Source: s3://data.kl3m.ai/documents/govinfo/USCOURTS/USCOURTS-cand-3_11-cv-05200/USCOURTS-cand-3_11-cv-05200-17/pdf.json

Nature of Suit Code: 791
Nature of Suit: Employee Retirement Income Security Act (ERISA)
Cause of Action: 29:1001 E.R.I.S.A.: Employee Retirement

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United States District Court

Northern District of California

UNITED STATES DISTRICT COURT

NORTHERN DISTRICT OF CALIFORNIA

RESILIENT FLOOR COVERING 

PENSION TRUST FUND BOARD OF 

TRUSTEES, et al.,

Plaintiffs,

v.

MICHAEL'S FLOOR COVERING, INC., et 

al.,

Defendants.

Case No. 11-cv-05200-JSC 

PRETRIAL ORDER

Following the Case Management Conference held on March 3, 2016, IT IS ORDERED 

THAT:

I. CASE MANAGEMENT SCHEDULE 

Deadline for Filing Dispositive Motions: May 12, 2016

Hearing Date for Dispositive Motions: June 16, 2016 at 9:00 a.m.

II. TRIAL DATE

A. A bench trial shall begin on November 28, 2016, at 8:30 a.m., in Courtroom F, 

15th Floor, U.S. District Court, 450 Golden Gate Avenue, San Francisco, California. 

B. The length of the trial will not exceed three days.

III. PRETRIAL CONFERENCE

A Final Pretrial Conference shall be held on November 3, 2016, at 2:00 p.m., in 

Courtroom F, 15th Floor, Federal Building, 450 Golden Gate Avenue, San Francisco. Lead trial 

counsel shall attend the Conference.

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IV. TRIAL PROCEDURES

A. Counsel shall not prepare a Joint Pretrial Conference Statement. Instead, twenty 

(20) calendar days in advance of the Final Pretrial Conference, please do the following:

1. In lieu of preparing a Joint Pretrial Conference Statement, the parties shall meet 

and confer telephonically or in person to prepare and file a jointly signed, 

Proposed Final Pretrial Order that contains: (a) a brief description of the 

substance of claims and defenses which remain to be decided; (b) a statement of 

all relief sought; (c) all stipulated facts; (d) a list of all factual issues that remain 

to be tried and organized by counts; (e) a joint exhibit list in numerical order, 

including a brief description of the exhibit and Bates numbers, a blank column 

for when it will be offered into evidence, a blank column for when it may be 

received into evidence, and a blank column for any limitations on its use; and 

(f) each party’s separate witness list for its case-in-chief witnesses (including 

those appearing by deposition) providing, for all such witnesses other than an 

individual plaintiff and an individual defendant, a short statement of the 

substance of his/her testimony and, separately, what, if any, non-cumulative 

testimony the witness will offer. If non-cumulative testimony is not spelled 

out, the Court will presume the witness is cumulative. For each witness, state 

an hour/minute time estimate for the direct examination (only). Items (e) and 

(f) should be appendices to the proposed order. The objective is to convert the 

proposed order to a final order with the benefit of any discussion at the Final 

Pretrial Conference.

2. File each side’s proposed Findings of Fact and Conclusions of Law; 

3. File each side’s Trial Brief;

4. Serve Motions in Limine. At least twenty (20) calendar days before the 

conference, the responding party shall serve the opposition. There will be no 

reply. When the oppositions are received, the moving party should collate the 

motion and the opposition together, back to back, and then file the paired sets at 

least twenty (20) calendar days before the conference. Each motion should be 

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presented in a separate memo and properly identified, for example, “Plaintiff’s 

Motion in Limine No. 1 to Exclude . . . .” Please limit Motions in Limine to 

circumstances that really need a ruling in advance and each party may file no 

more than five motions in limine. Each motion should address a single, 

separate topic, and contain no more than seven pages of briefing per side. 

Leave of Court will be required for more or longer motions. 

B. Not less than ten (10) days before the Pretrial Conference, counsel and/or the 

parties shall file and serve any objections to exhibits.

C. Exhibits and witnesses not included in the proposed Joint Pretrial Order pursuant to 

Paragraph IV.A.1. above may not be used in a party’s case-in-chief and may not be used during 

cross examination of the other side’s case- in-chief (other than for impeachment). Defense 

witnesses are considered case-in-chief witnesses, not “rebuttal” witnesses. Objections to exhibits 

not raised pursuant to Paragraph IV.A.2 are waived.

D. Two (2) Chambers’ copies of all of the aforementioned documents shall be handdelivered to Chambers at the time of filing. The Joint Proposed Final Pretrial Order and Proposed 

Findings of Fact and Conclusions of Law shall be submitted via e-mail as attachments, in 

MSWord format, to JSCPO@cand.uscourts.gov. Hard copies must be provided as well. All hardcopy submissions should be three-hole punched.

E. At the Final Pretrial Conference, the above submissions shall be considered and, as 

needed, argued.

PRETRIAL ARRANGEMENTS

F. Should a daily transcript and/or real-time reporting be desired, the parties shall 

make arrangements with Debra Campbell, Supervisor of the Court Reporting Services, at (415) 

522-2079, or Debra_Campbell@cand.uscourts.gov, at least fourteen (14) calendar days prior to 

the trial date.

G. During trial, counsel may wish to use overhead projectors, laser-disk/computer 

graphics, poster blow-ups, models, or specimens of devices. Equipment should be shared by all 

counsel to the maximum extent possible. The Court provides no equipment other than an easel. 

The United States Marshal requires a court order to allow equipment into the courthouse. For 

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electronic equipment, parties should be prepared to maintain the equipment or have a technician 

handy at all times. The parties shall tape extension cords to the carpet for safety. The parties may 

work with the deputy clerk, Ada Means (415-522-2015), on all courtroom-layout issues.

SCHEDULING

H. Trial will be conducted from 8:30 a.m. to 2:30 p.m. (or slightly longer to finish a 

witness) with one fifteen-minute break and one forty-five (45) minute lunch break, Monday 

through Friday, excluding holidays. 

OPENING STATEMENTS

I. If openings are permitted, each side will have a predetermined time limit for its 

opening statement (usually no more than 45 minutes per side). Counsel should meet and confer to 

exchange any visuals, graphics or exhibits to be used in the opening statements, allowing for time 

to work out objections and any reasonable revisions.

WITNESSES

J. At the close of each trial day, all counsel shall exchange a list of witnesses for the 

next two full court days and the exhibits that will be used during direct examination (other than for 

impeachment of an adverse witness). Within 24 hours of such notice, all other counsel shall 

provide any objections to such exhibits and shall provide a list of all exhibits to be used with the 

same witness on cross-examination (other than for impeachment). The first notice shall be 

exchanged prior to the first day of trial. All such notice should be provided in writing.

K. The parties shall have all upcoming witnesses on the same day available in the 

courthouse and ready to testify. Failure to have the next witness ready or to be prepared to 

proceed with the evidence will usually be deemed to constitute resting. If counsel plans to read in 

a transcript of a deposition, counsel must have a deposition prepared and vetted early on to read 

into the record.

L. On the first day of trial, counsel shall bring the original and clean copies of any 

deposition(s) intended to be used during the course of the trial. Any corrections must be readily 

available. If counsel need to use the deposition during a witness examination, they shall provide 

the Court with a copy with any corrections at the outset of the examination.

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M. In lieu of direct testimony, the Court will consider receiving “prepared direct” 

testimony in the form of declarations. When the witness is presented, the proponent must verbally 

summarize the direct. Live cross-examination and redirect shall then occur. The parties may also 

agree to submit the entire testimony of a witness via written testimony.

EXHIBITS

N. Prior to the final pretrial conference, counsel must meet and confer in person to 

consider all exhibit numbers and objections and to eliminate duplicate exhibits and confusion over 

the precise exhibit.

O. Use numbers only, not letters, for exhibits, preferably the same numbers as were 

used in depositions. Blocks of numbers should be assigned to fit the need of the case (e.g., 

Plaintiff has 1 to 100, Defendant A has 101 to 200, Defendant B has 201 to 300, etc.). A single 

exhibit should be marked only once, just as it should have been marked only once in discovery 

pursuant to this Court’s discovery guidelines). If the plaintiff has marked an exhibit, then the 

defendant should not re-mark the exact document with another number. Different versions of the 

same document, e.g., a copy with additional handwriting, must be treated as different exhibits with 

different numbers. To avoid any party claiming “ownership” of an exhibit, all exhibits shall be 

marked and referred to as “Trial Exhibit No. _____,” not as “Plaintiff’s Exhibit” or “Defendant’s 

Exhibit.” If an exhibit number differs from that used in a deposition transcript, then the latter 

transcript must be conformed to the new trial number, if and when the deposition testimony is 

used (so as to avoid confusion over exhibit numbers). There should be no competing versions of 

the same exhibit number; any discrepancies must be brought to the Court’s attention promptly. 

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P. The exhibit tag shall be in the following form:

UNITED STATES DISTRICT COURT 

NORTHERN DISTRICT OF CALIFORNIA

TRIAL EXHIBIT 100

Case No. ________________

Date Entered _____________

By______________________

Deputy Clerk

Place the tag on or near the lower right-hand corner or, if a photograph, on the back. 

Counsel should fill in the tag but leave the last two spaces blank. The parties must jointly prepare 

a single set of all trial exhibits that will be the official record set to be used with the witnesses and 

on appeal. Each exhibit must be tagged, three-hole-punched, separated with a label divider 

identifying the exhibit number, and placed in 3-ring binders. Spine labels should indicate the 

numbers of the exhibits that are in the binders. Each set of exhibit binders should be marked as 

“Original”. Deposit the exhibits with the deputy clerk ten (10) days before the Pretrial 

Conference. 

Q. Counsel must consult with each other and with the deputy clerk at the end of each 

trial day and compare notes as to which exhibits are in evidence and any limitations thereon. If 

there are any differences, counsel should bring them promptly to the Court’s attention.

X. In addition to the official record exhibits, three (3), joint sets of bench binders 

containing a copy of the exhibits must be provided to the Court ten (10) days before the Pretrial 

Conference, and should be marked as “Chambers Copies”. Each exhibit must be separated with a 

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label divider identifying the exhibit number. (An exhibit tag is unnecessary for the bench set.) 

Spine labels should indicate the numbers of the exhibits in the binders. 

Y. Before the closing arguments, counsel must confer with the deputy clerk to make 

sure the exhibits in evidence are in good order. Counsel may, but are not required to, jointly 

provide a revised list of all exhibits actually in evidence (and no others) stating the exhibit number 

and a brief, non-argumentative description (e.g., letter from A. B. Case to D. E. Frank, dated 

August 17, 1999).

TIME LIMITS

Z. In certain cases, the Court will set fixed time limits at the final pretrial conference. 

All of your examination time (whether direct, cross, re-direct or re-cross) for all witnesses and side 

bar conference time must fit within your time limit and you may allocate it as you wish. Opening 

and closing time limits shall be considered separately.

IT IS SO ORDERED.

Dated: March 7, 2016

JACQUELINE SCOTT CORLEY

United States Magistrate Judge

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