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DENNIS J. HERRERA, State Bar #139669
City Attorney
MEREDITH B. OSBORN, State Bar #250467
Chief Trial Deputy
CHRISTOPHER B. WHITMAN, State Bar #223636
Deputy City Attorney
Fox Plaza
1390 Market Street, 6th Floor
San Francisco, CA 94102-5408
Telephone: (415) 554-4240
Facsimile: (415) 554-3837
Email: chris.whitman@sfcityatty.org
Attorneys for Defendant
CITY AND COUNTY OF SAN FRANCISCO
ELECTRONICALLY
FILED
Superior Court of California,
County of San Francisco
01/08/2020
Clerk of the Court
BY: VANESSA WU
Deputy Clerk
SUPERIOR COURT OF THE STATE OF CALIFORNIA.
COUNTY OF SAN FRANCISCO
UNLIMITED JURISDICTION
RAUL VAZQUEZ, Case No. CGC-18-567035 (Lead Case, Vazquez)
Plaintiff, Consolidated With:
Case No: CGC-18-572263 (Mims);
vs. Case No: CGC-19-572593 (Woods); and
Case No: CGC-18-570306 (Yamawaki)
CITY AND COUNTY OF SAN
FRANCISCO, SAN FRANCISCO DECLARATION OF CHRISTOPHER B.
MUNICIPAL TRANSIT, AND DOES 1 TO
10,
Defendants.
AND RELATED ACTIONS.
I, Christopher B. Whitman, declare as follows:
WHITMAN IN SUPPORT OF DEFENDANT
CITY AND COUNTY OF SAN FRANCISCO’S
STIPULATED EX PARTE APPLICATION TO
CONTINUE TRIAL
Hearing Date: January 10, 2020
Hearing Judge: Garrett L. Wong
Time: 11:00 a.m.
Place: Dept. 206
Date Action Filed: June 7, 2018
Trial Date: April 27, 2020
1. lam a Deputy City Attorney with the Office of the City Attorney for the City and
County of San Francisco. I am the attorney assigned to handle this action on behalf of Defendant City
and County of San Francisco (“the City”). I have personal knowledge of the contents of this
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Decl. ISO Ex Parte App. re: Trial Date; Case No. CGC-18-567035
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declaration, and if called upon to testify, I could and would testify competently to the contents of this
declaration.
2. The instant declaration is offered in support of the Stipulated Ex Parte Application by
the City to continue the April 27, 2020 trial date to October 19, 2020 in order to accommodate the
parties’ discovery needs and my FMLA-protected parental leave, which leave will take place between
approximately February 27, 2020 and July 31, 2020 (see paragraph 6, infra, for additional
information).
3. On July 1, 2019, the Court issued an order consolidating the following four actions that
arise from the same motor vehicle accident that occurred on December 6, 2017 in San Francisco: Raul
Vazquez v. City and County of San Francisco, et al., San Francisco Superior Court Case No. CGC-18-
567035; Cathy Yamawaki v. City and County of San Francisco, et al., San Francisco Superior Court
Case No. CGC-18-570306; Anna Mims v. City and County of San Francisco, et al., San Francisco
Superior Court, Case No. CGC-18-572263; and Renita Woods v. City and County of San Francisco,
San Francisco Superior Court, Case No. CGC-19-572593.
4. On August 14, 2019, the Court set the consolidated cases for trial starting on April 27,
2020.
5. The parties to all of the above-referenced, consolidated cases, by and through their
respective counsel, stipulate to continue the April 27, 2020 trial date to October 19, 2020. (See
Stipulation, filed concurrently herewith.) This is the parties’ first request to continue the trial date.
The parties agree that all expert discovery, fact discovery, and dispositive motion deadlines will track
the new trial date. (See Stipulation, filed concurrently herewith.)
6. Good cause exists for this continuance for the following reasons:
* Counsel for the parties to these four, consolidated cases have worked diligently and
cooperatively to complete discovery in a timely manner.
* However, given the large number of parties and witnesses involved in these four cases,
additional time will be needed to complete fact and expert discovery so that the parties can prepare
their cases for trial. With the current trial date of April 27, 2020, it would be a hardship for all of the
Mt
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parties to simultaneously complete fact discovery, conduct expert discovery, and prepare for and
participate in trial.
«Tam counsel of record and lead trial attorney for the City in each of the above-referenced
cases. I am planning on taking FMLA-protected parental leave starting in late February 2020, which
will extend well past the scheduled trial date for these cases, and the leave is currently schedule to end
on July 31, 2020. Thus, continuing the trial date for these cases for approximately six months is a
reasonable manner of accommodating both the parties’ discovery needs and my planned parental
leave.
* No prejudice will result to any of the parties if the Court grants the requested continuance of
the trial date.
7. I timely advised the parties in this case that I would make this ex parte application by
providing more than 25 hours’ notice. I emailed all counsel (i.e., Jacqueline K. Oh, Esq. (Vazquez),
Anna Dubrovsky, Esq. (Mims), Ian Zimmerman, Esq. (Woods), and Joseph Bravo, Esq. (Yamawaki)
on January 8, 2020 at approximately 11:30 a.m. to provide notice of this court appearance.
I declare under penalty of perjury under the laws of the State of California that the foregoing is
true and correct and that this declaration was executed on Jam
8, 2020 in San Francisco, CA.
CHRISTOPHER B. WHI
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PROOF OF SERVICE
I, Elena Benitez, declare as follows:
I am a citizen of the United States, over the age of eighteen years and not a party to the above-
entitled action. I am employed at the City Attorney’s Office of San Francisco, Fox Plaza Building,
1390 Market Street, Sixth Floor, San Francisco, CA 94102.
On January 8, 2020, I served the following document(s):
DECLARATION OF CHRISTOPHER B. WHITMAN IN SUPPORT OF DEFENDANT CITY
AND COUNTY OF SAN FRANCISCO’S STIPULATED EX PARTE APPLICATION TO
CONTINUE TRIAL
on the following persons at the locations specified:
Ashwin Ladva, Esq. Anna Dubrovsky, Esq.
Ladva Law Firm Anna Dubrovsky Law Group, Inc.
530 Jackson St., 2nd Fl. 750 Battery Street Suite 700
San Francisco, CA 94133 San Francisco, CA 94111
Tel: 415-296-8844 / Fax: 415-296-8844 Tel: 415-746-1477 / Fax: 415-746-1478
E-Mail: ladvalaw@gmail.com E-Mail: anna@dubrovskylawyers.com
Attorneys for Plaintiff Raul Vazquez Attorneys for Plaintiff Anna Mims
(Lead Case) Anna Mims v. CCSF (Case No: CGC-18-572263)
Tan Zimmerman Joseph K. Bravo
Law Offices of Ian Zimmerman Bravo Law Offices
3030 Bridgeway, Ste. 435 1315 Seventh Ave.
Sausalito, CA 94965 San Francisco, CA 94122
Tel.: 415-887-9493 / Fax: 415-887-9384 Tel: 415-512-6700 / Fax: 415-512-6716
E-Mail: info@goodcases.com E-Mail: joebravo@bravolaw.com
Attorneys for Plaintiff Renita Woods Attorneys for Cathy Yamawaki
Renita Woods vs. CCSF (Case No: CGC-19- Cathy Yamawaki vs. CCSF (Case No: CGC-18-
572593) 570306
in the manner indicated below:
Xl BY ELECTRONIC MAIL: Based on a court order or an agreement of the parties to accept electronic
service, I caused the documents to be served electronically through File & ServeXpress in portable document
format ("PDF") Adobe Acrobat.
I declare under penalty of perjury pursuant to the laws of the State of California that the
foregoing is true and correct.
Executed January 8, 2020, at San Francisco, California.
ne eyes
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