International Metaphysical Ministry, Inc. v. Wisdom of the Heart Church
- Kandis Westmore
- 4:21-cv-08066
- U.S. District Court · Northern District of California
- 3
International Metaphysical Ministry v. Wisdom of the Heart Church: Judge Westmore ordered revised trial filings and voir-dire materials by specified deadlines.
International Metaphysical Ministry, Inc. and Wisdom of the Heart Church, whose counsel must prepare and file the specified pretrial materials, exhibits, evidence objections, and voir-dire questions.
What happened
In International Metaphysical Ministry, Inc. v. Wisdom of the Heart Church, the parties filed only an amended joint pretrial statement even though the court had ordered additional revised trial materials.
The court ordered revised jury instructions, exhibit lists, verdict forms, and proposed questions for jurors, along with revised exhibits, objections, electronic copies, and paper binders, by specified April deadlines. It also directed the parties to meet and confer about questions for the court’s electronic juror questionnaire and to submit additional questions for oral questioning by May 10, 2024.
Judge Kandis A. Westmore warned that a late request to add a breach-of-contract claim against UMS would likely face problems because of the delay and approaching May 20 trial, but this order did not decide such a motion. The court entered the pretrial filing and jury-question instructions.
The detailed version
- International Metaphysical Ministry, Inc. v. Wisdom of the Heart Church · No. 4:21-cv-08066
- Kandis Westmore
- Apr. 10, 2024
Background
The parties had been ordered to file a revised joint pretrial statement, jury instructions, verdict forms, and voir dire materials by April 9, 2024. The court had also previously directed them to provide revised exhibit lists and evidence objections consistent with an earlier order. The parties filed only an amended joint pretrial statement.
Required pretrial filings
The court ordered the parties to file revised jury instructions, exhibit lists, verdict forms, and proposed voir dire by April 15, 2024. Immediately after filing, they must email Word versions to the court’s chambers. The jury instructions and verdict forms must be submitted jointly and must explain the basis for any objection and the response to that objection.
The parties must lodge two sets of all filings in separate binders with the Oakland Clerk’s Office by April 17,
- Objections to evidence remain due April 19,
- The parties must also lodge two sets of revised, premarked, and tabbed exhibits by April
- The court directed them to remove exhibits that are no longer relevant and stated that neither party may add new exhibits unless the court previously ordered it.
Possible amendment of the complaint
The court addressed the plaintiff’s apparent intent to seek permission to amend the complaint to add a breach-of-contract claim against UMS related to a December 12, 2022 filing in a trademark cancellation proceeding. The court stated that granting such a request near trial would require the plaintiff to show diligence. It also stated that, given the passage of time, the plaintiff was unlikely to justify the delay based on a 2022 incident, and that the approaching May 20, 2024 trial provided a separate reason to deny leave to amend. The order did not state that a motion for leave to amend had been filed or rule on such a motion.
Voir dire
The court explained that the Northern District of California uses an electronic questionnaire containing standard juror questions and up to ten additional case-specific questions. The parties were ordered to meet and confer, submit up to ten case-specific questions for the electronic questionnaire, and identify the response format for each question. They must email Word versions immediately after filing.
The court stated that it did not intend to repeat during jury selection questions already asked in the electronic questionnaire, although it could follow up on particular answers. Counsel must separately file an agreed set of additional questions for the court to ask orally by May 10, 2024. Counsel will be allowed brief follow-up questioning after the court’s questioning.
Disposition
Judge Kandis A. Westmore issued an order governing the parties’ pretrial filings, exhibits, evidence objections, and jury-question procedures. This was a case-management order; it did not decide the underlying dispute or enter a ruling on the possible complaint amendment.
Read the full 3-page opinion on CourtListener, the free public archive maintained by the Free Law Project.