Bungie Inc v. Aimjunkies.com

Opinion

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4 5 UNITED STATES DISTRICT COURT WESTERN DISTRICT OF WASHINGTON 6 AT SEATTLE 7 BUNGIE, INC., 8 Plaintiff, C21-0811 TSZ 9 v. MINUTE ORDER 10 AIMJUNKIES.COM, et al., 11 Defendants. 12 The following Minute Order is made by direction of the Court, the Honorable 13 Thomas S. Zilly, United States District Judge: (1) Defendants’ motion to substitute expert witness, docket no. 148, is 14 GRANTED. A motion to substitute an expert witness “is properly analyzed under Federal Rule of Civil Procedure 16, which provides that a pretrial schedule ‘may be 15 modified only for good cause and with the judge’s consent.’” Jones v. Nat’l R.R. Passenger Corp., No. 15-cv-02726, 2022 WL 689000, at *2 (N.D. Cal. Feb. 23, 2022) 16 (quoting Fed. R. Civ. P. 16(b)(4)). The Court concludes that good cause exists to permit defendants to substitute Brad LaPorte for Scott Kraemer. LaPorte’s opinions, however, 17 shall be limited to those expressed in Kraemer’s June 12, 2023 Expert Report and June 23, 2023 deposition testimony. Plaintiff’s request for an award of costs and fees incurred 18 because of the substitution of defendants’ expert witness is GRANTED in part, and plaintiff is AWARDED its reasonable attorneys’ fees for its preparation and attendance at 19 Kraemer’s deposition. Plaintiff shall file within ten (10) days of the date of this Minute Order a declaration setting forth its reasonable attorneys’ fees. Having granted 20 21 22 1 defendants’ motion to substitute expert witness, the Court amends the case schedule1 as follows: 2 Defendants’ disclosure of Brad LaPorte’s expert 3 report is due by August 28, 2023

4 Limited discovery regarding Brad LaPorte’s expert testimony must be completed by September 28, 2023 5 Plaintiff must file any motion related to Brad 6 LaPorte (e.g., Daubert motion) by October 12, 2023 and note the motion no later than the third 7 Friday thereafter (see LCR 7(d))

8 (2) The Clerk is directed to send a copy of this Minute Order to all counsel of record. 9 Dated this 10th day of August, 2023. 10 11 Ravi Subramanian Clerk 12 s/Laurie Cuaresma 13 Deputy Clerk 14 15 16 17 18 19 20

21 1 All other deadlines contained in the Minute Order entered May 25, 2023, docket no. 139, shall 22 remain in full force and effect.