Carl Washington v. CVS Pharmacy Inc.

District Court, N.D. California·Decided April 30, 2021·No. 4:15-cv-03504·Unknown

Opinion

CHRISTOPHER CORCORAN, ET AL., Case No. 4:15-cv-3504-YGR Plaintiffs, PRETRIAL ORDER NO. 4 INCLUDING v. OBJECTIONS TO DEPOSITION DESIGNATIONS; MOTION TO STRIKE; CVS PHARMACY, INC., MOTION TO EXCLUDE; MOTION TO Defendant. Re: Dkt. Nos. 485, 494, 496, 502

Currently pending are the parties’ objections to deposition designations (Dkt. No. 494), CVS’s Motion to Strike Dr. Schafermeyer’s New Opinions (Dkt. No. 485), plaintiffs’ Motion to Exclude Deposition Testimony Obtained by CVS in Other Litigation and Witnesses Not Timely Disclosed (Dkt. No. 496), and plaintiffs’ Motion for Leave to Supplement Dr. Schafermeyer’s Expert Disclosures (Dkt. No. 502). The Court addresses each in turn. As a preliminary note, the parties are advised that during jury selection, given the occupancy restrictions in the courtroom, each side is limited to three persons total in the courtroom. The Court will discuss logistics at a later date. 1. OBJECTIONS TO DEPOSITION DESIGNATIONS (Dkt. No. 494) The Court has reviewed and considered the parties’ objections to deposition designations. The Court’s rulings are listed in Exhibit A attached hereto.1 2. CVS’S MOTION TO STRIKE NEW OPINIONS OF DR. SCHAFERMEYER (Dkt. No. 485)2 1 The Court GRANTS IN PART AND DEFERS IN PART CVS’s motion to seal excerpts from three Rule 30(b)(6) depositions in the Sheet Metal litigation. (Dkt. No. 493.) To the extent that the Court defers ruling on the deposition designations, the motion to seal is also DEFERRED. To the extent that the Court granted the motion to exclude, and the evidence will not be admitted at trial, the motion to seal is GRANTED. There is no need for the information to be in the public record and the Court will honor the parties’ designation of confidentiality. On February 11, 2021, the Court exercised its discretion and reluctantly allowed plaintiffs to substitute their expert Dr. Joel Hay with a new expert Dr. Kenneth Schafermeyer. (Order Granting in Part and Denying in Part Motion for Substitution, Dkt. No. 471.) In order to address the prejudice for such a late substitute, the Court explicitly ordered that “Dr. Schafermeyer may not issue a new report but may only adopt or reject opinions and/or statements in Dr. Hay’s three prior declarations and two expert reports. Dr. Schafermeyer shall take such declarations and reports, and by using a strikethrough function, identify those statements/opinions with which he does not agree.” (Id. at 3.) The markups are filed with the Court. (Notice Pursuant to Substitution Order, Dkt. No. 474.) CVS now moves to strike two opinions of Dr. Schafermeyer on the grounds that they modify opinions that Dr. Hay previously offered in his December 9, 2016 expert report. (December 2016 Report, Dkt. No. 474-1.) First, CVS raises Dr. Schafermeyer’s “new opinion” concerning usual and customary prices. Dr. Hay previously opined that “CVS’s prices properly should be considered CVS’s true U&C prices.” (Id. ¶ 10 (Opinion 2); see also id. ¶¶ 36–45 (explaining basis for Opinion 2).) In stating the basis for this opinion, Dr. Hay provided: “In the pharmacy context, Usual & Customary (U&C) price is the cash price for which a drug is sold.” (Id. ¶ 37.) Dr. Schafermeyer marked up this statement as follows: “In the pharmacy context, Usual & Customary (U&C) price is the cash price for which a drug is sold.” In striking through the word “sold,” Dr. Schafermeyer wrote in a comment bubble:

To be more accurate, I would change the word “sold” to “offered for sale to cash- paying customers (i.e., those paying without insurance).” I am not disagreeing with the previous expert; I am simplying [sic] being more precise. (Id.)3

argument, as permitted by Civil Local Rule 7-1(b) and Federal Rule of Civil Procedure 78. See also Lake at Las Vegas Investors Group, Inc. v. Pacific Malibu Dev. Corp., 933 F.2d 724, 728–29 (9th Cir. 1991). Accordingly, the Court VACATES the hearing set for May 4, 2021. 3 None of the annotations, i.e., the text of the comment bubbles, have been provided to the Court in a non-electronic form. In other words, one must be in the electronic document and hover over the comment bubble to read it. Accordingly, the Court ORDERS plaintiffs to file a copy of all CVS’s motion with respect to this markup is GRANTED. The Court agrees with CVS that Dr. Schafermeyer attempts to modify Dr. Hay’s definition of usual and customary prices in this report from “the cash price for which a drug is sold” to the price “offered for sale to cash-paying customers (i.e., those paying without insurance.).” As the Court previously ordered, Dr. Schafermeyer may either adopt or reject Dr. Hay’s definition here, but he cannot modify it. The Court does not view this modification as a distinction without a difference. If it is, then there is no prejudice in Dr. Schafermeyer maintaining Dr. Hay’s language here. Accordingly, CVS may rely on the definition of usual and customary prices that Dr. Hay provided in his report. To address a potential issue at trial, the Court will explain to the jury that Dr. Schafermeyer is a substitute expert and that, in the interest of fairness, he is only able to adopt the prior experts opinions to the extent he agreed with them. In this regard, and if necessary, Dr. Schafermeyer may indicate that he agrees with the definition and, while he may have used different words, that modification is not relevant because it was not offered by the prior expert. Counsel shall not ask for clarification, nor shall Dr. Schafermeyer volunteer. Second, CVS raises Dr. Schafermeyer’s “new opinion” concerning cash transactions. Dr. Hay described his understanding of plaintiffs’ allegations in the introduction of the same report:

Plaintiffs allege that CVS knowingly and intentionally overcharged pharmacy customers for general prescription drugs by submitting to patients and third-party payors claims for payment at prices that CVS fraudulently inflated far above its true U&C prices. I understand that CVS created the “Health Savings Pass” (“HSP”) program to remain competitive in the face of similar standardized generic pricing programs from other national pharmacy retail chains such as Walmart and Kmart. The HSP program allowed cash-paying patients to purchase generic prescriptions for competitive prices (e.g., $9.99 for a 90-day prescription for most drugs from November 2008 through 2010, and $11.99 for a 90-day prescription for most drugs in the program from 2011 until CVS discontinued the program in February 2016). According to Plaintiffs’ allegations, rather than recognizing that the HSP price should be included in its determination of the U&C price for drugs available under the program, CVS charged

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Carl Washington v. CVS Pharmacy Inc., (N.D. Cal. 2021).

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