On April 26, 2019 a Party Statement was filed involving a dispute between A., A., A., D., Ahlheim, Kimberly, A., S., B., B., C., A., C., B., C., C., Christ, Alexandra, C., M., D., B., D., D., Doe, Jane, E., E., F., B., F., C., F., F., F., J., Flaherty, Daniel, F., S., G., F., G., G., G., K., H., D., H., G., H., H., H., T., I., I., J., A., J., I., J., J., J., Q., J., R., K., K., L., A., L., B., L., C., L., E., Levin, Rachel, L., H. A., L., I., L., K., L., L., L., T., Luo, Michelle, M., A., M., Amanda, M., K., M., L., M., M., M., N., M., R., Nail, Katharine, Nail, Robert, N., N., N., S., O., J., O., N., O., S., O., X., P., J., Plaintiffs, P., M., P., O., P., R., P., S., Q., P., Q., Q., R., E., Rivera, Sylvia, R., J., Rosenbaum, Amy, R., Q., R., R., S., B., S., Lucas, S., S., T., G., T., M., T., S., T., T., V., U., Wallace, Paul, Walsh, Kelly, W., K., Wong, Lawrence, Wong, Sharlene, W., Q., Y., N., Y., Y., Z., A., Z., Z., and Chart Inc., Chart, Inc., Chart Industries, Inc., A Corporation, Chenette, Philip, Conaghan, Joseph, Does 1-100, Inclusive, Does One Through One Hundred, Does One Through One Hundred, Inclusive, Extron Co., Extron Company, A Corporation, Givens, Carolyn, Herbert, Dr. Carl M., Li, Liyun, Pacific Fertility Center, Pacific Fertility Center, An Unincorporated Entity, Pacific Mso, Llc, Praxair Distribution, Inc., Praxair, Inc., Prelude Fertility, Inc., A Corporation, Ryan, Isabelle, San Francisco Fertility Centers D B A Pacific, Schriock, Eldon, for COORDINATION in the District Court of San Francisco County.
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1 Elizabeth J. Cabraser (State Bar No. 083151) Lexi J. Hazam (State Bar No. 224457) 2 Sarah R. London (State Bar No. 267083) Tiseme G. Zegeye (State Bar No. 319927) ELECTRONICALLY 3 LIEFF CABRASER HEIMANN & BERNSTEIN, LLP 275 Battery Street, 29th Floor FILED Superior Court of California, 4 San Francisco, CA 94111-3339 County of San Francisco Telephone: 415.956.1000 01/11/2023 5 Facsimile: 415.956.1008 Clerk of the Court BY: ANNIE PASCUAL 6 Plaintiffs’ Liaison Counsel Deputy Clerk [Additional Counsel Listed on Signature Page] 7 8 SUPERIOR COURT OF THE STATE OF CALIFORNIA 9 COUNTY OF SAN FRANCISCO 10 11 COORDINATION PROCEEDING Case No. CJC-19-005021 SPECIAL TITLE (RULE 3.550) 12 JOINT CASE MANAGEMENT PACIFIC FERTILITY CASES STATEMENT 13 Dept: 613 14 Judge: Hon. Andrew Y.S. Cheng 15 16 17 18 19 20 21 22 23 24 25 26 27 28 2733043.3 JOINT CASE MANAGEMENT STATEMENT 1 Pursuant to the Court’s July 22, 2022 Order, Plaintiffs in all Coordinated actions 2 (collectively, “Plaintiffs”), together with Defendants Chart, Inc. (“Chart”), and Praxair 3 Distribution, Inc. and Praxair, Inc. (collectively, “Praxair”) (collectively, “Defendants”), through 4 their respective counsel of record, submit this Joint Case Management Statement. 5 I. CASE UPDATE 6 A. Settlement and Dismissal of PFC and Clinic Defendants 7 As detailed in the July 20, 2022 Case Management Statement, Defendants Pacific MSO, 8 Prelude, Pacific Fertility Center, and the individual physicians reached a settlement agreement 9 with Claimants in late August 2021 (as defined in the Master Settlement Agreement). These 10 Settling Defendants filed a Motion for Approval of Good Faith Settlement (“Motion”) on August 11 27, 2021. The Court heard oral argument on September 23, 2021 and granted the Settling 12 Defendants’ Motion on November 11, 2021 (“Order”). Chart challenged the Order in a petition 13 for a writ of mandate. On January 19, 2022, the Court of Appeal, First Appellate District, denied 14 Chart’s petition and on April 13, 2022, the California Supreme Court denied Chart’s petition for 15 review. On January 21, 2022, Chart filed an appeal from the November 11, 2021 Order. The 16 Court of Appeal granted the settling parties’ motion to dismiss the appeal on the ground that a 17 good faith ruling could be challenged only by petitions for writ of mandate. The California 18 Supreme Court thereafter granted Chart’s Petition for Review, agreeing to decide whether a good 19 faith settlement ruling could also be challenged by appeal. The briefing on the merits is in 20 progress and Chart’s reply brief is due January 20, 2023. 21 On June 24, 2022, Judge Corley of the Northern District of California (Case No. 3:18-cv- 22 01586-JSC) granted Plaintiffs’ Administrative Motion to Establish Qualified Settlement Fund and 23 Appoint Administrator. The terms of the settlement were fulfilled in late July 2022. In August 24 and September 2022, Plaintiffs in all Coordinated actions filed Requests for Dismissal as to 25 Defendants Pacific MSO, Prelude, Pacific Fertility Center, and the individual physicians only. 26 B. Appeal Status and Stay of Proceedings 27 On July 18, 2019, the Court denied Prelude and Pacific MSO’s Motions to Compel 28 -2- 2733043.3 JOINT CASE MANAGEMENT STATEMENT 1 Arbitration1, and Chart and Praxair’s Joinders. Defendants Prelude, Pacific MSO, Chart and 2 Praxair appealed the July 18, 2019 Order to the California Court of Appeal, First Appellate 3 District, Division One (Case No. A158155). 4 Post-settlement, Defendants Prelude and Pacific MSO dismissed their appeal on August 5 29, 2022. On November 3, 2022, the California Court of Appeal, First Appellate District affirmed 6 this Court’s order denying arbitration as to the remaining defendants, Chart and Praxair. All 7 proceedings before this Court, including discovery, were stayed pursuant to Code of Civil 8 Procedure section 916. The Court of Appeal has not yet issued a remittitur. Plaintiffs request that 9 the stay be immediately lifted once the remittitur is issued. 10 C. ADR with Chart 11 Counsel for Plaintiffs in all Coordinated proceedings and plaintiffs in cases before Judge 12 Corley of the Northern District of California (Case No. 3:18-cv-01586-JSC), Chart, and Chart’s 13 insurers engaged in settlement conferences before United States District Court for the Northern 14 District of California Chief Magistrate Judge Spero on October 4, 2022, November 1, 2022, and 15 December 6, 2022. Another settlement conference is scheduled for January 17, 2023. The parties 16 will update the Court if an agreement is reached. 17 D. Trial Setting 18 Absent settlement with Defendant Chart, Plaintiffs propose that the parties confer and file 19 joint or competing trial plans by February 1, 2023 and that the Court schedule a further status 20 conference for the second quarter of 2023 at which it will set initial trial dates. As noted above, 21 Chart’s position is that the stay in this action is still in place because the Court of Appeal has not 22 yet issued the remittitur, and Chart requests that the stay in this action remain in place until after 23 remittitur is issued and until the settlement discussions between the parties have run their course. 24 II. ARBITRATION 25 Plaintiffs stipulated to arbitrate against Defendants Pacific Fertility Center and the 26 individual physicians. Post-settlement, Plaintiffs in all Coordinated proceedings dismissed their 27 1 28 Plaintiffs had stipulated to arbitrate against Defendants Pacific Fertility Center and the individual physicians. -3- 2733043.3 JOINT CASE MANAGEMENT STATEMENT 1 arbitrations in late 2022. 2 3 Dated: January 11, 2023 By: /s/ Sarah R. London 4 Sarah R. London 5 Elizabeth J. Cabraser (State Bar No. 083151) ecabraser@lchb.com 6 Lexi J. Hazam (State Bar No. 224457) 7 lhazam@lchb.com Sarah R. London (State Bar No. 267083) 8 slondon@lchb.com Tiseme G. Zegeye (State Bar No. 319927) 9 tzegeye@lchb.com 10 LIEFF CABRASER HEIMANN & BERNSTEIN, LLP 275 Battery Street, 29th Floor 11 San Francisco, CA 94111-3339 T: 415.956.1000 12 F: 415.956.1008 E: slondon@lchb.com 13 Plaintiffs’ Liaison Counsel 14 15 By: /s/ Doris Cheng Doris Cheng 16 17 Michael A. Kelly Doris Cheng 18 WALKUP MELODIA KELLY & SCHOENBERGER 650 California St, 26th Floor 19 San Francisco, CA 94108 T: 415.889.2919 20 F: 415.391.6965 21 E: mkelly@WalkupLawOffice.com E: dcheng@WalkupLawOffice.com 22 Plaintiffs’ Liaison Counsel 23 24 25 26 27 28 -4- 2733043.3 JOINT CASE MANAGEMENT STATEMENT 1 By: /s/ Nancy Hersh 2 Nancy Hersh 3 Nancy Hersh Kate Hersh-Boyle 4 HERSH & HERSH P.C. 5 601 Van Ness Avenue, Suite 2080 San Francisco, California 94102 6 T: 415.441.5544 F: 415.441.7586 7 E: nhersh@hershlaw.com E: khershboyle@hershlaw.com 8 9 By: /s/ Anne Marie Murphy Anne Marie Murphy 10 11 Anne Marie Murphy COTCHETT, PITRE & MCCARTHY, LLP 12 840 Malcolm Road, #200 Burlingame, CA 94010 13 T: 650.697.6000 14 F: 650.697.0577 E: amurphy@cpmlegal.com 15 16 17 18 19 20 21 22 23 24 25 26 27 28 -5- 2733043.3 JOINT CASE MANAGEMENT STATEMENT 1 By: /s/ John J. Duffy 2 John J. Duffy (SB No. 6224834) 3 Kevin M. Ringel (SB No. 6308106) SWANSON, MARTIN & BELL, LLP 4 330 N Wabash, Suite 3300 5 Chicago, Illinois 60611 T: 312.321.9100 6 F: 312.321.0990 E: jduffy@smbtrials.com 7 E: kringel@smbtrials.com 8 Marc G. Cowden (SB No. 169391) 9 Adam Stoddard (SB No. 272691) SHEUERMAN, MARTINI, TABARI, ZENERE & 10 GARVIN 1033 Willow Street 11 San Jose, California 95125 12 T: 408.288.9700 F: 408.295.9900 13 E: mcowden@smtlaw.com E: astoddard@smtlaw.com 14 15 Counsel for Defendant Chart 16 By: /s/ Michael J. Kanute 17 Michael J. Kanute 18 Tarifa Laddon FAEGRE DRINKER BIDDLE & REATH LLP 19 1800 Century Park East, Suite 1500 Los Angeles, California 90067 20 T: 310.203.4000 F: 310.203.1285 21 E: mike.kanute@faegredrinker.com 22 E: tarifa.laddon@faegredrinker.com 23 Attorneys for Defendants Praxair Distribution, Inc., and Praxair, Inc. 24 25 26 27 28 -6- 2733043.3 JOINT CASE MANAGEMENT STATEMENT 1 CERTIFICATE OF ELECTRONIC SERVICE 2 On January 11, 2023, I, TISEME G. ZEGEYE, electronically served the Joint Case 3 Management Statement, via File&ServeXpress, on the recipients designated on the Transaction 4 Receipt located on the File&ServeXpress website. 5 Dated: January 11, 2023 By: /s/ Tiseme G. Zegeye 6 TISEME G. ZEGEYE 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 15 16 17 18 19 20 21 22 23 24 25 26 27 28 -7- 2733043.3 JOINT CASE MANAGEMENT STATEMENT