Wang v. Ehang Holdings Limited

• Court: District Court, N.D. California
• Decided: February 14, 2022
• Docket: 5:20-cv-00569
• Status: Unknown

Opinion

1 2 3 4 UNITED STATES DISTRICT COURT 5 NORTHERN DISTRICT OF CALIFORNIA 6 SAN JOSE DIVISION 7 8 GARY WANG, Case No. 20-cv-00569-BLF

9 Plaintiff, ORDER DENYING DEFENDANTS’ 10 v. ADMINISTRATIVE MOTION TO CONTINUE TRIAL 11 EHANG HOLDINGS LIMITED, et al., [Re: ECF 97] 12 Defendants.

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15 16 The Court has reviewed Defendants’ administrative motion to continue the trial (ECF 97) 17 and Plaintiff’s opposition thereto (ECF 98). The motion is DENIED for the reasons discussed 18 below. 19 A scheduling order “may be modified only for good cause and with the judge’s consent.” 20 Fed. R. Civ. P. 16(b)(4). “The district court is given broad discretion in supervising the pretrial 21 phase of litigation, and its decisions regarding the preclusive effect of a pretrial order . . . will not 22 be disturbed unless they evidence a clear abuse of discretion.” Zivkovic v. S. California Edison 23 Co., 302 F.3d 1080, 1087 (9th Cir. 2002) (internal quotation marks and citation omitted). “Rule 24 16(b)’s ‘good cause’ standard primarily considers the diligence of the party seeking amendment.” 25 Johnson v. Mammoth Recreations, Inc., 975 F.2d 604, 609 (9th Cir. 1992). “The district court 26 may modify the pretrial schedule if it cannot reasonably be met despite the diligence of the party 27 seeking the extension.” Id. (internal quotation marks and citation omitted). “Although the 1 reasons to deny a motion, the focus of the inquiry is upon the moving party’s reasons for seeking 2 modification.” Id. 3 Applying this standard, the Court finds that Defendants have not shown good cause for the 4 requested trial continuance. This is the second trial continuance sought by Defendants. In July 5 2021, the Court granted Defendant’s first motion to continue the trial based on COVID-19 related 6 restrictions on travel from China to the United States. See Order Granting Defendants’ Mot. to 7 Cont. Trial, ECF 76. Defendants acknowledge that the travel ban has been lifted by the United 8 States government, but they assert that they “had to stop” their visa applications due to the 9 Omicron variant of the COVID-19 virus. Defendants have not submitted evidence establishing 10 that they were not able to pursue their visa applications due to Omicron. The declaration of 11 Xiping Wang, identified only as “an employee of Defendant EHang Holdings Limited,” does not 12 establish a foundation for personal knowledge as to the visa applications of the individual 13 Defendants. See Xiping Wang Decl., ECF 97-1. The individual Defendants have not submitted 14 declarations in support of the motion. The Court cannot find, based on this record, that 15 Defendants have been diligent in pursuing visa applications to allow them to testify at trial. 16 Moreover, any continuance in the trial date would result in a delay of more than two years. 17 Defendants request a continuance of 90-120 days. However, the Court has no trial availability 18 during the requested time frame. The Court’s trial calendar has been significantly impacted by the 19 COVID-19 virus, as numerous trials that were vacated while in-person proceedings were 20 suspended have had to be rescheduled. The Court currently is setting trials in late 2024. A 21 continuance of that length would unfairly prejudice Plaintiff, who filed this suit in 2020 to recover 22 alleged unpaid compensation. 23 Any witness unable to travel to the courthouse may request permission to testify at the trial 24 via Zoom. The Court notes that Defendants’ counsel, Youjun Liu, has filed a declaration 25 suggesting that testifying via Zoom would not be feasible because of technical difficulties. See 26 Liu Decl., ECF 97-2. However, the Court has held numerous proceedings in which attorneys and 27 witnesses appeared via Zoom without difficulty. Counsel and Defendants have ample time to 1 Defendants’ administrative motion to continue the trial date is DENIED. 2 IT IS SO ORDERED. 3 4 Dated: February 14, 2022 5 mn) ETH LABSON FREEMAN 6 United States District Judge 7 8 9 10 11 a 12

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