STIPULATION AND ORDER TO EXTEND DEPOSITION DEADLINE

(Fifth Request)

NANCY J. KOPPE, Magistrate Judge.

Pursuant to FRCP 6 and FRCP 26, the parties, by and through their respective counsel of record, hereby stipulate and agree to jointly move this Court for an Order to:

1. Extend the date for Defendants to depose Plaintiffs' experts from April 28, 2019 to May 31, 2019.

2. Extend the date for rebuttal expert disclosures from May 28, 2019 to June 29, 2019.

I. DISCOVERY COMPLETED

Plaintiffs and Defendants have made initial and various supplemental witness and document disclosures, exchanged written discovery and responded thereto, taken depositions, Defendants have filed motions for summary judgment, and Plaintiffs have made partial initial expert disclosures.

II. GROUNDS FOR DISCOVERY EXTENSION:

On January 8, 2019, this Court entered an Order (ECF No.132) establishing the following expert discovery deadlines:

On January 25, 2019, Plaintiffs' attorneys advised Defendants' attorney that their expert — Jane Ramon — is only available for deposition in Massachusetts the week of February 11 to 15, and the week of March 11 to 15. Ms. Ramon is unavailable from March 22 through to early May. This Court's Order, supra, allowed Defendants' 30 days from their expert disclosure date of March 28, 2019 to April 28, 2019, within which to depose Plaintiffs' experts. Ms. Ramon's availability and unavailability interferes with the deadline set by this Court and deprives Defendants of the time this Court allowed Defendants to complete Plaintiffs' expert depositions through no fault on Defendants' part. Based on all of the above, the parties jointly are requesting that only the two deadlines below be extended, by 33 days, as follows:

This request is being made well before 21 days before the expiration of the relevant deadlines and as soon as possible after Plaintiffs disclosed the expert issue to Defendants and the parties conferred about it. Local Rule 26-4 and Local Rule IA 6-1. There is good cause for the requested extension of two discovery deadlines due to Plaintiffs' expert's unavailability for a period of time. Id. Therefore, the parties hereby stipulate and request that this Court extend two of the expert discovery deadlines due to the special circumstances indicated above that support this request. In light of all of the above, the parties agree that in the interests of fairness and given this Court's Order, the expert's unavailability and the travel required for the expert's deposition, that there is good cause to extend the deadlines.

III. DISCOVERY THAT REMAINS TO BE COMPLETED:

Plaintiffs have made partial initial expert disclosures. However, they have until February 26, 2019 to complete their initial disclosures. Defendants have until March 28, 2019 to make their expert disclosures; and Defendants have until April 28, 2019 to take Plaintiffs' experts' depositions. The parties have until May 28, 2019 to make rebuttal expert disclosures.

IV. PROPOSED SCHEDULE FOR COMPLETING DISCOVERY:

The parties have agreed to extend the following expert discovery deadlines, by 33 days, as set forth below:

2. Extend the date for rebuttal expert disclosures from May 28, 2019 to June 28, 2019.

ORDER

IT IS SO ORDERED.