1 T. Kennedy Helm, IV (SBN 282319) Kevin G. Little (SBN 149818) HELM LAW OFFICE, PC Michelle L. Tostenrude (SBN 290121) 2 644 40th Street, Suite 305 LAW OFFICE OF KEVIN G. LITTLE Oakland, California 94609 Post Office Box 8656 3 Telephone: (510) 350-7517 Fresno, California 93747 Facsimile: (510) 350-7359 Telephone: (559) 342-5800 4 E-mail: kennedy@helmlawoffice.com Facsimile: (559) 242-2400 E-Mail: kevin@kevinglittle.com 5 Attorney for Plaintiffs A.G. and F.G., by and E-mail: michelletostenrude@yahoo.com through their guardian ad litem, Johana 6 Yolanda Corral Galvan Attorneys for Plaintiff Rosa Madrid
7 Gary L. Logan (SBN 90558) Lindsey M. Romano (SBN 337600) Alan J. Mish (SBN 105771 Kendra N. Stark (PRO HAC VICE) 8 LAW OFFICES OF GORDON REES SCULLY LEBEAU • THELEN, LLP MANSUKHANI, LLP 9 5001 East Commercenter Drive, Suite 300 275 Battery Street, Suite 2000 Post Office Box 12092 San Francisco, CA 94111 10 Bakersfield, California 93389-2092 Telephone: (415) 875-4126 Telephone:(661) 325-8962 Facsimile: (415) 986-8054 11 Facsimile: (661) 325-1127 E-mail: lromano@grsm.com E-mail: glogan@lebeauthelen.com E-mail: kstark@grsm.com 12 E-mail: amish@lebeauthelen.com Attorneys for Defendants Wellpath, LLC 13 Attorneys for Defendants County of Tulare, and Alla Liberstein, M.D. Jose Sanchez Perez, James Dillon, and Rodrigo 14 DeOchoa
15 Peter G. Bertling (SBN 121602) Jemma Allison Parker Saunders (SBN 227962) 16 BERTLING LAW GROUP 21 E. Canon Perdido Street, Suite 204B 17 Santa Barbara, California 93101 Telephone: (805) 879-7558 18 Facsimile: (805) 869-1597 E-mail: peter@bertlinglawgroup.com 19 E-mail: jemma@bertlinglawgroup.com
20 Attorneys for Defendant Andrew P. Ho, M.D.
21 UNITED STATES DISTRICT COURT
22 EASTERN DISTRICT OF CALIFORNIA
23 FRESNO DIVISION
24 A.G., a minor, by and through her guardian ad ) Case No. 1:23-cv-00500-JLT-SKO litem Johana Yolanda Corral Galvan, ) 25 individually and as co-successor in interest to ) STIPULATION AND ORDER ) 26 Decedent Francisco Ponce, Jr.; F.G., a minor, ) VACATING SCHEDULING ORDER by and through her guardian ad litem Johana ) 27 Yolanda Corral Galvan, individually and as ) (Doc. 66) ) 1 co-successor in interest to Decedent Francisco ) Ponce, Jr.; individually, ) 2 ) 3 Plaintiffs, ) ) vs. ) 4 ) COUNTY OF TULARE, a public entity; ) 5 Correctional Deputy Trainee JOSE ) ) 6 S JAA MNC ESH E DZ IL P LE OR NE ;Z C; oC ro rer cre tic oti no an l a Dl eD pe up tyu ty ) )
RODRIGO DEOCHOA; WELLPATH, LLC, ) 7 a Delaware Corporation; ANDREW P. HO, ) 8 MD; ALLA LIBERSTEIN, MD; and DOES ) ) 7–50, jointly and severally, ) 9 ) Defendants. ) 10 11 12 13 14 15 16 17 18 19 20 21 22 23 24 25 26 27 1 Plaintiffs A.G. and F.G., by and through their counsel, T. Kennedy Helm, IV, of Helm Law 2 Office, PC; Plaintiff Rosa Madrid, by and through her counsel, Kevin G. Little and Michelle L. 3 Tostenrude of the Law Office of Kevin G. Little; Defendants County of Tulare, Jose Sanchez 4 Perez, James Dillon, and Rodrigo DeOchoa, by and through their counsel, Gary L. Logan, of 5 Lebeau Thelen, LLP; Defendants Wellpath, LLC and Alla Liberstein, M.D., by and through their 6 counsel Lindsey M. Romano and Kendra N. Stark of Gordon Rees Scully Mansukhani, LLP; and 7 Defendant Andrew P. Ho, M.D., by and through his counsel Peter G. Bertling and Jemma Parker 8 Saunders of Bertling Law Group; hereby respectfully stipulate and request as follows: 9 A. When an act must be done within a specified time, the Court may, for good cause, extend 10 the time with or without motion if the court acts, or a request is made, before the original 11 time expires. Fed. R. Civ. P. 6(b)(1)(A). With respect to an order setting forth the Court’s 12 pretrial schedule, the “court may modify the pretrial schedule ‘if it cannot be reasonably 13 met despite the diligence of the party seeking the amendment.’” Johnson v. Mammoth 14 Recreations, Inc., 975 F.2d 604, 609 (9th Cir. 1992). The Parties respectfully submit that 15 good cause exists to vacate the deadline for completion of non-expert (fact) discovery and 16 successive deadlines. 17 B. Currently, the cutoff for non-expert (fact) discovery is February 5, 2025. ECF No. 57. 18 C. Since the last modification of the scheduling order on September 4, 2024 (ECF No. 57) the 19 Parties have made progress in discovery. On November 1, 2024, Plaintiffs A.G. and F.G 20 noticed the depositions of non-party witness Jonathan Gonzalez, EMT, for December 9, 21 2024; and of Defendants Jose Sanchez Perez and James Dillon, for December 11, 2024. 22 On November 4, 2024, Defendants Wellpath, LLC and Liberstein served responses and 23 5,070 pages of documents in response to Plaintiffs’ Requests for Production of Documents 24 and Things (Set One). On November 7, 2024, the County Defendants noticed the 25 deposition of the guardian ad litem of Plaintiffs A.G. and F.G., Johana Yolanda Corral 26 Galvan, for December 19, 2024. 27 1 D. However, on November 15, 2024, Defendant Wellpath, LLC filed a Suggestion of 2 Bankruptcy and Notice of Stay. ECF No. 58. 3 E. Plaintiffs and the County Defendants deposed non-party witness Jonathan Gonzalez, EMT, 4 on December 9, 2024. 5 F. Counsel for Plaintiffs A.G. and F.G. met and conferred with counsel for Defendant 6 Wellpath, LLC and counsel for the County Defendants, and the Parties determined that the 7 party depositions scheduled for December 11 and 19, 2024, should be postponed to avoid 8 having to bring these Parties back for further depositions, given that counsel for Wellpath 9 LLC could not participate in the depositions scheduled for December 2024 because of the 10 stay, and indicated that they would want to depose these Parties once the bankruptcy 11 proceeding ends and the stay is lifted. 12 G. Thus, the stay in Defendant Wellpath, LLC’s bankruptcy proceeding has prevented the 13 parties from conducting discovery with respect to Debtor Wellpath, LLC and Non-Debtor 14 Parties as well. The duration of the stay as to Defendant Wellpath, LLC, and of the 15 bankruptcy proceeding, is uncertain but could last until April 30, 2025. ECF No. 64-1, p. 16 4, ¶ 1. The Bankruptcy Court will hold a further hearing on February 18, 2025 to determine 17 the extent of the stay as to the non-Debtors. ECF No. 64-1, p. 4, ¶¶ 3–4. 18 H. Given the foregoing, counsel for all Plaintiffs; counsel for the Tulare County Defendants; 19 counsel for Defendants Wellpath, LLC and Liberstein; and counsel for Defendant Ho, do 20 not believe that fact discovery can be completed by the current deadline of February 5, 21 2025. Furthermore, counsel for the Parties wish to be able to exercise professional 22 courtesies by reasonably accommodating the schedules of the deponents and counsel as 23 much as is reasonably possible. Needing to set depositions on mutually available dates 24 becomes challenging given the number of counsel’s schedules and potential depositions 25 involved. 26 I. Therefore, the undersigned counsel respectfully request that the current case deadlines in 27 this matter be vacated, until the bankruptcy proceeding has concluded, and the parties have 1 an opportunity to meet and confer regarding a new case schedule that will not conflict with 2 the current stay. 3 J. The Parties further agree that they will provide the Court with a new proposed case 4 schedule within fifteen (15) days of the conclusion of the bankruptcy. 5 IT IS SO STIPULATED, THROUGH COUNSEL OF RECORD. 6 Respectfully Submitted, 7 Dated: February 4, 2025 HELM LAW OFFICE, PC 8 /s/ T. Kennedy Helm, IV 9 T. KENNEDY HELM, IV Attorney for Plaintiffs A.G. and F.G., by and through 10 Their guardian ad litem, Johana Yolanda Corral Galvan 11 Dated: February 4, 2025 LAW OFFICE OF KEVIN G.
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1 T. Kennedy Helm, IV (SBN 282319) Kevin G. Little (SBN 149818) HELM LAW OFFICE, PC Michelle L. Tostenrude (SBN 290121) 2 644 40th Street, Suite 305 LAW OFFICE OF KEVIN G. LITTLE Oakland, California 94609 Post Office Box 8656 3 Telephone: (510) 350-7517 Fresno, California 93747 Facsimile: (510) 350-7359 Telephone: (559) 342-5800 4 E-mail: kennedy@helmlawoffice.com Facsimile: (559) 242-2400 E-Mail: kevin@kevinglittle.com 5 Attorney for Plaintiffs A.G. and F.G., by and E-mail: michelletostenrude@yahoo.com through their guardian ad litem, Johana 6 Yolanda Corral Galvan Attorneys for Plaintiff Rosa Madrid
7 Gary L. Logan (SBN 90558) Lindsey M. Romano (SBN 337600) Alan J. Mish (SBN 105771 Kendra N. Stark (PRO HAC VICE) 8 LAW OFFICES OF GORDON REES SCULLY LEBEAU • THELEN, LLP MANSUKHANI, LLP 9 5001 East Commercenter Drive, Suite 300 275 Battery Street, Suite 2000 Post Office Box 12092 San Francisco, CA 94111 10 Bakersfield, California 93389-2092 Telephone: (415) 875-4126 Telephone:(661) 325-8962 Facsimile: (415) 986-8054 11 Facsimile: (661) 325-1127 E-mail: lromano@grsm.com E-mail: glogan@lebeauthelen.com E-mail: kstark@grsm.com 12 E-mail: amish@lebeauthelen.com Attorneys for Defendants Wellpath, LLC 13 Attorneys for Defendants County of Tulare, and Alla Liberstein, M.D. Jose Sanchez Perez, James Dillon, and Rodrigo 14 DeOchoa
15 Peter G. Bertling (SBN 121602) Jemma Allison Parker Saunders (SBN 227962) 16 BERTLING LAW GROUP 21 E. Canon Perdido Street, Suite 204B 17 Santa Barbara, California 93101 Telephone: (805) 879-7558 18 Facsimile: (805) 869-1597 E-mail: peter@bertlinglawgroup.com 19 E-mail: jemma@bertlinglawgroup.com
20 Attorneys for Defendant Andrew P. Ho, M.D.
21 UNITED STATES DISTRICT COURT
22 EASTERN DISTRICT OF CALIFORNIA
23 FRESNO DIVISION
24 A.G., a minor, by and through her guardian ad ) Case No. 1:23-cv-00500-JLT-SKO litem Johana Yolanda Corral Galvan, ) 25 individually and as co-successor in interest to ) STIPULATION AND ORDER ) 26 Decedent Francisco Ponce, Jr.; F.G., a minor, ) VACATING SCHEDULING ORDER by and through her guardian ad litem Johana ) 27 Yolanda Corral Galvan, individually and as ) (Doc. 66) ) 1 co-successor in interest to Decedent Francisco ) Ponce, Jr.; individually, ) 2 ) 3 Plaintiffs, ) ) vs. ) 4 ) COUNTY OF TULARE, a public entity; ) 5 Correctional Deputy Trainee JOSE ) ) 6 S JAA MNC ESH E DZ IL P LE OR NE ;Z C; oC ro rer cre tic oti no an l a Dl eD pe up tyu ty ) )
RODRIGO DEOCHOA; WELLPATH, LLC, ) 7 a Delaware Corporation; ANDREW P. HO, ) 8 MD; ALLA LIBERSTEIN, MD; and DOES ) ) 7–50, jointly and severally, ) 9 ) Defendants. ) 10 11 12 13 14 15 16 17 18 19 20 21 22 23 24 25 26 27 1 Plaintiffs A.G. and F.G., by and through their counsel, T. Kennedy Helm, IV, of Helm Law 2 Office, PC; Plaintiff Rosa Madrid, by and through her counsel, Kevin G. Little and Michelle L. 3 Tostenrude of the Law Office of Kevin G. Little; Defendants County of Tulare, Jose Sanchez 4 Perez, James Dillon, and Rodrigo DeOchoa, by and through their counsel, Gary L. Logan, of 5 Lebeau Thelen, LLP; Defendants Wellpath, LLC and Alla Liberstein, M.D., by and through their 6 counsel Lindsey M. Romano and Kendra N. Stark of Gordon Rees Scully Mansukhani, LLP; and 7 Defendant Andrew P. Ho, M.D., by and through his counsel Peter G. Bertling and Jemma Parker 8 Saunders of Bertling Law Group; hereby respectfully stipulate and request as follows: 9 A. When an act must be done within a specified time, the Court may, for good cause, extend 10 the time with or without motion if the court acts, or a request is made, before the original 11 time expires. Fed. R. Civ. P. 6(b)(1)(A). With respect to an order setting forth the Court’s 12 pretrial schedule, the “court may modify the pretrial schedule ‘if it cannot be reasonably 13 met despite the diligence of the party seeking the amendment.’” Johnson v. Mammoth 14 Recreations, Inc., 975 F.2d 604, 609 (9th Cir. 1992). The Parties respectfully submit that 15 good cause exists to vacate the deadline for completion of non-expert (fact) discovery and 16 successive deadlines. 17 B. Currently, the cutoff for non-expert (fact) discovery is February 5, 2025. ECF No. 57. 18 C. Since the last modification of the scheduling order on September 4, 2024 (ECF No. 57) the 19 Parties have made progress in discovery. On November 1, 2024, Plaintiffs A.G. and F.G 20 noticed the depositions of non-party witness Jonathan Gonzalez, EMT, for December 9, 21 2024; and of Defendants Jose Sanchez Perez and James Dillon, for December 11, 2024. 22 On November 4, 2024, Defendants Wellpath, LLC and Liberstein served responses and 23 5,070 pages of documents in response to Plaintiffs’ Requests for Production of Documents 24 and Things (Set One). On November 7, 2024, the County Defendants noticed the 25 deposition of the guardian ad litem of Plaintiffs A.G. and F.G., Johana Yolanda Corral 26 Galvan, for December 19, 2024. 27 1 D. However, on November 15, 2024, Defendant Wellpath, LLC filed a Suggestion of 2 Bankruptcy and Notice of Stay. ECF No. 58. 3 E. Plaintiffs and the County Defendants deposed non-party witness Jonathan Gonzalez, EMT, 4 on December 9, 2024. 5 F. Counsel for Plaintiffs A.G. and F.G. met and conferred with counsel for Defendant 6 Wellpath, LLC and counsel for the County Defendants, and the Parties determined that the 7 party depositions scheduled for December 11 and 19, 2024, should be postponed to avoid 8 having to bring these Parties back for further depositions, given that counsel for Wellpath 9 LLC could not participate in the depositions scheduled for December 2024 because of the 10 stay, and indicated that they would want to depose these Parties once the bankruptcy 11 proceeding ends and the stay is lifted. 12 G. Thus, the stay in Defendant Wellpath, LLC’s bankruptcy proceeding has prevented the 13 parties from conducting discovery with respect to Debtor Wellpath, LLC and Non-Debtor 14 Parties as well. The duration of the stay as to Defendant Wellpath, LLC, and of the 15 bankruptcy proceeding, is uncertain but could last until April 30, 2025. ECF No. 64-1, p. 16 4, ¶ 1. The Bankruptcy Court will hold a further hearing on February 18, 2025 to determine 17 the extent of the stay as to the non-Debtors. ECF No. 64-1, p. 4, ¶¶ 3–4. 18 H. Given the foregoing, counsel for all Plaintiffs; counsel for the Tulare County Defendants; 19 counsel for Defendants Wellpath, LLC and Liberstein; and counsel for Defendant Ho, do 20 not believe that fact discovery can be completed by the current deadline of February 5, 21 2025. Furthermore, counsel for the Parties wish to be able to exercise professional 22 courtesies by reasonably accommodating the schedules of the deponents and counsel as 23 much as is reasonably possible. Needing to set depositions on mutually available dates 24 becomes challenging given the number of counsel’s schedules and potential depositions 25 involved. 26 I. Therefore, the undersigned counsel respectfully request that the current case deadlines in 27 this matter be vacated, until the bankruptcy proceeding has concluded, and the parties have 1 an opportunity to meet and confer regarding a new case schedule that will not conflict with 2 the current stay. 3 J. The Parties further agree that they will provide the Court with a new proposed case 4 schedule within fifteen (15) days of the conclusion of the bankruptcy. 5 IT IS SO STIPULATED, THROUGH COUNSEL OF RECORD. 6 Respectfully Submitted, 7 Dated: February 4, 2025 HELM LAW OFFICE, PC 8 /s/ T. Kennedy Helm, IV 9 T. KENNEDY HELM, IV Attorney for Plaintiffs A.G. and F.G., by and through 10 Their guardian ad litem, Johana Yolanda Corral Galvan 11 Dated: February 4, 2025 LAW OFFICE OF KEVIN G. LITTLE 12 /s/ Kevin G. Little* 13 By: KEVIN G. LITTLE MICHELLE G. TOSTENRUDE 14 Attorneys for Plaintiff Rosa Madrid
15 Dated: February 4, 2025 LEBEAU THELEN LLP 16 /s/ Gary L. Logan* 17 By: GARY L. LOGAN Attorneys for Tulare County Defendants 18 Dated: February 4, 2025 GORDON REES SCULLY MANASUKHANI, LLP 19 /s/ Kendra N. Stark* 20 By: LINDSEY M. ROMANO KENDRA N. STARK 21 Attorneys for Defendants Wellpath, LLC and 22 Alla Liberstein, MD
23 Dated: February 4, 2025 BERTLING LAW GROUP 24 /s/ Peter G. Bertling* 25 By: PETER G. BERTLING JEMMA PARKER SAUNDERS 26 Attorneys for Defendant Andrew P. Ho, MD 27 1 *Pursuant to Local Rule 131(e), Messrs. Logan, Little, and Bertling; and Ms. Stark, each consented that this document be filed by CM/ECF. 2 3 ORDER 4 The Court finds that the Parties have shown good cause for the relief their Stipulation 5 requests. IT IS HEREBY ORDERED that the existing case deadlines outlined in the Scheduling 6 Order (Doc. 57) are VACATED in light of the Wellpath bankruptcy proceeding. 7 The parties SHALL provide the Court with a new proposed case schedule within fifteen 8 (15) days of the conclusion of the Wellpath bankruptcy proceeding. 9 IT IS SO ORDERED. 10
11 Dated: February 5, 2025 /s/ Sheila K. Oberto . UNITED STATES MAGISTRATE JUDGE 12
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