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IN THE UNITED STATES DISTRICT 

COURT FOR THE NORTHERN DISTRICT

OF TEXAS FORT WORTH DIVISION

ROBERT (BOB) ROSS,

Plaintiff/Counterclaim

Defendant,

v.

ASSOCIATION OF PROFESSIONAL 

FLIGHT ATTENDANTS, et al., 

Defendants/Counterclaim

Plaintiff.

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Civil Action No. 4:22-cv-343-Y 

Judge Terry R. Means

PLAINTIFF’S NOTICE OF OBJECTION TO NOTICE OF DEPOSITION OF 

ROBERT “BOB” ROSS AND MOTION TO EXTEND DEADLINES FOR 

DISCOVERY AND FILING OF DISPOSITIVE MOTIONS

TO THE UNITED STATES DISTRICT JUDGE:

COMES NOW, Plaintiff, Robert “Bob” Ross (hereinafter sometimes either 

"Ross" or "Plaintiff'), and asks the Court to extend time for the discovery period, 

dispositive motions so that the parties can seek discovery and schedule depositions 

after the union’s upcoming elections for National Officers, and in support thereof 

would respectfully state to the Court as follows:

Introduction

1. The Plaintiff is Robert “Bob” Ross, former National President of 

the Association of Professional Flight Attendants, and a member in 

good standing. The Defendants are the Association of Professional 

Flight Attendants ("APFA"), Julie Hedrick ("Hedrick"), and Erik 

Case 4:22-cv-00343-Y Document 120 Filed 09/19/23 Page 1 of 8 PageID 2441
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Harris (hereinafter all defendants collectively referred to as 

"Defendants").

2. Plaintiff filed his Original Complaint against Defendants on April 

20, 2022. [Doc. 1]. Defendants filed an Answer and Original 

Counterclaim against Plaintiff on May 16, 2022. [Doc. 8].

3. Plaintiff’s sought leave of Court to file his First Amended Complaint on 

November 9, 2022. [Doc. 55].

4. Defendants were granted leave to file an Answer and Counterclaim 

in response to Plaintiff’s First Amended Complaint on or about 

February 22, 2023. [Doc. 74).

5. On September 1, 2023, Defendants served very limited responsive 

documents to Plaintiff’s Subpoena served on Woods, Stephens, O’Neil, 

LLP. 

6. On September 5, 2023, Plaintiff filed its Motion to Compel Discovery. 

[Doc. 113].

7. The Court entered an order to meet and confer between the Parties relating 

to Plaintiff’s Motion to Compel on September 8, 2023. This order requires 

Plaintiff to file an Amended Motion to Compel on October 20, 2023 and 

Defendants to file a Response to Plaintiff’s Amended Motion to Compel on

November 13, 2023. [Doc. 116]. 

8. On September 13, 2023, Defendants conferenced about possible dates to 

conduct Depositions, however no resolution on the dates and manner of the 

Depositions were finalized. 

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9. On Friday, September 15, 2023, Defendants served their Notice of 

Deposition on Robert “Bob” Ross for an in-person deposition on October 

25, 2023 at Gillespie Sandford LLP, 4803 Gaston Avenue, Dallas, Texas 

75246. 

10. The deadline to conclude discovery is October 31, 2023. [Doc. 11].

11. The deadline for all parties to file dispositive motions is December 15,

2023. [Doc. 11].

Argument

12. Under Rule 6(b) the court may extend the time specified for a particular 

act that must be done for good cause upon request by a party before the 

deadline expires, or upon motion after the time has expired. (Fed. R. 

Civil. Proc. 6(b)).

13. During the course of discovery in this matter, Plaintiff uncovered facts 

that support additional claims for against two additional Defendants.

14. Josh Black, APFA National Secretary, and Larry Salas, APFA National 

Vice-President received a copy of the Confidential Memorandum 

delivered via email by APFA National Treasurer Erik Harris on 

October 22, 2020, which states that 

”Please note the Bob Ross confidential transition agreement states that he will be paid 

all of his accrued and unused sick, and accrued and unused vacation time. This 

agreement doesn't specify that the payments be made in accordance with the policy 

manual guidelines. Consequently, these payments appear appropriate and in 

compliance with the transition agreement.” 

15. On September 1, 2023, Plaintiff received 99 pages of heavily redacted 

discovery responses, which included an email communication between 

the National Officers, inside and outside counsel dated October 22, 

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2020 that transmitted the Confidential Memo from Woods, Stephens, 

and O’Neil, LLP. 

16. The production of this email during the discovery process brings rise to 

additional claims for which Plaintiff will wish to seek additional 

discovery. The evidence establishes that Josh Black, National 

Secretary, and Larry Salas, National Vice-President received notice that 

the debt claims were not valid and Ross was paid correctly. 

17. Furthermore, Plaintiff hereby objects to Defendants’ Notice of Intent to 

take an in-person Deposition of Robert “Bob” Ross on October 25, 

2023 as Plaintiff will be out of the country working for his employer, 

American Airlines, Inc. Due to the lack of any final decision about 

deposition dates and methods, he was unable to request adjustment in 

his schedule to accommodate Defendants’ request prior to the closing 

of his schedule requests—12:00pm on September 15, 2023. Plaintiff 

believes he will be in Incheon, South Korea on the date of the 

deposition. 

18. Plaintiff further objects to seeking this deposition while his Motion to 

Compel is pending before this Court, as Defendants failed to turn over 

a substantial amount of evidence to Plaintiff. Consequently, Plaintiff is

prejudice in conducting depositions and therefore depositions are not 

appropriate on any parties until such time as Defendants documents 

have been produced. 

19. Plaintiff further objects to Defendants' Deposition as Defendants 

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demand for this Deposition be taken in person, rather than virtually. 

Plaintiff lives in California, whereas the deposition is scheduled in 

Dallas, Texas. Additionally, Plaintiff’s counsel notified Defendant’s 

counsel that Plaintiff preferred to conduct depositions virtually due to 

his state of residence, as well as due to the undersigned counsel’s 

familial health concerns.1

 Defendant’s counsel refused to comply on 

this matter. Though this is a concern, Plaintiff will accommodate an inperson deposition if necessary, however if the purpose of a Deposition 

is to seek discoverable evidence from the parties, then a virtual 

attendance should not obstruct Defendant’s ability to seek such 

information. Whereas it seems that Defendants’ intend to utilize the 

deposition for purposes of abuse. The Union’s upcoming elections for 

National Officers will begin in November and continue until elections 

are held in January.2

 Plaintiff believes Defendants seek the deposition 

1 The undersigned counsel’s spouse suffers from Stage III Chronic Lymphocytic Leukemia/Small Cell Lymphoma –

an incurable form of blood cancer that makes the patient at high-risk of a severe response to Coronovirus. Due to 

the updated strains of the virus and recent release of the updated Coronovirus vaccinations as of September 14, 

2023, counsel’s immediate family were directed to reduce as much exposure to the public as possible until the end 

of 2023. 

2 As previously noted to the Court, APFA continues to pursue Nena Martin and Marcy Dunaway by ordering an 

additional audit of their expenses within the last two months. These audits are based on a union member’s request 

for the audits in October of 2022. The member who requested these audits is Melissa Chinery-Burns, the wife of 

AFA General Counsel, Joe Burns, from the competing union. APFA waited for almost a full year before conducting 

the audit of Nena Martin and Marcy Dunaway. APFA also waited out the discovery period before seeking to confer 

and ultimately demand depositions of Plaintiff, now noticed for the final week of the discovery period. Most 

notably, December is when new candidates, like Nena Martin, Robert “Bob” Ross, and Eugenio Vargas, will 

announce their intent to run for National Office next year. Elections are voted on throughout the month of January 

therefore, potential harm in stifling the free speech and the democratic election process within the union heavily 

outweighs the potential benefit of holding depositions within October of 2023. Rather extending the discovery 

period to accommodate the conflicts with discovery, and properly scheduling depositions after January seems the 

reasonable approach in the interest of preserving the integrity of the union’s electoral process. Depositions should 

be scheduled in the month of February to avoid any possible effect on the democratic procedures within the union. 

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in person and at this time for purposes of harming Plaintiff’s political 

faction’s reputation before elections occur. Meanwhile, Defendants fail 

to serve discovery responses and refuse to agree to any extension of the 

discovery period, after Plaintiff has produced all documents in its 

possession. Defendants seem intent on concealing all of their evidence 

and avoiding depositions, whilst forcing Plaintiff to be deposed after 

producing all documents in its possession, before Defendants even

begin to cooperate with discovery procedures in any way. Plaintiff 

therefore contends that Defendants’ conduct is abusive in that 

Defendants seek deposition testimony for purposes of affecting his 

political faction’s reputation and stifling the democratic election 

process for National Officers of the union. 

20. Finally, in addition to extending the discovery period, Plaintiff seeks 

extension of the dispositive motion deadline due to Defendant’s lack of 

production of vitally important documentation. 

Conclusion

21. Based on the above, Plaintiff seeks leave for this Court to extend 

the deadlines for the discovery period and dispositive motions, so 

that the parties have adequate time to conduct discovery and 

depositions, and so that depositions can be scheduled so as not 

interfere with the union’s election process. 

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Prayer

WHEREFORE, for these reasons, Plaintiff, Robert “Bob” Ross respectfully 

asks the Court to enter an order granting an extension of the discovery period, and the 

dispositive motions period, and sustaining Plaintiff’s objection to Defendants notice 

of deposition and forsuch other and further relief, at law or in equity, to which Plaintiff, 

Robert “Bob” Ross, may show itself to be justly entitled.

 Respectfully submitted,

 

 

By: /s/ Kerri Phillips s 

Kerri Phillips, Esq.

Texas Bar No. 24065906

Phone: (972) 327-5800 

Email: kerri@kdphillipslaw.com

KD PHILLIPS LAW FIRM, PLLC

6010 West Spring Creek Parkway

Plano, Texas 75024

Fax: (940) 400-0089 

For Service of Filings: 

notice@kdphillipslaw.com

 

ATTORNEY FOR PLAINTIFF

CERTIFICATE OF CONFERENCE

I hereby certify that, in accordance with Fed. R. Civ. P. 37(a)(2)(B) and Local Rule 

7.1(D), counsel for Defendants has in good faith conferred or attempted to confer with counsel 

for Defendants with regard to the foregoing Motion to Extend Time for Discovery and filing 

of Dispositive Motions without court action. Counsel for Diversified agrees with the filing of 

this Motion. However, Counsel for APFA, Hedrick, and Harris oppose the filing of this 

Motion. 

By: /s/ Kerri Phillips s 

Kerri Phillips, Esq.

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CERTIFICATE OF SERVICE

I certify that on this 19th day of September 2023, a true and correct copy of the foregoing 

document was served on the below listed counsel of record for Defendants by a means permitted 

by Rule 5(b)(2) of the Federal Rules of Civil Procedure (“F.R.C.P.”).

By: /s/ Kerri Phillips s 

Kerri Phillips, Esq.

Jeffrey Bartos

Guerrieri, Bartos, & Roma, P.C. 

1900 M Street, NW, Suite 700

Washington, DC 20036

Tel: (202) 624-7400; Fax: (202) 624-7420 

Email: jbartos@geclaw.com

Charlette Matts

In-House Counsel for APFA

1004 West Euless Blvd

Euless, TX 76040

Tel: (682) 301-8454 

Cmatts@apfa.org

James Sanford

4803 Gaston Avenue

Dallas, TX 75249-1020 

Tel: (214) 800-5111; Fax: (214) 838-

0001 

Email jim@gillespiesanford.com

Email: joe@gillespiesanford.com

Michael Rake

PO Box 1556 

Lake Dallas, TX 75065-1556 

Tel: (940) 498-2103 Fax: (940) 498-2103 

Email: mrake1@mrakeattorney.com

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