Walker v. County of Santa Clara et al

Filing 111

REVISED STIPULATION AND ORDER RE 110 MODIFYING THE CASE MANAGEMENT SCHEDULING ORDER. Further Case Management Conference set for 11/8/2012 10:00 AM; Pretrial Conference set for 11/21/2013 10:00 AM; Jury Selection set for 12/9/2013 08:30 AM; Jury Trial set for 12/9/2013 08:30 AM in Courtroom 3, 17th Floor, San Francisco before Hon. Richard Seeborg. Signed by Judge Richard Seeborg on 8/21/12. (cl, COURT STAFF) (Filed on 8/21/2012)

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1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 LORI E. PEGG, Acting County Counsel (S.B. #129073) GREGORY J. SEBASTINELLI, Deputy County Counsel (S.B. #104884) OFFICE OF THE COUNTY COUNSEL 70 West Hedding Street, East Wing, Ninth Floor San Jose, California 95110-1770 Telephone: (408) 299-5900 Facsimile: (408) 292-7240 Attorneys for Defendants COUNTY OF SANTA CLARA and its SANTA CLARA VALLEY MEDICAL CENTER, HOLLISTER BREWSTER, M.D., ALFONSO BANUELOS, M.D., DOLLY GOEL, M.D., and PETER GREGOR, M.D. 9 UNITED STATES DISTRICT COURT FOR THE NORTHERN DISTRICT OF CALIFORNIA (San Francisco) 10 11 12 13 THRESSA WALKER et al., Plaintiffs, 14 15 v. 16 COUNTY OF SANTA CLARA et al., No. 10-CV-04668 RS REVISED STIPULATION AND [PROPOSED] ORDER MODIFYING THE CASE MANAGEMENT SCHEDULING ORDER Defendants. 17 18 19 The parties stipulate and agree to an order modifying the Case Management Scheduling 20 Order to allow preparation for and participation in a third mediation session presently scheduled for 21 October 11, 2012. This is a second request to modify the initial Case Management Scheduling 22 Order. If this third mediation session is unsuccessful in resolving the claims of Plaintiffs Geeta 23 Singh, M.D. (“Singh”) and/or Kai Ihnken, M.D. (“Ihnken”), the parties are respectfully requesting 24 additional time to complete extensive discovery, file dispositive motions, and otherwise prepare for 25 trial. 26 The respective parties believe good cause exists for further modifying the Case Management 27 Scheduling Order. There has been a concerted effort to avoid expensive, time-consuming discovery 28 and instead focus on the prospect of settlement. The parties participated in a private mediation 1 Revised Stipulation and [Proposed] Order Modifying the Case Management Scheduling Order 10-CV-04668 RS 1 session with Attorney Charles F. Hawkins on February 27 and 28, 2012, and made significant 2 progress toward negotiating a resolution. At the initial Case Management Conference before Judge 3 Richard Seeborg on March 22, 2012, the parties advised there was a strong interest in pursuing a 4 further mediation session with Mr. Hawkins. That further session occurred on May 2, 2012, which 5 served to resolve the claims of Plaintiff Thressa Walker, but not the claims of Singh and Ihnken. 6 As of the second Case Management Conference held on July 19, 2012, the parties continued 7 to privately converse with Mr. Hawkins, but did not anticipate any further mediation session. The 8 parties had re-engaged in written and deposition discovery, and respectfully requested that the Court 9 consider extending for a short time discovery and dispositive motion-related dates in its initial Case 10 Management Scheduling Order dated March 23, 2012. After meeting and conferring, the parties 11 believed that necessary non-expert discovery would require approximately five months to complete, 12 and therefore requested that non-expert discovery close on December 28, 2012, expert discovery 13 take place during January/February 2013, and dispositive motions be heard by March 7, 2013. There 14 was no request to change the trial date of May 13, 2013. The Court favorably considered this 15 request and issued its second Case Management Scheduling Order on July 20, 2012. 16 Following July 20, 2012, and while engaged in written and deposition discovery, Singh and 17 Ihnken communicated lowered settlement demands signed by the respective Plaintiffs. These 18 lowered demands encouraged the County Defendants to return to the bargaining table and agree to 19 participate in a further mediation session with Mr. Hawkins. Unfortunately, the parties are unable to 20 secure a mediation date with Mr. Hawkins before he leaves for a European vacation on August 28, 21 and he is not scheduled to return until September 24, 2012. Thus far, Mr. Hawkins has expended 22 over 40 hours in two mediation sessions and in numerous telephone conferences. As the Court can 23 well appreciate, the parties have invested considerable time and money in the skilled efforts of Mr. 24 Hawkins and do not wish to retain an alternate mediator. And, at present the first available date for 25 mediation following Mr. Hawkins’s return is October 11, 2012. 26 In the event the Court favorably considers this request to further modify the Case 27 Management Scheduling Order, the parties intend to enter into a “Stand-Still” agreement respecting 28 discovery until completion of this third mediation session. Such an agreement will avoid Plaintiffs 2 Revised Stipulation and [Proposed] Order Modifying the Case Management Scheduling Order 10-CV-04668 RS 1 incurring further attorneys’ fees and avoid the County further depleting its self-insured insurance 2 retention. 3 Another factor weighing in favor of approving this proposed modification is that the parties 4 already have trials scheduled with one another for April 29, 2013 (Burrell, et al. v. County of Santa 5 Clara, Case No. CV11-04569 LHK, before United States District Judge Lucy H. Koh) and May 6, 6 2013 (Song, et al. v. County of Santa Clara, Case No. CV11-04450 EJD before United States 7 District Judge Edward J. Davila), and if either of these cases proceed to trial this case will likely be 8 continued to a later date. The following provides the Court with the pertinent dates respecting the initial and second 9 10 Case Management Scheduling Orders, and what the parties now propose: Event Initial Case Management Scheduling Order Second Case Management Scheduling Order Further Case Management Conference 07/19/12 10/25/12 Complete Non-Expert Discovery 10/26/12 12/28/12 05/17/13 Plaintiffs’ Expert Disclosure 11/15/12 01/17/13 06/07/13 Defendants’ Expert Disclosure 11/30/12 02/01/13 06/28/13 Complete Expert Discovery 12/21/12 02/22/13 07/19/13 21 Last Date to Hear Pretrial Motions 02/21/13 03/07/13 09/19/13 22 Pretrial Statements 04/18/13 04/18/13 11/14/13 23 Pretrial Conference 04/25/13 04/25/13 11/21/13 24 Trial Date 05/13/13 05/13/13 12/09/13 11 12 13 14 15 16 17 18 19 20 Proposed Case Management Scheduling Order Nov./Dec. 2012 November 8, 2012 25 26 // 27 // 28 Revised Stipulation and [Proposed] Order Modifying the Case Management Scheduling Order 3 10-CV-04668 RS I hereby attest that I have on file all holograph signatures for any signatures indicated by a 1 2 “conformed” signature (/S/) within this efiled document. LORI E. PEGG ACTING COUNTY COUNSEL 3 4 5 By: Dated: August 20, 2012 6 7 /S/ GREGORY J. SEBASTINELLI Deputy County Counsel . Attorneys for Defendants COUNTY OF SANTA CLARA and its SANTA CLARA VALLEY MEDICAL CENTER, HOLLISTER BREWSTER, M.D., ALFONSO BANUELOS, M.D., DOLLY GOEL, M.D., and PETER GREGOR, M.D. 8 9 10 11 LAW OFFICES OF BONNER & BONNER 12 13 Dated: August 20, 2012 By: 14 /S/ A. CABRAL BONNER, ESQ. . Attorneys for Plaintiffs GEETA SINGH, M.D., and KAI IHNKEN, M.D. 15 16 17 18 19 [PROPOSED] ORDER 20 IT IS SO ORDERED that dates and deadlines set forth in the initial Case Management 21 Scheduling Order dated March 23, 2012 and the second (supplemental) Case Management 22 Scheduling Order dated July 20, 2012 are vacated, and new dates and deadlines will be set forth in a 23 third Case Management Scheduling Order issued shortly hereafter. 24 8/21/12 Dated: _________________ _______________________________ RICHARD SEEBORG United States District Court Judge 25 26 27 28 627301.DOC Revised Stipulation and [Proposed] Order Modifying the Case Management Scheduling Order 4 10-CV-04668 RS

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