Kekona Jr. v. City of San Diego

• Court: District Court, S.D. California
• Decided: March 1, 2024
• Docket: 3:22-cv-00745
• Status: Unknown

Opinion

1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 UNITED STATES DISTRICT COURT 9 SOUTHERN DISTRICT OF CALIFORNIA 10 11 MCKINLEY KEKONA JR., Case No.: 3:22-cv-00745-MMA-VET

12 Plaintiff, ORDER RESETTING MANDATORY 13 v. SETTLEMENT CONFERENCE 14 CITY OF SAN DIEGO, et al., 15 Defendants. 16 17 18 Due to a conflict on the Court’s calendar, the Mandatory Settlement Conference 19 (“MSC”) on April 15, 2024 is VACATED and RESET to April 30, 2024 at 9:30 a.m. 20 before Magistrate Judge Valerie E. Torres via Zoom video conference.1 21 a. The following are mandatory procedures to be followed in preparation 22 for the MSC. Absent express permission from this Court, counsel must timely comply 23 with the dates and deadlines herein. Questions regarding the MSC or the mandatory 24 guidelines set forth herein may be directed to Judge Torres’ Chambers at (619) 557-6384. 25

26 1 Counsel may request the MSC be converted to an in-person appearance through a 27 joint call or email to Judge Torres’ Chambers (efile_torres@casd.uscourts.gov). 28 Counsel must meet and confer prior to making such a request. 1 b. Full Settlement Authority Required. Pursuant to Local Rule 16.1.c.1, 2 all parties, party representatives, including claims adjusters for insured parties, and the 3 principal attorney(s) responsible for the litigation must participate in the MSC.2 This 4 appearance must be made with full and complete authority to negotiate and enter into a 5 binding settlement.3 Counsel for a government entity is excused from this requirement if 6 the government attorney who participates in the ENE (i) has primary responsibility for 7 handling the case, and (ii) may negotiate settlement offers that the attorney is willing to 8 recommend to the government official having ultimate settlement authority. 9 c. Confidential Settlement Brief. No later than seven (7) calendar days 10 before the MSC, each party must lodge a Confidential Settlement Brief by email to 11 efile_torres@casd.uscourts.gov. The Confidential Settlement Brief should not exceed ten 12 (10) pages, excluding exhibits, and must be formatted according to the requirements of 13 Local Rule 5.1(a). Parties attaching exhibits must attach only the relevant pages of multi- 14 page exhibits and must highlight the relevant portions. 15 d. Contents of Settlement Brief. All Confidential Settlement Briefs shall 16 include the content specified in the Court’s Chambers Rules, available at 17 https://www.casd.uscourts.gov/Judges/torres/docs/Civil%20Chambers%20Rules.pdf. 18 19 20 2 The attendance requirement includes parties that are indemnified by others. Any 21 deviation from this Order requires prior Court approval. 22 3 Full authority to settle means that the individuals at the MSC are authorized to fully explore settlement options and to agree at that time to any settlement terms acceptable 23 to the parties. Heileman Brewing Co., Inc. v. Joseph Oat Corp., 871 F.2d 648, 653 24 (7th Cir. 1989). Party participants need to have “unfettered discretion and authority” to change the settlement position of a party. Pitman v. Brinker Int’l, Inc., 216 F.R.D. 25 481, 485-486 (D. Ariz. 2003). One of the purposes of requiring a person with 26 complete settlement authority to attend the conference is that the person’s view of the case may be altered during the face-to-face conference. Id. at 486. Limited or sum 27 certain authority is not adequate. Nick v. Morgan’s Foods, Inc., 270 F.3d 590, 595- 28 597 (8th Cir. 2001). 1 e. Procedure for Zoom Videoconference. No less than two (2) business 2 ||days prior to the MSC, the Court will email counsel of record an invitation with the 3 ||Zoom meeting information. Participants can join the Zoom video conference by 4 ||following the ZoomGov Meeting hyperlink or using the meeting ID and password 5 || provided. Each participant should plan to join the Zoom video conference at least five (5) 6 || minutes before the start of the MSC. Counsel is responsible for ensuring their clients can 7 || participate in the MSC. All participants must display the same level of professionalism 8 attention during the MSC as if they were attending in person (e.g., not be driving 9 || while speaking to the Court, or otherwise distracted). 10 All other aspects of the Second Amended Scheduling Order (Doc. No. 27) remain 11 effect. 12 IT IS SO ORDERED. 13 Dated: March 1, 2024 Wreck — 15 Honorable Valerie E. Torres 16 United States Magistrate Judge 17 18 19 20 21 22 23 24 25 26 27 28