STIPULATION TO EXTEND DEADLINE FOR MEDIATION AND RESCHEDULE CMC & CASE MANAGEMENT CONFERENCE &. ORDER ADR LOCAL RULE 6-5
WILLIAM H. ORRICK, District Judge.
Plaintiff Trans'-Global LLC, a California limited liability company ("Plaintiff"), Defendants Lia DeTomasi; Mario P. DeTomasi; Lori Thornton; Jeffrey Donati; Daniel Donati; Marcia M. Melnikoff; Lawrence Bertolucci; Lia DeTomasi As Trustee Of The Bertha A. Donati Trust FBO Marc Donati; Lia DeTomasi and Mario P. DeTomasi As Trustees Of The DeTomasi Family Trust U/A/D June 28, 2005; Lori Thornton And Lia DeTomasi, As Trustees Of The Bertha Donati Trust U/A/D September 30, 1996; Marc Donati And Vickie Donati, As Trustees Of The Bertha A. Donati Trust; Paul Donati, Elisa M. Donati Klunis And Steve Donati, As Trustees Of The Julio A. Donati Family Trust U/A/D June 21, 2002; Marcia M. Melnikoff As Trustee Of The Testamentary Trust Under The Will Of Josephine Bertolucci; Marcia M. Melnikoff And Lawrence Bertolucci As Trustees Of The Lawrence R. Bertolucci Revocable Living Trust Dated June 6, 2007 (hereinafter collectively referred to as the "Owner Defendants"); Ki Moon Hong; Myung S. Hong; and Sumi Kimura and Cross-Defendant Thomas G. Palmer, Jr. (hereinafter collectively referred to as the "Operator Defendants") (Plaintiff, Owner Defendants, and Operator Defendants together, the "Parties), by and through their undersigned counsel of record, hereby submit the following stipulation to extend the deadline for mediation and the December 2, 2014 case management conference in the above-captioned matter.
WHEREAS, on June 3, 2014, the Parties appeared for a scheduled case management conference, discussed the status of the case and agreed to participate in mediation. The court and Parties discussed the appropriate time frame for conducting mediation, the court referred the matter to the ADR Unit for mediation, to be completed by October 31, 2014, as agreed upon by the parties. A further case management conference was set for December 2, 2014, after the mediation deadline.
WHEREAS, shortly after the June 3, 2014 case management conference, the Parties jointly selected a mediator and reported the selection to the ADR Unit. The Parties participated in a July 10, 2014 pre-mediation conference call with the mediator and selected a mutually agreeable mediation date of October 8, 2014.
WHEREAS, plaintiff obtained competitive bids for the necessary soil and shallow groundwater removal, has provided the bids to the other Parties, selected a contractor and scheduled the work for later this year.
WHEREAS, the San Mateo County Department of Environmental Health ("County"), which is overseeing plaintiff's environmental investigation and remediation notified plaintiff of groundwater contamination at a nearby San Francisco Public Utility Commission groundwater well and requested additional groundwater investigation at plaintiff's property. Plaintiff previously obtained one groundwater sample from the site, which did not show the presence of dry cleaning solvents above the laboratory method detection levels.
WHEREAS, on September 4, 2014, in preparation for mediation, plaintiff's counsel provided the other Parties with summary of the past and anticipated future environmental costs incurred or to be incurred by the plaintiff. Plaintiff's counsel noted that if contamination was identified in the groundwater, then additional environmental investigation and remediation costs would likely be incurred and plaintiff's estimates would have to be revised.
WHEREAS, on September 11, 2014, plaintiff submitted to the County a Groundwater Investigation Work Plan. Plaintiff has scheduled the additional groundwater investigation to begin on October 22, 2014 and will have results in the field.
WHEREAS, on September 26, 2014, certain defendants indicated that they are not willing to enter into a partial settlement or one that does not include a complete release of all past and future claims. Plaintiff responded that it was not willing to enter into a complete and final release of all claims given the potential for significant additional groundwater investigation and remediation costs. The Parties agreed that it would be in their best interests to postpone mediation until such time as plaintiff's additional groundwater investigation determined whether further groundwater investigation and/or remediation would be necessary.
NOW, THEREFORE, the undersigned Parties stipulate and agree to this request that the court postpone the October 31, 2014 mediation deadline until January 31, 2015. The extension will give the plaintiff time to conduct the scheduled groundwater investigation and determine if additional costs will be necessary. The case management conference presently set for December 2, 2014, should be postponed until a date available on the court's calendar after the newly assigned mediation deadline.
IT IS SO STIPULATED.
ORDER
Based on the stipulation submitted by counsel and good cause appearing therefor:
The stipulated request to extend the deadline for completing mediation is GRANTED. The deadline for completing mediation is hereby extended to January 31, 2015.
The further case management conference set for December 2, 2014 is vacated. A further case management conference will be held on February 10, 2015 at 2:00 p.m.
IT IS SO ORDERED.
