United States District Court, N.D. California
Ochoa et al.
v.
McDonald's Corp et al.
Attorney(s) for Plaintiff(s): Matthew Murray/Barbara
Chisholm/Joseph Sellers
Attorney(s) for Defendant(s): Jonathan Bunge/Lawrence C.
DiNardo/Fred Alvarez
Hon.
James Donato Judge
PROCEEDINGS
Case
Management Conference - Held
RESULT
OF CONFERENCE
The
Court sets a jury trial for December 5, 2016, at 9:00 am. The
parties are directed to the Court’s Standing Order for
Civil Jury Trials, which governs the pretrial procedures
unless modified in these minutes. The parties are reminded
that the trial date will not be vacated unless they jointly
advise the Court that they have entered into a binding
settlement agreement, even if subject to Court approval for a
class. The trial date will not be vacated for settlements
“in principle” or similar reasons.
The
Court will stay the case if the Rule 23(f) petition for
interlocutory review is granted by the Ninth Circuit.
Defendants should not respond to plaintiffs’
conditional motion for an interlocutory appeal unless
directed to by the Court.
The
Court sets a pretrial conference for November 17, 2016, at
10:00 am. Jury instructions and all other pretrial issues
will be resolved at the conference. The parties should adhere
as closely as possible to the Ninth Circuit’s Manual of
Model Civil Jury Instructions and California model jury
instructions, and avoid proposing any custom instructions
unless absolutely necessary.
The
Court discusses anticipated expert testimony with the
parties. The parties state their intention to call a damages
expert each and possibly one additional expert each on the
uniform cleaning issue. In light of that, the Court sets this
schedule for Daubert motions and expert discovery:
-
Event
|
Deadline
|
Expert disclosures
|
September 16, 2016
|
Rebuttal expert disclosures
|
September 30, 2016
|
Expert discovery cut-off
|
October 14, 2016
|
Daubert motions
|
October 21, 2016
|
Daubert response briefs
|
October 31, 2016
|
Daubert reply briefs
|
November 7, 2016
|
Trial
days are from 9:00 am to 2:00 pm, Monday through Thursday.
There will be two fifteen-minute breaks per day, but no lunch
break. Each party will be allowed up to thirty minutes for
opening statement, twelve hours for a case-in-chief, and up
to one hour for closing argument. The Court understands that
translation time for Spanish language witnesses may require
some additional trial time but the parties should plan for
now on the twelve-hour case-in-chief allotment.
The
Court will empanel eleven jurors. The parties will each
present a five-minute “mini-opening” at the
outset of voir dire. The Court will conduct the voir dire
based on questions submitted by the parties and the
Court’s own standard background questions. Jury
selection will use the strike and replace method described by
the Court. If a potential juror is passed over for challenge
by either party, that juror is deemed seated and may not be
challenged later.
The
Court strongly encourages the parties to agree to participate
in our Cameras in Courts pilot program. Counsel for
plaintiffs consented at the conference. Defendants will
advise the Court of their position by August 10, 2016.
Trial
will not be bifurcated. For the PAGA claims, the Court sets a
briefing schedule to resolve defendants’ contention
that plaintiffs cannot proceed with a PAGA representative
action on claims for meal period and rest break violations.
Defendants’ deadline to file a Rule 12(f) motion is
August 12, 2016. Plaintiff’s response deadline is
August 26, 2016. Defendants’ reply ...