Source: s3://data.kl3m.ai/documents/govinfo/USCOURTS/USCOURTS-casd-3_19-cv-01351/USCOURTS-casd-3_19-cv-01351-2/pdf.json

Nature of Suit Code: 190
Nature of Suit: Other Contract Actions
Cause of Action: 28:1332oc Diversity-Other Contract

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UNITED STATES DISTRICT COURT 

SOUTHERN DISTRICT OF CALIFORNIA 

VISTAGE WORLDWIDE, INC., 

Plaintiff, 

v. 

VIRGINIA KNUDSEN, et al., 

Defendants. 

 Case No.: 19-cv-01351-W (JLB) 

ORDER GRANTING MOTION FOR 

PROTECTIVE ORDER 

[ECF No. 46] 

AND RELATED COUNTERCLAIM. 

Before the Court is a motion for protective order filed by defendant TGMV, LLC 

(“TGMV”). (ECF No. 46.) TGMV moves for a protective order under Federal Rules of 

Civil Procedure 26(c) and 45(d) quashing the Subpoena to Testify at a Deposition in a Civil 

Action (“Subpoena”) served on TGMV by plaintiff Vistage Worldwide, Inc. (“Plaintiff”) 

on January 23, 2020.1

 (See ECF Nos. 46 at 1; 48-1 at 2, ¶ 4; 49 at 2.) TGMV moves for 

                                               

1

 In addition to seeking a protective order under Rule 26, TGMV also moved to 

quash the Subpoena under Rule 45. (See ECF No. 46.) However, as TGMV later 

recognized, any motion to quash must be filed in “the court for the district where 

compliance is required,” which in this case is Nevada. See Fed. R. Civ. P. 45; ECF No. 49 

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this relief on the following grounds: (1) the Subpoena contravenes the Court’s 

January 7, 2020 Order granting in part and denying in part Defendants’ motion for a 

protective order regarding jurisdictional discovery (the “Protective Order”) (ECF No. 42); 

and (2) the Subpoena “imposes undue burden and expense and is annoying, oppressive and 

harassing, in that it requests voluminous production of documents with an unreasonable 

time to comply.” (See ECF No. 46 at 1–2.) For the reasons set forth below, the motion is 

GRANTED. 

I. BACKGROUND 

On July 19, 2019, Plaintiff commenced this action against Defendants. (ECF No. 

1.) On August 12, 2019, TGMV filed a motion to dismiss for lack of personal jurisdiction. 

(ECF No. 8.) That motion remains pending. Plaintiff sought to conduct limited 

jurisdictional discovery for purposes of responding to TGMV’s motion. (ECF Nos. 25 at 

4; 30 at 2.) In response, TGMV sought a protective order to prevent or limit Plaintiff’s 

jurisdictional discovery. (ECF No 25.) On January 7, 2020, the Court granted in part and 

denied in part TGMV’s motion and issued the Protective Order. (ECF No. 42.) By that 

Protective Order, the Court allowed Plaintiff to conduct limited jurisdictional discovery for 

purposes of responding to TGMV’s motion to dismiss for lack of personal jurisdiction. 

(Id.) 

Once the Court issued its Protective Order, Plaintiff set a Federal Rule of Civil 

Procedure 30(b)(6) deposition of TGMV for February 3, 2020 in Las Vegas, Nevada. (ECF 

No. 46 at 2.) Shortly thereafter, Plaintiff attempted to serve a Rule 45 subpoena 

commanding TGMV to appear at a deposition and produce documents in Las Vegas, 

                                               

at 2. Thus, this Court does not have jurisdiction to entertain a motion to quash under Rule 

45. See, e.g., BNSF Ry. Co. v. Alere, Inc., No. 18-cv-291-BEN-WVG, 2018 WL 2267144, 

at *10 (S.D. Cal. May 17, 2018) (finding that the court lacks jurisdiction to compel 

compliance with or modify a subpoena “[s]ince compliance with the subpoena would occur 

outside of this district”). 

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Nevada at the same place, date, and time as the Rule 30(b)(6) deposition. (See id. at 2–3.) 

The next day, Plaintiff properly served the Subpoena on TGMV and extended the 

deposition date and document production deadline to February 7, 2020. (See ECF No. 48-

1.)2

 While the scope of the Rule 30(b)(6) deposition on February 3, 2020 presumably 

complied with the limits of the Protective Order,3

 the Subpoena does not, as it is not even 

limited to jurisdictional discovery. (See ECF No. 48 at 2.) 

II. DISCUSSION 

Currently pending before the Honorable Thomas J. Whelan is TGMV’s motion to 

dismiss for lack of personal jurisdiction. (ECF No. 8.) A court “has broad discretion to 

stay discovery in a case while a dispositive motion is pending” through the issuance of a 

protective order. Orchid Biosci., Inc. v. St. Louis Univ., 198 F.R.D. 670, 672 (S.D. Cal. 

2001) (citing Data Disc, Inc. v. Sys. Tech. Assocs., Inc., 557 F.2d 1280 (9th Cir. 1977); 

Hachette Distribution, Inc. v. Hudson Cnty. News Co., Inc., 136 F.R.D. 356 (E.D.N.Y. 

1991)); see also Hologram USA, Inc. v. Pulse Evolution Corp., No. 2:14-cv-00772-GMN, 

2015 WL 1600768, at *1 (D. Nev. Apr. 8, 2015) (“a motion challenging personal 

jurisdiction strongly favors a stay, or at a minimum, limitations on discovery until the 

question of jurisdiction is resolved”) (citation and internal quotation marks omitted); Fed. 

R. Civ. P. 26(c)(1). Initially, and certainly at the time the parties briefed the earlier motion 

for protective order, Plaintiff had agreed that it was seeking only limited jurisdictional 

discovery. Although it was, accordingly, only implicit in the Protective Order, the Court 

now expressly states that it finds only jurisdictional discovery to be appropriate as to 

TGMV while TGMV’s motion to dismiss for lack of personal jurisdiction is pending. 

/// 

                                               

2

 Compliance with the Subpoena has since been held in abeyance by the parties 

until a ruling on the instant motion. 

3

 The Court has not been provided with a copy of the Rule 30(b)(6) deposition 

notice, but TGMV did not object to the scope of that notice. 

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Plaintiff argues that the Court’s earlier Protective Order does not preclude it from 

using a Rule 45 subpoena to obtain broad discovery from TGMV because, “[a]s TGMV 

contests jurisdiction in California, it is still subject to a subpoena in Nevada. . . . No basis 

exists to delay discovery simply because the [motion to dismiss] is pending. The Nevada 

Subpoena does not violate the [Protective] Order.” (ECF No. 48 at 4.) The Court disagrees. 

Based upon Plaintiff’s reasoning, courts would never have the power to limit a plaintiff to 

engaging only in jurisdictional discovery while a defendant challenges personal 

jurisdiction. Any such protective order could simply be circumvented by the issuance of a 

Rule 45 subpoena. This is inconsistent with the well-established authority that the Court 

has broad discretion to stay discovery while a dispositive motion is pending. See Orchid 

Biosci., Inc., 198 F.R.D. at 672–75; Hologram USA, Inc., 2015 WL 1600768, at *1. 

Nor is the Court persuaded by Plaintiff’s position that if TGMV “loses the [motion 

to dismiss] it must still respond. If it wins the [motion to dismiss], it must still respond.” 

(ECF No. 48 at 4.) That is at best an oversimplification. If TGMV loses its motion to 

dismiss, it will be a party and subject to full discovery under Rule 26. If it prevails, and 

Plaintiff then issues a Rule 45 subpoena to it as a non-party, the Court’s analysis of thennon-party TGMV’s claim that the Subpoena is unduly burdensome, expensive, annoying, 

oppressive, and harassing may differ. See Intermarine, LLC v. Spliethoff 

Bevrachtingskantoor, B.V., 123 F. Supp. 3d 1215, 1218–19 (N.D. Cal. 2015) (“[T]he Ninth 

Circuit has long held that nonparties subject to discovery requests deserve extra protection 

from the courts.”) (quoting High Tech Med. Instrumentation, Inc. v. New Image Indus., 

Inc., 161 F.R.D. 86, 88 (N.D. Cal. 1995)); see also Dart Indus. Co. v. Westwood Chem. 

Co., 649 F.2d 646, 649 (9th Cir. 1980). 

/// 

/// 

/// 

/// 

/// 

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III. CONCLUSION4

For the reasons stated above, TGMV’s motion for protective order is GRANTED. 

Discovery beyond the scope of the Protective Order is stayed as to TGMV until its pending 

motion for lack of personal jurisdiction is decided. 

However, as Plaintiff noted in its opposition, under the current Scheduling Order, 

the time for Plaintiff to obtain discovery from TGMV is drawing short. (See ECF No. 48 

at 2.) Accordingly, the Court sua sponte modifies the Scheduling Order (ECF No. 24) as 

follows: 

1. All fact discovery shall be completed by all parties as to TGMV by 

June 8, 2020. 

2. The parties shall designate their respective experts in writing and comply with 

the disclosure provisions in Rule 26(a)(2)(A) and (B) of the Federal Rules of Civil 

Procedure by July 6, 2020. The parties shall exchange rebuttal experts and supplement 

their disclosure regarding contradictory or rebuttal evidence under Federal Rules of Civil 

Procedure 26(a)(2)(D) and 26(e) by August 10, 2020. 

3. All expert discovery shall be completed by all parties by August 24, 2020. 

4. All other pretrial motions must be filed by September 8, 2020. 

5. A Mandatory Settlement Conference shall be conducted on August 27, 2020

at 1:45 p.m. in the chambers of Magistrate Judge Jill L. Burkhardt, Edward J. Schwartz 

U.S. Courthouse, 221 West Broadway, Suite 5140, San Diego, California 92101. Counsel 

or any party representing himself or herself shall lodge confidential settlement briefs 

directly to chambers by August 17, 2020. 

/// 

                                               

4

 In its opposition, Plaintiff proffers that “[s]ua sponte, the Court should also 

deny the pending [motion to dismiss for lack of jurisdiction] as moot” as it contends the 

present motion is a “general appearance by TGMV before this Court.” (ECF No. 48 at 3.) 

However, such a request is not properly before this Court and any such arguments would 

need to be made to the District Judge. 

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6. Counsel shall comply with the pre-trial disclosure requirements of Fed. R. 

Civ. P. 26(a)(3) by December 21, 2020. 

7. Counsel shall meet and take the action required by Local Rule 16.1(f)(4) by 

December 28, 2020. 

8. By January 4, 2021, plaintiff’s counsel must provide opposing counsel with 

the proposed pretrial order for review and approval. 

9. The Proposed Final Pretrial Conference Order, including objections to any 

other parties’ Fed. R. Civ. P. 26(a)(3) Pretrial Disclosures shall be prepared, served and 

lodged with the assigned district judge by January 11, 2021. 

10. The parties shall separately submit informal letter briefs by 2:30 p.m. on 

January 20, 2021. 

11. The final Pretrial Conference is scheduled on the calendar of the Honorable 

Thomas J. Whelan on January 25, 2021 at 10:30 a.m. 

12. All requirements pertaining to these deadlines which are set forth in the 

Scheduling Order (ECF No. 24) remain in effect. 

IT IS SO ORDERED. 

Dated: March 13, 2020 

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