Actian Corporation v. Radisys Corporation

Nature of the Order

The court adopted the parties’ case-management statement except where the order modified it. This is a case-management and pretrial order, not a decision on the merits of the claims or defenses.

Schedule

The order set a jury trial for August 14, 2023, at 8:30 a.m. in Courtroom 3 in Oakland, California, with a trial length of no more than five days. It set the final pretrial conference for July 20, 2023, and required dispositive motions to be heard by April 13, 2023. Only one summary-judgment motion per party may be filed without permission from the court.

The non-expert discovery cutoff was January 13, 2023. Opening expert reports were due January 17, 2023, and rebuttal reports were due February 27, 2023. Any motion or stipulation to amend the pleadings had to be filed no later than 90 days before the fact-discovery cutoff, with enough time remaining to conduct discovery on added claims or parties. Doe defendants not identified by that deadline would be dismissed. The parties were referred to private mediation, which was to be completed by October 12, 2022.

Motion and Discovery Procedures

The order states that all dispositive motions must be heard no later than 120 days before trial unless the court grants permission for another deadline. Separate statements of undisputed facts may not be filed in support of or opposition to summary-judgment motions, although the parties may file a truly joint statement if all parties agree that the facts are undisputed.

Evidentiary objections must be included within a brief or memorandum rather than filed separately. Each party filing or opposing a motion must also submit a proposed order describing the requested relief and briefly stating the requested rationale and supporting authority. Motions challenging the reliability of expert testimony under Daubert v. Merrill Dow Pharmaceuticals, Inc. could be noticed for the dispositive-motion hearing date or another available hearing date through the final pretrial conference. Motions in limine were limited to requests to exclude specific evidence on grounds sufficient to support an evidentiary objection.

Discovery motions were to be referred to a magistrate judge. Documents concerning discovery had to include “Discovery Matter” in the caption. Discovery disputes required a joint letter brief of no more than five pages, after which the court would determine whether further proceedings were necessary.

Final Pretrial Requirements

Before the final pretrial conference, the parties had to meet and confer and file a joint pretrial statement, trial briefs, motions in limine, deposition designations, witness lists, exhibit lists, and other specified materials. The joint pretrial statement had to identify the remaining claims and defenses, requested relief and damages, undisputed and disputed facts, proposed stipulations, disputed legal points, possible separate trials, and the status of settlement negotiations.

The order also required the parties to exchange premarked exhibits and submit exhibit sets to the Clerk’s Office. Parties generally could not call witnesses or offer exhibits in their main case if those witnesses or exhibits had not been disclosed in the required pretrial filings, absent court permission. For the jury trial, the parties had to submit proposed joint voir dire questions and jury instructions, along with a proposed verdict form.

Changing the Order

No provision of the order could be changed except by a written court order based on the court’s own motion or a party’s motion showing good cause. The parties could not change the pretrial schedule merely by stipulation. Requests to extend a deadline had to be made before that deadline expired.

Disposition

The court entered the case-management and pretrial schedule. The order did not grant or deny a merits motion and did not resolve the underlying claims.