McAllister v. United States

Opinion

1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 UNITED STATES DISTRICT COURT 9 SOUTHERN DISTRICT OF CALIFORNIA 10 11 ANTHONY McALLISTER, Case No.: 3:19-cv-01490-MMA-AHG 12 Plaintiff, In Admiralty 13 v. ORDER GRANTING JOINT MOTION TO AMEND 14 UNITED STATES OF AMERICA; “K” SCHEDULING ORDER LINE RORO BULK SHIP 15 MANAGEMENT CO., LTD.; [ECF No. 86] 16 BELOCEAN SHIPPING, S.A.; PASHA HAWAII HOLDINGS, LLC; and DOES 17 1-10, inclusive, 18 Defendants. 19

20 AND RELATED ACTIONS

21 22 23 This matter comes before the Court on the parties’ Joint Motion for Amended 24 Scheduling Order. ECF No. 86. 25 Under Fed. R. Civ. P 16(b)(4), “[a] schedule may be modified only for good cause 26 and with the judge’s consent.” “Good cause” is a non-rigorous standard that has been 27 construed broadly across procedural and statutory contexts. Ahanchian v. Xenon Pictures, 28 Inc., 624 F.3d 1253, 1259 (9th Cir. 2010). The good cause standard focuses on the diligence 1 of the party seeking to amend the scheduling order and the reasons for seeking 2 modification. Johnson v. Mammoth Recreations, Inc., 975 F.2d 604, 609 (9th Cir. 1992). 3 “[T]he court may modify the schedule on a showing of good cause if it cannot reasonably 4 be met despite the diligence of the party seeking the extension.” Fed. R. Civ. P. 16, advisory 5 committee’s notes to 1983 amendment. Therefore, “a party demonstrates good cause by 6 acting diligently to meet the original deadlines set forth by the court.” Merck v. Swift 7 Transportation Co., No. CV-16-01103-PHX-ROS, 2018 WL 4492362, at *2 (D. Ariz. 8 Sept. 19, 2018). 9 As discussed in the parties’ previous joint motion for an extension of the case 10 schedule, the parties have scheduled a private mediation for April 16, 2021 before an 11 experienced maritime attorney and mediator. ECF No. 86 at 3. The parties seek a 90-day 12 continuance of all deadlines in the case schedule so that they have sufficient time to conduct 13 additional depositions if the case does not settle through the private mediation in April, and 14 to schedule a Rule 34 vessel inspection of the MARJORIE C when it is safer to do so 15 (assuming that most people will have received the COVID vaccine by June or July 2021). 16 Id. at 3-4. In the joint motion, the parties provide more specific detail regarding their 17 difficulties scheduling certain depositions, including that one of the key Navy witnesses 18 who investigated the incident underlying this action contracted COVID, and another key 19 witness had to quarantine due to suspected exposure to the virus. Id. at 2. Additionally, 20 counsel have had difficulty locating certain crewmembers who need to be subpoenaed for 21 depositions, and are awaiting subpoenaed records that will indicate whether other 22 depositions of crewmembers from the tugboats that assisted the MARJORIE C on the 23 morning of the incident need to be taken as well. Id. at 2-3. 24 Having considered the joint motion as well as the Joint Mediation Plan previously 25 lodged by the parties, the Court finds good cause to GRANT the Joint Motion and 26 AMEND the schedule as follows: 27 1. All fact discovery shall be completed by all parties by September 17, 2021. 28 “Completed” means that all discovery under Rules 30-36 of the Federal Rules of Civil 1 Procedure, and discovery subpoenas under Rule 45, must be initiated a sufficient period of 2 time in advance of the cut-off date, so that it may be completed by the cut-off date, taking 3 into account the times for service, notice and response as set forth in the Federal Rules of 4 Civil Procedure. Counsel shall promptly and in good faith meet and confer with 5 regard to all discovery disputes in compliance with Local Rule 26.1(a). A failure to 6 comply in this regard will result in a waiver of a party’s discovery issue. Absent an 7 order of the court, no stipulation continuing or altering this requirement will be 8 recognized by the court. The Court expects counsel to make every effort to resolve all 9 disputes without court intervention through the meet and confer process. If the parties 10 reach an impasse on any discovery issue, the movant must e-mail chambers at 11 efile_goddard@casd.uscourts.gov no later than 45 days after the date of service of the 12 written discovery response that is in dispute, seeking a telephonic conference with the 13 Court to discuss the discovery dispute. The email must include: (1) at least three proposed 14 times mutually agreed upon by the parties for the telephonic conference; (2) a neutral 15 statement of the dispute; and (3) one sentence describing (not arguing) each parties’ 16 position. The movant must copy opposing counsel on the email. No discovery motion may 17 be filed until the Court has conducted its pre-motion telephonic conference, unless the 18 movant has obtained leave of Court. All parties are ordered to read and to fully comply 19 with the Chambers Rules of Magistrate Judge Allison H. Goddard. 20 2. By October 8, 2021, each party must comply with the disclosure provisions 21 in Rule 26(a)(2)(A) and (B) of the Federal Rules of Civil Procedure. This disclosure 22 requirement applies to all persons retained or specially employed to provide expert 23 testimony, or whose duties as an employee of the party regularly involve the giving of 24 expert testimony. Except as provided in the paragraph below, any party that fails to 25 make these disclosures will not, absent substantial justification, be permitted to use 26 evidence or testimony not disclosed at any hearing or at the time of trial. In addition, 27 the Court may impose sanctions as permitted by Fed. R. Civ. P. 37(c). 28 3. Any party must supplement its disclosure regarding contradictory or rebuttal 1 evidence under Fed. R. Civ. P. 26(a)(2)(D) by October 29, 2021. 2 4. All expert discovery must be completed by all parties by December 10, 2021. 3 The parties must comply with the same procedures set forth in the paragraph governing 4 fact discovery. 5 5. Failure to comply with this section or any other discovery order of the court 6 may result in the sanctions provided for in Fed. R. Civ. P. 37, including a prohibition on 7 the introduction of experts or other designated matters in evidence. 8 6. All dispositive pretrial motions, including motions for summary judgment and 9 motions addressing Daubert issues, must be filed by January 7, 2022.1 Counsel for the 10 moving party must obtain a motion hearing date from Judge Anello’s law clerk. The period 11 of time between the date you request a motion date and the hearing date may vary from 12 one district judge to another. Please plan accordingly. Failure to make a timely request 13 for a motion date may result in the motion not being heard. 14 7. If appropriate, following the filing of an order ruling on a motion for summary 15 judgment or other dispositive pretrial motion, or in the event no such motion is filed, after 16 the expiration of the deadline set forth in paragraph 8, supra, Judge Anello will issue a 17 pretrial scheduling order setting a pretrial conference, trial date, and all related pretrial 18 deadlines. The parties must review and be familiar with Judge Anello’s Civil Chambers 19 Rules, which provide additional information regarding pretrial scheduling. 20 8. A Mandatory Settlement Conference shall be conducted on 21 February 25, 2022 at 9:30 AM in the chambers of Magistrate Judge Allison H. 22 Goddard. Plaintiff must serve on Defendant a written settlement proposal, which must 23 include a specific demand amount, no later than January 28, 2022. The defendant must 24 respond to the plaintiff in writing with a specific offer amount by February 4, 2022. The 25 parties should not file or otherwise copy the Court on these exchanges. Rather, the parties 26 27 1 This deadline is not applicable to pretrial motions in limine. For further information 28 1 include their written settlement proposals in their respective Settlement Conference 2 Statements to the Court. Counsel for the parties must meet and confer in person or by 3 phone no later than February 11, 2022. Each party must prepare a Settlement Conference 4 Statement, which will be served on opposing counsel and lodged with the Court no later 5 ||than February 18, 2022. The Statement must be lodged in .pdf format via email to 6 || □□□□□□□□□□□□□□□□□□□□□□□□□□ (not filed). The substance of the Settlement Conference 7 ||Statement must comply fully with Judge Goddard’s Mandatory Settlement 8 || Conference Rules (located at https://www.casd.uscourts.gov/Judges/goddard/docs/Godda 9 || rd%20Mandatory%20Settlement%20Conference™20Rules.pdf). Each party may also 10 ||prepare an optional Confidential Settlement Letter for the Court’s review only, to be 11 || lodged with the Court no later than February 18, 2022. The Letter must be lodged in .pdf 12 || format via email to efile_goddard@casd.uscourts.gov (not filed). Should a party choose 13 prepare a Letter, the substance of the Settlement Conference Letter must comply fully 14 || with Judge Goddard’s Mandatory Settlement Conference Rules. All parties are ordered 15 |/to read and to fully comply with the Chambers Rules and Mandatory Settlement 16 || Conference Rules of Magistrate Judge Allison H. Goddard. 17 9. The dates and times set forth herein will not be modified except for good cause 18 || shown. 19 10. Briefs or memoranda in support of or in opposition to any pending motion 20 || must not exceed twenty-five (25) pages in length without leave of a district court judge. 21 ||No reply memorandum will exceed ten (10) pages without leave of a district court judge. 22 || Briefs and memoranda exceeding ten (10) pages in length must have a table of contents 23 a table of authorities cited. 24 11. The mediation-related deadlines set forth in the parties’ Joint Mediation Plan 25 ||remain in place. See ECF No. 83 at 2. 26 IT IS SO ORDERED. 27 || Dated: March 15, 2021 _ Siow. Xion Honorable Allison H. Goddard United States Magistrate Judge