicable. A Party planning on conducting field work on Visalia property should seek a permit from the Visalia, should such a permit be required under the City's regulations, for such work to proceed. Visalia shall not unreasonably withhold or delay the issuance of such a permit.

If there is a dispute regarding investigatory field work, including but not limited to any permitting dispute with the Visalia, the Parties shall meet and confer, and may invoke the informal discovery dispute resolution procedures of the Court.

Motion Practice

Motion practice may commence consistent with the FRCP.

Other issues

Except as specifically set forth herein, discovery shall not commence, including but not limited to expert discovery. With respect to electronic data, discovery deadlines, expert deadlines, and other issues not reflected above, the parties shall submit a Joint Scheduling Report pursuant to FRCP 26 within thirty (30) days after Cal Water's motion to dismiss is resolved and the pleadings are fully at issue. At this time, no changes are made to the limits of discovery imposed by the FRCP, including but not limited to those imposed by FRCP 26(b); 30(a)(2)(A), (B); 30(d); or 33(a). Approved as to form by:

IT IS SO ORDERED.