Opinion
Case No. C 08-04138 CW
11-09-2011
PETER E. PULIS, Surviving Trustee of the Peter E. Pulis and Grayce H. Yamamoto 1989 Trusts dated September 14, 1989, GREGORY COHN, JENNIFER COHN, GIUSEPPE FAZIO, BRUNA FAZIO, FRANCESCA I. FAZIO- O'KANE, MARA C. FAZIO, Plaintiffs, v. GOODYEAR TIRE & RUBBER COMPANY, AND DOES 1-30 inclusive, Defendant.
ROGERS JOSEPH O'DONNELL ROBERT C. GOODMAN Attorneys for Plaintiffs BAKER & HOSTETLER LLP SONJA A. INGLIN Attorneys for Defendant THE GOODYEAR TIRE & RUBBER COMPANY
JOHN F. CERMAK, JR., Bar No. 54729
SONJA A. INGLIN, Bar No. 90799
BAKER & HOSTETLER LLP
Attorneys for Defendant
THE GOODYEAR TIRE & RUBBER
COMPANY
STIPULATION FOR
CONTINUANCE OF CASE
MANAGEMENT CONFERENCE
AND ORDER THEREON
Date: November 15, 2011
Time: 2:00 p.m.
Ctrm: 2
This stipulation is entered into by Plaintiffs Gregory Cohn, Jennifer Corm, Giuseppe Fazio, Bruna Fazio, Francesca I. Fazio-O'Kane, Mara C. Fazio ("Plaintiffs") and Defendant The Goodyear Tire & Rubber Company ("Goodyear," and collectively with Plaintiffs, "the Parties"), by and through their attorneys of record. The Parties request a continuance of the Case Management Conference, now scheduled for November 15, 2011, to April 3, 2012 or a date thereafter that is available on the Court's calendar.
This case involves claims related to the environmental investigation and clean up of commercial property in San Carlos, California that Plaintiffs own and that Goodyear formerly leased ("the Property"). In its Case Management Scheduling Order for Reassigned Civil Case dated October 18, 2010 (Document 34), the Court ordered that a Management Conference be held on December 7, 2010. Due to the unavailability of Plaintiffs' counsel, the parties stipulated to a continuance of that conference (Document 36), and the Court continued the Case Management Conference to February 1, 2011, at 2:00 p.m. (Document 37). The Parties, by stipulation, have subsequently made several requests to continue the Case Management Conference, which were granted by the Court. The basis for the prior requests and the current request to further continue the Case Management Conference is as follows:
1. At a Case Management Conference on January 29, 2009, Judge Walker ordered the Parties to participate in mediation (Document 15), which they did (Document 21);
2. Following the initial mediation session, the Parties entered into an interim agreement providing, among other things, that Goodyear would undertake further investigative work at the Property and submit the report of its findings to the agency overseeing the investigation, San Mateo County Health System, Environmental Health ("County");
3. The Parties agreed to meet and confer within fifteen (15) days following the County's response to the report to discuss scheduling a further mediation session and/or to identify whether additional work was needed prior to having further productive settlement discussions;
4. The initial phase of work contemplated by the interim agreement was conducted in June, 2010 and a report regarding the work was submitted to the County in September, 2010, but the County did not respond until April 2011, when it issued a letter dated April 7, 2011 ("County Letter") directing that additional work be performed at the Property, including conducting four quarters of groundwater monitoring and the submission of an additional report by August 31, 2011;
5. The Parties, pursuant to the meet and confer process contemplated by the interim agreement, agreed to extend the interim agreement with respect to work required by the County Letter and contemplate engaging in further settlement efforts once certain of the work required by the County Letter has been performed;
6. In connection with the extension of the interim agreement, (a) Goodyear agreed to perform the groundwater monitoring required by the County Letter and to date has conducted two groundwater monitoring events (in June and September) and has submitted reports to the County regarding the results of those groundwater monitoring events; and (b) Goodyear's consultant made the August 31, 2011 submission required by the County Letter (a Site Conceptual Model);
7. The Parties contemplate that the August 31, 2011 submission, together with the results of the groundwater monitoring events, will be the basis for determining what additional work, if any, may be required at the Site and will define whether further settlement discussions are appropriate; and
8. The County has not yet responded to the August 31, 2011 submission and the Parties believe it would be in their best interests and in the
interest of judicial economy to defer the Case Management Conference pending further work at the Site and a response by the County.
For the reasons set forth above, the Parties request that the Court continue the Case Management Conference to April 2, 2012 or such date thereafter that is available on the Court's calendar.
ROGERS JOSEPH O'DONNELL
ROBERT C. GOODMAN
Attorneys for Plaintiffs
BAKER & HOSTETLER LLP
SONJA A. INGLIN
Attorneys for Defendant
THE GOODYEAR TIRE & RUBBER
COMPANY
ORDER
Based on the foregoing stipulation, the Case Management Conference set for November 15, 2011 is continued to April 4 , 2012, at 2:00 p.m.
________________________________
United States District Court Judge
See Documents 38 and 29 (continuance to April 26, 2011), Documents 40 and 41 (continuance to August 23, 2011), and Documents 42 and 43 (continuance to November 15, 2011).