Raquedan v. Centerplate of Del. Inc.

376 F. Supp. 3d 1038
CourtDistrict Court, N.D. California
DecidedApril 3, 2019
DocketCase No. 17-CV-03828-LHK
StatusPublished
Cited by3 cases

This text of 376 F. Supp. 3d 1038 (Raquedan v. Centerplate of Del. Inc.) is published on Counsel Stack Legal Research, covering District Court, N.D. California primary law. Counsel Stack provides free access to over 12 million legal documents including statutes, case law, regulations, and constitutions.

Bluebook
Raquedan v. Centerplate of Del. Inc., 376 F. Supp. 3d 1038 (N.D. Cal. 2019).

Opinion

LUCY H. KOH, United States District Judge

Plaintiffs Monique Raquedan and Ronald Martinez ("Plaintiffs") bring this putative class action suit against Defendant Centerplate of Delaware, Inc. ("Defendant") for alleged wage and hour violations. A proposed intervenor, Renee Marquez, filed a motion to intervene, but then withdrew the motion only days before the April 4, 2019 hearing date. Marquez represents that her counsel and Plaintiffs' counsel "agreed to work together in this action and seek to add Marquez as a Plaintiff," and that Marquez's counsel "subsequently withdrew his motion to intervene." ECF No. 144.

Plaintiffs filed the instant lawsuit on May 24, 2017. ECF No. 1-1. Defendant removed this case to federal court on July 5, 2017. ECF No. 1. The parties have litigated a motion to dismiss, taken discovery, and filed a motion for and opposition to class certification. The parties reached a settlement on December 20, 2018. ECF No. 119. On January 30, 2019, the parties filed a motion for preliminary approval of class action settlement. ECF No. 126. At this late stage of the proceedings and after the parties have settled, it is simply not in the interests of the putative class to add more named plaintiffs and more counsel to the attorneys representing Plaintiffs in this case. Moreover, as the Court explains *1040below, Marquez's motion to intervene was plainly unmeritorious and primarily complained that Marquez's counsel was not allowed to participate in the mediation in this case. The Court will not permit Marquez and her counsel to insert themselves in this case through such an unmeritorious motion.

I. PROCEDURAL BACKGROUND

On May 24, 2017, Plaintiffs filed the instant action against Defendant in California Superior Court for the County of Santa Clara. ECF No. 1. On July 5, 2017, Defendant removed the case to federal court. Id.

On February 23, 2018, Defendant filed a motion to dismiss Plaintiffs' pleading. ECF No. 40. On March 9, 2018, Plaintiffs filed their opposition, ECF No. 43, and on March 16, 2018, Defendant filed their reply. ECF No. 48. On July 10, 2018, the Court denied Defendant's motion to dismiss Plaintiffs' SAC.

On October 17, 2018, the parties filed a stipulation for referral to private mediation. ECF No. 81. The parties stated that they had agreed to mediate the case with a private mediator on December 4, 2018. Id. On October 17, 2018, the Court granted the parties' stipulation, and referred the parties to private mediation. ECF No. 83.

On October 22, 2018, Plaintiffs filed a motion for class certification. ECF No. 89. On December 3, 2018, Defendant filed its opposition. ECF No. 108.

On November 27, 2018, in the middle of the parties' class certification briefing and over eighteen months after Plaintiffs filed their complaint against Defendant, Marquez filed the instant motion to intervene. ECF No. 106 ("Mot."). On June 19, 2018, Marquez had filed a putative class action lawsuit against Defendant in California Superior Court for the County of San Francisco, which Defendant has since removed to federal court. ECF No. 106-2, Ex. A; see Marquez v. Centerplate of Delaware, Inc. , 5:19-CV-00051-LHK.

On December 11, 2018, Plaintiffs filed an opposition to Marquez's motion to intervene. ECF No. 117 ("Pl. Opp."). On December 20, 2018, Defendant filed an opposition to Marquez's motion to intervene. ECF No. 121 ("Def. Opp.").

On December 20, 2018, Plaintiffs and Defendant informed the Court that they had reached a tentative class settlement. ECF No. 119. On January 30, 2019, Plaintiffs and Defendant filed a motion for preliminary approval of the parties' class action settlement. ECF No. 126. The Court scheduled the preliminary approval hearing for June 13, 2019. Id.

Then, on March 21, 2019, 85 days after Marquez's reply in support of her motion to intervene was due, Marquez filed her reply. ECF No. 140 ("Reply"). On March 26, 2019, Plaintiffs and Defendant objected to Marquez's Reply as untimely and asked the Court to strike the Reply. ECF No. 141.

On March 27, 2019, the Court vacated the April 4, 2019 hearing on Marquez's motion to intervene and informed the parties that the Court would resolve Marquez's motion on the parties' papers. ECF No. 142. On March 28, 2019, 92 days after Marquez filed her motion to intervene, Marquez withdrew her motion to intervene. ECF No. 143.

Then, on April 1, 2019, Marquez filed a motion to appear by telephone at an April 4, 2019 case management conference. ECF No. 144. However, no such case management conference was scheduled. A month earlier, on March 1, 2019, the Court had continued the March 6, 2019 case management conference to June 13, 2019, the day of the preliminary approval hearing. ECF

*1041No. 137. Therefore, the Court denied as moot Marquez's request to appear by telephone at the non-existent April 4, 2019 case management conference. ECF No. 145.

In the motion to appear by telephone, Marquez stated that her counsel and Plaintiffs' counsel "agreed to work together in this action and seek to add Marquez as a Plaintiff. Plaintiff subsequently withdrew his motion to intervene." ECF No. 144 at 2 (emphasis added). Marquez's motion to appear by telephone may indicate that her counsel's central concern is whether he is involved in the case, not whether Marquez or the proposed class she seeks to represent is adequately served.

II. DISCUSSION

Federal Rule of Civil Procedure 24(a)(2) requires that a court permit anyone to intervene who "claims an interest relating to the property or transaction that is the subject of the action, and is so situated that disposing of the action may as a practical matter impair or impede the movant's ability to protect its interest, unless existing parties adequately represent that interest." Alternatively, under Federal Rule of Civil Procedure 24(b), "[o]n timely motion, the court may permit anyone to intervene who ... has a claim or defense that shares with the main action a common question of law or fact." Fed. R. Civ. P. 24(b).

For the reasons stated below, because Marquez cannot show that her interests will be impaired absent intervention, Marquez may not intervene under Rule 24(a). Perry v. Proposition 8 Official Proponents , 587 F.3d 947, 950 (9th Cir. 2009) ("Failure to satisfy any one of the requirements is fatal to the application, and we need not reach the remaining elements if one of the elements is not satisfied.").

In her motion to intervene, Marquez claimed that she has an interest in the instant action because Marquez, in her own lawsuit, "seeks certification of a class that is entirely subsumed by the proposed California class in Raquedan. " Mot. at 6. Marquez argued that absent intervention, the Raquedan parties may "settle the class claims at issue in Marquez

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376 F. Supp. 3d 1038, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/raquedan-v-centerplate-of-del-inc-cand-2019.