Ramachandran v. City of Los Altos

Opinion

1 2 3 4 UNITED STATES DISTRICT COURT 5 NORTHERN DISTRICT OF CALIFORNIA 6 SAN JOSE DIVISION 7 8 SATISH RAMACHANDRAN, Case No. 18-cv-01223-VKD Plaintiff, Case No. 23-cv-02928-SVK 9 v. 10 ORDER DETERMINING CASES ARE 11 CITY OF LOS ALTOS, et al., NOT RELATED Defendants. Re: Dkt. No. 348 12

13 14 On June 14, 2023, Judge van Keulen referred Case No. 23-cv-2928 for consideration of 15 whether it is related to Case No. 18-cv-1223. See Civil L. R. 3-12(c); Dkt. No. 347. The Court 16 has received responses from the defendants in Case No, 23-cv-2928, the City of Los Altos and its 17 employees (“City defendants”), and Pamela Jacobs. Dkt. Nos. 349; 350. It has not received a 18 response from Mr. Ramachandran. The City defendants argue that Case No. 23-cv-2928 should 19 be related to Case No. 18-cv-1223 because the two cases concern substantially the same parties 20 and events. Dkt. No. 349 at 4. Ms. Jacobs argues that Case No. 18-cv-1223 should be related to 21 Case No. 20-cv-03693, another case filed by Mr. Ramachandran and heard by Judge Freeman. 22 Dkt. No. 350. 23 While the allegations and defendants in all three of Mr. Ramachandran’s cases overlap, the 24 Court determines that Case No. 23-cv-2928 should not be related to Case No. 18-cv-1223, as 25 relating the cases will not avoid “an unduly burdensome duplication of labor and expense or 26 conflicting results if the cases are conducted before different Judges.” See Civil L. R. 3-12(a)(2). 27 Case No. 18-cv-1223 is currently stayed pending the conclusion of additional litigation in state 1 it will have a “potentially dispositive effect” on Case No. 18-cv-1223 once it is complete. Dkt. 2 || No. 345 at 2. If Case No. 18-cv-1223 is indeed nearing its end, then there is little reason to expect 3 that relating Case No. 23-cv-2928 to it would avoid duplication of labor or increase efficiency. 4 See Carlyle Fortran Tr. vy. NVIDIA Corp., No. C 05-00427 JW, 2008 WL 4717467, at *1 (N.D. 5 Cal. Oct. 24, 2008) (declining to relate in part where allegedly related cases were inactive or on 6 appeal); Rezner v. Bayerische Hypo-Und Vereinsbank AG, No. C 06-02064 JW, 2009 WL 7 3458704, at *1 (N.D. Cal. Oct. 23, 2009) (declining to relate in part where allegedly related cases 8 were stayed pending mediation or closed on appeal). 9 Accordingly, the Court determines that Case No. 23-cv-2928 and Case No. 18-cv-1223 are 10 || not related within the meaning of Civil Local Rule 3-12. 11 IT IS SO ORDERED. a 12 Dated: June 26, 2023

□ v 14 VIRGINIA K. DEMARCHI IS United States Magistrate Judge 16

= 17

Z 18 19 20 21 22 23 24 25 26 27 28