Opinion
Case No. 15 C 8287
12-02-2015
SANTIAGO ABREAU, Plaintiff, v. THE LODGE TAVERN, INC., d/b/a THE LODGE, Defendant.
MEMORANDUM ORDER
This is one of several cases brought by plaintiff Santiago Abreau ("Abreau") in this District Court (this case and two others -- Abreau v. Butch McGuire's, Inc., Case No. 15 C 8452 and Abreau v. Take-Out, Inc., d/b/a Mario's Table, Case No. 15 C 8456 -- have been assigned to this Court's calendar via random assignment). Because Abreau has targeted a different defendant in each of his cases and asserts individualized claimed violations of the Americans with Disabilities Act in the several cases, they do not qualify for reassignment on relatedness grounds under this District Court's LR 40.4. Nonetheless this Court and its colleagues have adopted approaches in similar situations in an effort to assist the litigants in minimizing duplicative activity in multiple cases, and the Abreau cases appear susceptible to such an arrangement.
Such cost-saving and time-saving measures include, for example, (1) discovery oversight being undertaken by a single District Judge and (2) the avoidance of multiple duplicative depositions of the same witnesses or potential witnesses.
Because this Court's colleague Honorable John Lee has the lowest-numbered Abreau case (Case No. 15 C 8284) assigned to his calendar via the same random assignment system, he has graciously undertaken the supervisory role as to discovery in this Court's three Abreau cases as well as his own. Accordingly all discovery matters in this action are ordered to be brought before Judge Lee in the first instance. Meanwhile, no change is made in this Court's February 2, 2016 status hearing scheduled in this action for reporting purposes.
To the extent that it may develop that some aspects of discovery appear to call for separate action by this Court in one of its cases, it is anticipated that Judge Lee and this Court will confer as to establishing appropriate procedures. --------
/s/_________
Milton I. Shadur
Senior United States District Judge Date: December 2, 2015