Chen v. Allied Waste Systems, Inc.

• Court: District Court, S.D. California
• Decided: November 14, 2023
• Docket: 3:22-cv-00099
• Status: Unknown

Opinion

1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 UNITED STATES DISTRICT COURT 10 SOUTHERN DISTRICT OF CALIFORNIA 11 12 QIHAI CHEN and DUALTONE Case No.: 3:22-cv-00099-JO-AHG AUTOMOTIVE, INC., 13 ORDER: on behalf of themselves and all others

14 similarly situated, (1) GRANTING IN PART JOINT 15 Plaintiffs, MOTION TO EXTEND EXPERT DISCOVERY DEADLINES AND 16 v. PRETRIAL MOTION FILING 17 ALLIED WASTE SYSTEMS, INC., DEADLINE, and et al., 18 (2) ISSUING FIRST AMENDED Defendants. 19 SCHEDULING ORDER

20 [ECF No. 77] 21 22 23 24 25 Before the Court is the parties’ joint motion to amend the scheduling order. ECF 26 No. 77. The parties seek an order from the Court extending the expert disclosure deadline, 27 rebuttal expert disclosure deadline, expert discovery cutoff, and pretrial motion filling 28 deadline by approximately 45 days. Id. 1 Parties seeking to continue deadlines in the scheduling order must demonstrate good 2 cause. FED. R. CIV. P. 16(b)(4) (“A schedule may be modified only for good cause and with 3 the judge’s consent”); see also AHG.Chmb.R. at 2 (stating that any request for continuance 4 requires “[a] showing of good cause for the request”). 5 “Good cause” is a non-rigorous standard that has been construed broadly across 6 procedural and statutory contexts. Ahanchian v. Xenon Pictures, Inc., 624 F.3d 1253, 1259 7 (9th Cir. 2010). The good cause standard focuses on the diligence of the party seeking to 8 amend the scheduling order and the reasons for seeking modification. Johnson v. Mammoth 9 Recreations, Inc., 975 F.2d 604, 609 (9th Cir. 1992) (“[T]he focus of the inquiry is upon 10 the moving party’s reasons for seeking modification. . . . If that party was not diligent, the 11 inquiry should end.”) (internal citation omitted). Therefore, “a party demonstrates good 12 cause by acting diligently to meet the original deadlines set forth by the court.” Merck v. 13 Swift Transp. Co., No. CV-16-01103-PHX-ROS, 2018 WL 4492362, at *2 (D. Ariz. Sept. 14 19, 2018). 15 Here, expert disclosures are due December 4, 2023; rebuttal expert disclosures are 16 due December 18, 2023; the expert discovery cutoff is January 22, 2024; and the pretrial 17 motion filing deadline is February 19, 2024. ECF No. 49 at 2–3. The parties have 18 represented to the Court that they have been working diligently to abide by the Court’s 19 Scheduling Order (ECF No. 49). ECF No. 77-1. Both sides have designated experts, 20 including damages experts. Id. at 3. However, the parties’ experts need more time to 21 complete their analysis, based on whether (and to what scope) a class is certified. Id. The 22 parties also seek to participate in settlement discussions ahead of expert report deadlines, 23 to reduce litigation costs. Id. As such, the parties request that the Court extend certain 24 scheduling order deadlines by approximately six to seven weeks—e.g., extend the expert 25 disclosure deadline to January 22, 2024; the rebuttal expert disclosures deadline to 26 February 5, 2024; the expert discovery cutoff to March 4, 2024; and the pretrial motion 27 filing deadline to April 1, 2024. ECF No. 77 at 3–4. 28 / / 1 The Court appreciates that the parties have been working together to complete 2 || discovery. Upon due consideration, and upon a review of the docket, the Court finds good 3 || cause to GRANT IN PART! the joint motion. ECF No. 77. The Court issues the following 4 || First Amended Scheduling Order: 5 1. The Mandatory Settlement Conference remains on _ calendar for 6 || January 3, 2024 at 9:30 am. before the Honorable Allison H. Goddard via 7 ||videoconference. The parties must comply with all procedures, requirements, and 8 deadlines set forth in ECF No. 67. 9 2. Within three (3) days of a ruling on the motion for class certification, the 10 || parties must jointly contact the Court via email (at efile_goddard @casd.uscourts.gov) to 11 arrange a further case management conference. During the case management conference, 12 || the Court will set new deadlines for expert disclosures, expert discovery, pretrial motions, 13 || and the pretrial conference. IT IS SO ORDERED. 15 Dated: November 14, 2023 16 _ Apion. Honorable Allison H. Goddard V7 United States Magistrate Judge 18 19 20 21 22 23 24 25

27 ||' Though the parties suggest specific dates for the deadlines they seek to extend, the Court 28 has considered the procedural posture of the case and has determined that those deadlines should be reset after the class certification motion is decided, not beforehand.