Bulnes v. Suez WTS Services USA, Inc.

Opinion

1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 UNITED STATES DISTRICT COURT 9 SOUTHERN DISTRICT OF CALIFORNIA 10 11 MARTIN BULNES, individually, and on Case No.: 3:22-cv-01154-BAS-AHG behalf of other members of the general 12 ORDER GRANTING JOINT public similarly situated, MOTION TO CONTINUE 13 Plaintiff, SCHEDULING ORDER DEADLINES 14 v. [ECF No. 21] 15 SUEZ WTS SERVICES USA, INC., et 16 al., 17 Defendants. 18 19 Before the Court is the parties’ third Stipulation and Joint Motion to Continue 20 Scheduling Order Deadlines. ECF No. 24. The parties request a 46-day extension of the 21 operative dates in the case schedule, including the fact discovery cut-off and the deadline 22 for Plaintiff to file the motion for class certification. Id. 23 Under Fed. R. Civ. P 16(b)(4), “[a] schedule may be modified only for good cause 24 and with the judge’s consent.” “Good cause” is a non-rigorous standard that has been 25 construed broadly across procedural and statutory contexts. Ahanchian v. Xenon Pictures, 26 Inc., 624 F.3d 1253, 1259 (9th Cir. 2010). The good cause standard focuses on the diligence 27 of the party seeking to amend the scheduling order and the reasons for seeking 28 modification. Johnson v. Mammoth Recreations, Inc., 975 F.2d 604, 609 (9th Cir. 1992). 1 The Court has found good cause to grant the parties’ previous two requests to extend 2 the case schedule due to the case-dispositive motions that were filed by each side after the 3 Court issued its Scheduling Order on September 9, 2022, and which were still pending at 4 the time the previous extension requests were granted. See ECF Nos. 20, 22. Those two 5 motions included Defendant’s motion to compel arbitration and dismiss class claims (ECF 6 No. 13) and Plaintiff’s motion to remand (ECF No. 14). Although the Court denied 7 Plaintiff’s motion to remand on February 23, 2023 (ECF No. 23), the motion to compel 8 arbitration remains pending. Accordingly, once again, the Court finds good cause to 9 GRANT the request. The deadlines in the case schedule are CONTINUED as follows: 10 1. Fact and class discovery are not bifurcated, but class discovery must be 11 completed by June 5, 2023. “Completed” means that all discovery requests governed by 12 Rules 30-36 of the Federal Rules of Civil Procedure, and discovery subpoenas under Rule 13 45, must be propounded sufficiently in advance of the discovery cut-off date so that they 14 may be completed by that date, taking into account the time permitted in the Rules for 15 service, notice, and responses. If any discovery disputes arise, counsel must meet and 16 confer promptly and in good faith in compliance with Local Rule 26.1(a). A failure to 17 comply in this regard will result in a waiver of a party’s discovery issue. Absent an 18 order of the court, no stipulation continuing or altering this requirement will be 19 recognized by the Court. The Court expects counsel to make every effort to resolve all 20 disputes without court intervention through the meet-and-confer process. If the parties 21 reach an impasse on any discovery issue, the movant must email chambers at 22 efile_goddard@casd.uscourts.gov no later than 45 days after the date of service of the 23 written discovery response that is in dispute, seeking a telephonic conference with the 24 Court to discuss the discovery dispute. The email must include: (1) at least three proposed 25 times mutually agreed upon by the parties for the telephonic conference; (2) a neutral 26 statement of the dispute; and (3) one sentence describing (not arguing) each parties’ 27 position. The movant must copy opposing counsel on the email. No discovery motion may 28 be filed until the Court has conducted its pre-motion telephonic conference, unless the | |}movant has obtained leave of Court. All parties are ordered to read and to fully comply 2 || with the Chambers Rules of Magistrate Judge Allison H. Goddard, which can be found 3 || on the district court website at: 4 || https://www.casd.uscourts.gov/judges/goddard/docs/Goddard20Civil%20Pretrial%20Pr 5 || ocedures.pdf. 6 2. Plaintiff must file a motion for class certification by August 4, 2023.! 7 3. Within three (3) days of a ruling on the motion for class certification, the 8 || parties must jointly contact the Court via email (at efile_goddard@casd.uscourts.gov) to 9 || arrange a further case management conference. 10 4. The dates set forth herein will not be modified except for good cause shown. 11 IT IS SO ORDERED. 12 || Dated: March 15, 2023 _ArwiorwH. Xyolard Honorable Allison H. Goddard 14 United States Magistrate Judge 15 16 17 18 19 20 21 22 23 24 25 26 27 28 ' Should Plaintiff not file a class certification motion, he must notify the Court via email (at efile □□□□□□□□□□□□□□□□□□□□□□□□□□□ by August 7, 2023.