Case Information
UNITED STATES DISTRICT COURT FOR THE EASTERN DISTRICT OF CALIFORNIA MORGAN HILL CONCERNED No. 2:11-CV-03471-KJM-AC PARENTS ASSOCIATION, an
unincorporated association, and
CONCERNED PARENTS
ASSOCIATION, an unincorporated ORDER
association,
Plaintiffs,
v.
CALIFORNIA DEPARTMENT OF
EDUCATION, and DOES 1 through 5,
Defendant.
The California Department of Education (CDE) has filed in camera a request for reconsideration of the court’s order adopting the Special Master’s fees for services rendered between November 11, 2015 and December 22, 2015. Not. of Req., ECF No. 309; Am. Order, ECF No. 302. CDE seeks reconsideration on grounds that the court did not consider its objections, also filed in camera , to the Special Master’s invoice. CDE is correct that, due to the court’s prior lack of a good system for matching e-mailed objections to documents objected to, the court did not consider its in camera objections. See Am. Order at 1:23–25. In order to prevent such errors in the future, and to otherwise create a more streamlined and transparent process for review of the Special Master’s invoices for services, the court here sets forth a process that will apply to the pending and all future fee requests.
Effective immediately, before the court approves the Special Master’s fees, the parties and Special Master will engage in the following four-step process:
(1) The Special Master will submit to the court for filing under seal, and serve on the parties, preliminary invoices apportioning fees between the parties as required by the court’s previous order. To have filings placed immediately under seal by the clerk’s office, the Special Master (or parties) must e-mail the filings to approvedsealed@caed.uscourts.gov.
(2) The parties will have fourteen (14) days to submit to the court for filing under seal any objections to the draft invoices , using the process outlined above, with service on the Special Master.
(3) The Special Master will have thirty (30) days to submit to the court for filing under seal his final invoices and a written response to any party’s objections, using the process outlined above, with service on the parties. The Special Master may respond to any objections as he sees fit.
(4) The parties will have fourteen (14) days to submit to the court for filing under seal any objections to the updated invoices prior to the court’s review, using the process outlined above. The parties may only present the court with objections they have raised with the Special Master.
After the parties have completed this process in full, the matter of payment of the invoices will then be submitted to the court for review, and, as appropriate, issuance of an order for payment of the final invoices.
Given the lengthy and contentious history of this case, the court renews its cautionary admonishment that this new procedure “does not provide for attempting to impugn the Special Master through direct communication with him.” ECF No. 170 at 2. The parties are both reminded that “[a] special master is a ‘surrogate’ of the court and in that sense the service performed is an important public duty of high order in much the same way as is serving in the Judiciary.” Id. (citing Cordoza v. Pac. States Steel Corp. , 320 F.3d 989, 995 (9th Cir. 2003)). Any end runs around the orderly procedure for reimbursement of the Special Master, refined here, shall be addressed through appropriate sanctions. Similarly, any party may be subject to sanctions for making frivolous objections at any stage of this process.
This updated process will facilitate resolution of the CDE’s objections to the Special Master’s fees for services rendered between November 11, 2015 and December 22, 2015. Accordingly, the court VACATES its order requiring CDE to pay $2362.50 for those services. See Am. Order. [1] The Special Master is directed to submit a renewed preliminary invoice, as required by step (1) in the process outlined above, for the $2362.50 for services rendered between November 11, 2015 and December 22, 2015. After he does so, the remaining steps and deadlines outlined above will apply: (2) the parties will have fourteen (14) days to file any objections; (3) the Special Master will have thirty (30) days to file a final invoice and a response to any objections; and (4) the parties will have fourteen (14) days to file any objections to the final invoice. All filings should be made under seal as outlined above.
IT IS SO ORDERED.
DATED: July 25, 2017.
[1] Plaintiffs filed no objections to the Special Master’s invoice requiring them to pay $700 and already paid that amount without being ordered to do so. ECF 302 at 1–2.