STIPULATION AND JOINT MOTION FOR CONTINUANCE OF PRETRIAL DATES AND DEADLINES WITHOUT CONTINUING THE TRIAL DATE; ORDER THEREON
JENNIFER L. THURSTON, Magistrate Judge.
Plaintiff NATIONWIDE AGRIBUSINESS INSURANCE COMPANY ("Nationwide") and Defendants and Counterclaimants GERARDO ALANN FELIX GARAY, MARY GARCIA ROJAS, CYNTHIA ANN ROJAS, CHRISTINA MONTECINO, GABRIEL ROJAS, ANITA ROJAS and BRANNON JONAH CLAYTON ("Defendants") by and through their counsel of record, hereby stipulate and move the Court to continue all pretrial dates and deadlines in the Scheduling Order [Doc. No. 25] by approximately 90 days without continuing the Pre-trial Conference date (10/7/15) or the Trial date (12/1/15).
1. On May 19, 2014, the Court held a Scheduling Conference in this case and issued an Order setting forth the following pretrial dates and deadlines:
• 12/01/14 — Rule 26 Expert Disclosure deadline
• 01/02/15 — Rule 26 Rebuttal Expert Disclosure deadline
• 01/05/15 — Non-expert discovery cutoff
• 02/02/15 — Expert discovery cutoff
• 02/09/15 — Non-dispositive motion filing deadline
• 03/09/15 — Non-dispositive motion hearing deadline
• 03/16/15 — Dispositive motion filing deadline
• 05/04/15 — Dispositive motion hearing deadline
• 10/07/15 — Pre-trial Conference
• 12/01/15 — Trial
2. By way of this Stipulation, the Parties hereby jointly request that the Court continue all of the foregoing pretrial dates and deadlines as follows, without continuing the dates set for the Pre-trial Conference or the Trial:
• 02/27/15 — Rule 26 Expert Disclosure deadline
• 03/27/15 — Rule 26 Rebuttal Expert Disclosure deadline
• 04/03/15 — Non-expert discovery cutoff
• 05/01/15 — Expert discovery cutoff
• 05/11/15 — Non-dispositive motion filing deadline
• 06/12/15 — Non-dispositive motion hearing deadline
• 06/16/15 — Dispositive motion filing deadline
• 08/07/15 — Dispositive motion hearing deadline
3. As set forth above the present discovery cut-off deadline in this case is scheduled to occur nearly 11 months prior to the trial date.
4. To date, the Parties have diligently conducted discovery in this case and believe that a continuance of the pretrial dates and deadlines is necessary to complete both percipient and expert witness discovery. A summary of the discovery conducted to date is set forth below.
5. Nationwide served Defendants with Interrogatories and Requests for Production of Documents on July 15, 2014. Defendants' served responses to Nationwide's Interrogatories and Requests for Production on August 18, 2014.
6. Defendants served Nationwide with Requests for Production of Documents on July 24, 2014, and with Interrogatories on September 3, 2014. Nationwide served responses to Defendants' Requests for Production on August 26, 2014, and served verified responses to Defendants' Interrogatories on October 6, 2014.
7. The Parties have collectively subpoenaed documents from all of the following entities: (1) HFS Enterprises; (2) JSA Company; (3) the California Department of Motor Vehicles; (4) Vicente Trucking; (5) Walter Mortensen Insurance Agency; (6) Copart, Inc.; and (7) Peerless Insurance Company.
8. On September 25, 2014, Nationwide noticed the FRCP 30(b)(6) deposition of JSA Company to take place on October 15, 2014. Approximately one week prior to the deposition, an attorney representing JSA Company advised Nationwide's counsel that JSA Company's deposition would have to be postponed indefinitely because the person most knowledgeable at the company had recently suffered from a serious brain injury and was recovering in the hospital. As of the date of this Stipulation, JSA Company's counsel has still not advised either of the Parties as to when JSA Company will be able to offer a witness for examination pursuant to Nationwide's Rule 30(b)(6) deposition notice. The Parties agree that JSA Company is a material witness in this case and that its deposition is important, but at this point it appears unlikely that the Parties will be able to take JSA Company's deposition prior to the current discovery cut-off deadline of January 5, 2015. The Parties anticipate that JSA Company's testimony may reveal facts that necessitate further discovery and depositions, and therefore good cause exists to continue the present discovery cut-off deadline by approximately 90 days to April 3, 2015.
9. On October 15, 2014, the Parties took the deposition of John Antongiovanni, Jr.
10. On October 29, 2014, the Parties took the deposition of Vicente Felix Acosta.
11. On October 31, 2014, the Parties took the FRCP Rule 30(b)(6) deposition of Walter Mortensen Insurance Agency.
12. On November 12 and November 13, 2014, the Parties took five depositions of the California Department of Motor Vehicles.
13. On November 17, 2014, the Parties took the deposition of Julie Schuetz. Due to the length of Mrs. Schuetz's deposition, the Parties were unable to start the deposition of Jonathan Schuetze also originally noticed for November 17, 2014. Mr. Schuetz is not available until January 2014 and a confirmed date for Mr. Schuetz's deposition has not been set. Mrs. Schuetz's testimony revealed additional facts that necessitate further discovery and the Parties anticipate that Mr. Schuetz's testimony may similarly reveal facts that necessitate further discovery and depositions, and therefore good cause exists to continue the present discovery cut-off deadline by approximately 90 days to April 3, 2015.
14. Defendants have also noticed the FRCP 30(b)(6) deposition of Copart, Inc. to take place on December 2, 2014.
15. Good cause also exists to continue all remaining pretrial dates and deadlines along with the present discovery cut-off deadline to accommodate the additional discovery that the Parties anticipate will need to be conducted.
16. The Parties have not previously requested a continuance of any dates in the Court's Scheduling Order.
17. Furthermore, continuing the pretrial dates and deadlines as requested above will not interfere with the dates the Court set for the Pretrial Conference or for the trial.
18. Therefore, the Parties respectfully request and jointly move the Court continue all of the pretrial dates and deadlines in this matter as set forth above in Paragraph 2.
ORDER
When scheduling the case, the Court relied upon the dates provided by the parties in their joint report but modified them to accommodate the Court and counsel. For example, the reason there was a long gap between the hearing on the motion for summary judgment and the pretrial conference was to accommodate counsels' trial schedule and to give the Court sufficient time to decide the intended cross-motions for summary judgment. Though the Court will GRANT the requested modification to the case schedule, the parties are advised that this may mean that the Court will have insufficient time to decide dispositive motions. If that occurs, the pretrial conference date and the trial date be continued by the Court.
Nevertheless, good cause appearing, the Court GRANTS the stipulation and amends the scheduling order as follows:
1. The parties SHALL disclose all experts no later than 2/27/15;
2. The parties SHALL disclose all rebuttal experts no later than 3/2715;
3. All non-expert discovery SHALL be completed no later than 4/3/15;
4. All expert discovery SHALL be completed no later than 5/1/15;
5. Any nondispositive motions SHALL be filed no later than 5/11/15 and heard no later than 6/12/15;
6. Any dispositive motions SHALL be filed no later than 6/16/2015 and heard no later than 8/10/15;
No other modifications to the case schedule are authorized.
IT IS SO ORDERED.
