Opinion
3:18-cv-02280-DMS-AHG
10-14-2021
PRUCO LIFE INSURANCE COMPANY, Plaintiff, v. CALIFORNIA ENERGY DEVELOPMENT INC., et al., Defendants.
ORDER SETTING DISCOVERY CONFERENCE REGARDING DEPOSITIONS
Honorable Allison H. Goddard, United States Magistrate Judge.
This matter comes before the Court pursuant to an emailed request to chambers for Court intervention in a discovery dispute. The dispute concerns the scheduling of the depositions of 30(b)(6) witnesses for corporate parties Life Advance, LLC (“Life Advance”) and California Energy Development, Inc. (“CEDI”), individual parties Mickey Nicholson and Jason Voelker, and certain non-party principals of Life Advance and CEDI, including Daniel Miller and Craig Stack for Life Advance and Raul Rodriguez for CEDI.
The Court will hold a telephonic Discovery Conference on the dispute on October 18, 2021 at 2:30 p.m. before Magistrate Judge Allison H. Goddard. Counsel for Life Advance and CEDI and pro se parties Jason Voelker and Mickey Nicholson must call the chambers teleconference line at 1-877-873-8018 and use access code 8367902 to attend the conference.
During the conference, the Court will set firm dates for each outstanding deposition. If counsel and the witnesses want the Court to take their calendars into consideration when setting the dates, all parties should be prepared to discuss any dates they or the witnesses at issue are unavailable in the next two months, and the reasons for their unavailability.
Counsel for Life Advance has also advised the Court of three other non-party witnesses that Life Advance seeks to depose, including former counsel for Plaintiff Pruco Life Insurance Company Kelly Fair, who has sought to quash the subpoena for her deposition in the Northern District of California. The Court will address the issue of these other three depositions during the call, and will likely set dates for the depositions of the two non-party witnesses other than Ms. Fair. However, any order by the Court setting dates for depositions will bind only the parties to the case. The parties must still comply with Federal Rule of Civil Procedure 45 in deposing non-party witnesses, and any such non-party witnesses will not be subject to sanctions if they are not available on the dates chosen by the Court.
Following the conference, the Court will issue an order setting firm dates for all outstanding depositions. The failure of any witness or counsel to appear for deposition on the dates set by the Court will result in the Court issuing an Order to Show Cause why the Court should not impose sanctions pursuant to Federal Rules of Civil Procedure 37(b), 30(d)(2), or 30(g), to include a recommendation of contempt sanctions to the presiding District Judge.
IT IS SO ORDERED.