Guardant Health, Inc. v. Natera, Inc.

District Court, N.D. California·Decided October 25, 2024·No. 3:21-cv-04062·Unknown

Opinion

1 2 3 4 UNITED STATES DISTRICT COURT 5 NORTHERN DISTRICT OF CALIFORNIA 6 7 GUARDANT HEALTH, INC., Case No. 21-cv-04062-EMC

8 Plaintiff, FINAL PRETRIAL CONFERENCE 9 v. ORDER

10 NATERA, INC.,

11 Defendant.

12 13 I. TRIAL DATES AND LENGTH OF TRIAL 14 Jury Selection set for 11/5/2024, at 8:30 AM in San Francisco, Courtroom 05, 17th Floor 15 before Judge Edward M Chen. Screening on the basis of questionnaires of prospective jurors who 16 obviously cannot serve shall be held via virtual hearing on 11/4/2024 at 8:30 a.m. 17 Trial Dates and Hours are: 11/5 and 11/6 (8:30 AM-2:00 PM); 11/7 (8:30 AM-12:00 PM); 18 11/12 and 11/13 (8:30 AM-4:00 PM); 11/15, 11/18, 11/22 and 11/25 (8:30 AM-4:00 PM) in San 19 Francisco, Courtroom 05, 17th Floor before Judge Edward M Chen. 20 Estimated length of 6-7 court days. The Parties were limited to18 hours each to make 21 opening statement, present evidence (including the party’s time on direct and cross examinations), 22 and deliver closing arguments. Due to Natera’s excessive deposition designations and objections, 23 the Court deducted one hour from Natera’s time—thus, Natera is limited to 17 hours. The Court 24 expects final instructions and closings will also be complete on 11/22/2024. 25 II. TRIAL PROCEDURES 26 A. Evidence and Objections 27 The Court imposes the following trial procedures regarding evidence and objections. A 1 call, exhibits it intends to use, and/or demonstratives it intends to use. Saturdays and Sundays do 2 not count. Thus, e.g., for a Monday trial day that starts at 8:00 a.m., a party must give the 3 opposing party notice by 8:00 a.m. on Thursday. 4 If the opposing party has an objection, then it must notify the party by 6:00 p.m. the same 5 day of notice. 6 The parties shall meet and confer immediately to see if they can resolve objections to 7 exhibits and demonstratives. If they cannot, then they shall file with the Court a joint statement 8 twenty-four (24) hours in advance of the relevant trial day identifying their respective positions. 9 Parties are to follow the instructions/format in Docket No. 719 for any remaining objections to 10 exhibits. In short, the Court requires a full day to resolve any objections. 11 The Court emphasizes that a party that makes unreasonable objections may be subject to 12 sanction, including deductions from trial time. 13 B. Deposition testimony for Live Witnesses 14 At the pretrial conference, Natera stated they had a right to present adverse witnesses, who 15 served as corporate designees, through deposition testimony, even if the witness was appearing 16 live. The Court ordered briefing on the issue to determine if this was a right or within the Court’s 17 discretion. Dkt. No. 719. Parties filed their responses. Dkt. Nos. 720, 721. As both Parties note, 18 this issue is within the Court’s discretion to efficiently manage trial and trial procedures. See Dkt. 19 No. 721, Natera’s Brief (“Although Rule 32 allows Natera to present such testimony even if the 20 designated individual is live at trial, that rule is subject to this Court’s authority to manage trials, 21 e.g., ruling on FRE 403 and timing.”) Natera stated they want to use “short clips” of Guardant’s 22 witnesses Thereasa Rich, Kimberly Banks and Victoria Raymond. Guardant stated they did not 23 plan to use deposition testimony for live witnesses outside of impeachment purposes. 24 The Court will not allow deposition testimony for live witnesses who are adverse absent 25 stipulation, other than for the use of impeachment. The Court expects witnesses will be prepared 26 to testify on topics for which they were designated. 27 1 III. WITNESSES 2 A. Guardant’s Witness List (Docket No. 731) 3 Fact Witnesses 4 1. Helmy Eltoukhy 5 2. AmirAli Talasaz 6 3. Justin Odegaard 7 4. Kristin Price 8 5. Victoria Raymond 9 6. Ryan Corcoran (Live or by Deposition) 10 7. Aparna Parikh [Court ordered Dr. Parikh to appear live, Docket No. 683. Guardant 11 stated Dr. Parikh is available 11/18/24. See Dkt. No. 719, 731]. 12 8. Steve Chapman 13 9. Kevin Masukawa 14 15 Expert Witnesses 16 1. Daniel F. Heitjan 17 2. James Malackowski 18 3. Brian Sowers 19 20 May Call Witnesses 21 22 23 24 25 26 27 1 1. Thereasa Rich 2 2. Nitin Sood (By Deposition) 3 3. Shruti Sharma 4 4. Kimberly Banks 5 5. Mark McCoy 6 6. Alexey Aleshin 7 7. Solomon Moshkevich 8 8. Claus Lindbjerg Andersen (By deposition) 9 10 B. Natera’s Witness List (Docket No. 731) 11 Fact Witnesses 12 1. Alexey Aleshin 13 2. Steven Chapman 14 3. Helmy Eltoukhy 15 4. Solomon Moshkevich 16 5. Aparna Parikh 17 6. Matthew Rabinowitz 18 7. Kevin Masukawa 19 20 Expert Witnesses 21 8. Dr. Rebecca Betensky 22 9. Dr. Susan McDonald 23 10. Dr. Michael Metzker 24 11. Dr. Jeffery Stec 25 26 May Call Witnesses 27 1 1. Kimberly Banks 2 2. Ryan Corcoran 3 3. Craig Eagle 4 4. Mark McCoy 5 5. Justin Odegaard 6 6. Saul Perloff 7 7. Kristin Price 8 8. Victoria Raymond 9 9. Thereasa Rich 10 10. Nitin Sood 11 11. AmirAli Talasaz 12 12. Custodian of Records for The General Hospital Corporation d/b/a Massachusetts 13 General Hospital (“MGH”) (live): authenticity and admissibility of documents 14 produced by MGH in this case. 15 13. Custodian of Records for Clinical Cancer Research (“CCR”) (live): authenticity 16 and admissibility of documents produced by CCR in this case. 17 14. Custodian of Records for Guardant Health (live): authenticity of documents 18 produced by Guardant Health in this case. 19 20 IV. MOTION FOR LEAVE 21 Guardant filed a motion for leave to file an additional motion in limine regarding Natera’s 22 CEO Matthew Rabinowitz. Dkt. No. 712. As stated at the pretrial conference, leave is denied. 23 However, Natera is warned that they are not to exceed the scope of the previously permitted 24 testimony of the late-disclosed witness. 25 26 V. JURY INSTRUCTIONS 27 The Parties filed a joint list of disputed and stipulated jury instructions. Dkt. No. 506-3 1 sharing with the Parties its intended instructions. Dkt. No. 610. The Parties filed objections to this 2 narrowed list of instructions. Dkt. Nos. 626, 627. Following discussion at the pretrial conference, 3 the Court ordered the Parties to meet and confer and stipulate to a few of the disputed jury 4 instructions. Dkt. No. 719. The Parties filed stipulated instructions. Dkt. No. 722. 5 The final jury instructions are attached, comprising of: the stipulated instructions at Dkt. 6 No. 506-3 (Sealed), the unobjected to instructions from the Court’s proposed jury instructions at 7 Dkt. No. 610, and the Court’s ruling herein. 8 The Court rules below on the disputed instructions of Docket No. 610: 4, 35, 37, 38, 46, 9 47, 48, 49, 50. 10 Preliminary Instructions: 11

12 A. Instruction No. 4: Burden of Proof, Clear and Convincing Evidence 13 When a party has the burden of proving any claim or defense by clear and convincing evidence, it means that the party must present evidence that leaves you with a firm belief 14 or conviction that it is highly probable that the factual contentions of the claim or defense are true. This is a higher standard of proof than proof by a preponderance of the evidence, 15 but it does not require proof beyond a reasonable doubt.

16 Natera’s Objections: Natera renews previous objections that nothing in the case needs a 17 clear and convincing evidence instruction because Natera argues (again) punitive damages are improper. 18 Ruling: The Court previously addressed this argument in Docket No. 610. The instruction 19 is final as is.

21 Final Instructions:

22 B. Instruction No. 35 re False Advertising – Lanham Act - Element One Part 1 - False or Misleading Statement 23 The party asserting a Lanham Act claim must prove that one or more statement of fact was false or misleading.

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Guardant Health, Inc. v. Natera, Inc., (N.D. Cal. 2024).

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