TranscriptSettlement4-4-11

8/3/2019 TranscriptSettlement4-4-11

1/9

1

1 UNITED STATES DISTRICT COURT

2 CENTRAL DISTRICT OF CALIFORNIA - WESTERN DIVISION

3 HONORABLE OTIS D. WRIGHT

4 UNITED STATES DISTRICT JUDGE PRESIDING

5 - - -

6

David Eng, )

7 PLAINTIFF, )

)

8 VS. ) NO. CV 05-2686 ODW

)

9 County of Los Angeles, )

DEFENDANT, )

10 ___________________________________)

11

12

13 REPORTER'S TRANSCRIPT OF PROCEEDINGS

14 LOS ANGELES, CALIFORNIA

15 MONDAY, APRIL 4, 2011

16

17

18 _____________________________________

19 KATIE E. THIBODEAUX, CSR 9858

U.S. Official Court Reporter

20 312 North Spring Street, #436

Los Angeles, California 90012

21

22

23

24

25

UNITED STATES DISTRICT COURT, CENTRAL DISTRICT OF CALIFORNIA


2/9

2

1 APPEARANCES OF COUNSEL:

2

3 FOR PLAINTIFF:

4 BENSINGER, RITT, TAI & THVEDT

BY: D. JAY RITT

5 65 North Raymond Avenue

Suite 320

6 Pasadena, CA 91103

7

8

9 FOR DEFENDANTS:

10 BALLARD, ROSENBERG, GOLPER & SAVITT, LLP

BY: LINDA MILLER SAVITT11 -and- JOHN J. MANIER

500 North Brand Boulevard

12 Twentieth Floor

Glendale, CA 91203

13

14

15

16

17

18

19

20

21

22

23

24

25



3/9

3

1 LOS ANGELES, CALIFORNIA; MONDAY, APRIL 4, 2011

2 3:02 P.M..

3 - - - - -

4

5

6 THE CLERK: Calling Item Number 6, Civil Matter

7 CV 05-2686, David Eng versus County of Los Angeles.

8 Counsel, please state your appearances for the

9 record.

10 MR. RITT: Good afternoon, your Honor. Jay Ritt

11 for plaintiff David Eng who is present in court today.

12 THE COURT: Mr. Ritt, Mr. Eng, good afternoon.

13 MS. SAVITT: Afternoon, your Honor. Linda Savitt

14 on behalf of the individual defendants, and with me here

15 today is John Manier from my office and Sharon Matsumoto,

16 an assistant deputy district attorney, representing the

17 individual defendants.

18 THE COURT: Ms. Savitt, Mr. Manier, Ms. Matsumoto,

19 afternoon.

20 All right. We got an e-mail message this

21 morning. I guess it was from you, Mr. Ritt.

22 MR. RITT: Yes, your Honor.

23 THE COURT: Indicating that the parties had

24 reached a settlement and that settlement is conditioned

25 upon approval by the claims department of LA County.



4/9

4

1 MR. RITT: That is my understanding from

2 Ms. Savitt, your Honor. Mr. Manier has assured me that

3 he believes it is a formality and that there should be no

4 problem.

5 So we are asking the court to set an OSC, move

6 everything for a month to give us enough time to get that

7 approval and everything documented. And I don't think it

8 should take more than two weeks; is that right?

9 MS. SAVITT: Well, when I spoke to Mr. Ritt last

10 night I said I was hoping two weeks so today the first

11 claims review board meeting that is scheduled is

12 April 18th, and we are going to try to get on that

13 agenda. It may already be filled. My clients are part

14 of a bureaucracy, but I do think it is probably a

15 formality.

16 THE COURT: Okay. Give me a date a month out.

17 THE CLERK: May 2nd, Monday, your Honor, at --

18 THE COURT: Okay. Let's make it 3:00 p.m.,

19 telephonic.

20 All right. We are going to set an OSC for

21 May 2nd at 3:00 p.m. It will be telephonic only, OSC re

22 dismissal. If, indeed, you have reached a resolution of

23 this case prior to that date, please let us know and file

24 your dismissal with the Court.

25 MR. RITT: I will, your Honor.



5/9

5

1 THE COURT: All right. What I need to know now,

2 Mr. Eng, is whether or not terms have been proposed to

3 you that are acceptable to you in order to settle your

4 lawsuit that is pending here in this court.

5 MR. ENG: The only thing that has been represented

6 to me is a figure, a monetary amount, but no other terms

7 and conditions have been expressed to me.

8 THE COURT: My question is whether or not,

9 whatever those terms are, whether or not they are

10 satisfactory to you to the point where you would be

11 willing to settle this case and dismiss your lawsuit.

12 MR. ENG: May I have just a moment with counsel.

13 Just -- I don't know if there is any additional terms

14 that are going -- I haven't seen a written agreement or

15 even a draft of a written agreement, but I just want to

16 make sure that there is nothing that I am leaving on the

17 table.

18 MS. SAVITT: Your Honor, perhaps I could just

19 address that. There is a monetary amount. We would ask

20 for the standard language like Civil Code Section 1542

21 release, I would ask that Mr. Eng keep it confidential.

22 We, as a public entity, probably cannot, but to the

23 extent permissible by law, he is going to remain

24 employed. There is no term or trick about that, and it

25 is just basically the standard release language.



6/9

6

1 THE COURT: The other thing I would like to know

2 is whether or not -- there was an outstanding issue with

3 respect to one of the hearings before the commission that

4 pay that had been withheld was to have been restored, and

5 I understand that never happened. I want to know whether

6 or not this settlement also embraces or incorporates that

7 outstanding issue.

8 MS. SAVITT: Your Honor, that was fixed quite a

9 while ago.

10 THE COURT: Okay. All right.

11 So, Mr. Eng, would -- the purpose of this is

12 to place on the record the fact that the parties have

13 reached an agreement to settle and resolve this lawsuit,

14 the only contingent being approval of the public entity

15 to the terms of the settlement.

16 Now, of course, if the public entity withholds

17 its approval, then we go forward with the trial, and my

18 question to you is whether or not, subject to that

19 contingency, whether or not you consent to the

20 settlement. And I suppose the best way to do this thing

21 is you need to recite what your understanding is in terms

22 of the settlement in this case. Otherwise, we may not

23 have a meeting of the minds.

24 MR. ENG: Understood, your Honor. I believe that

25 with the approval of the claims division of the county of



7/9

7

1 the amount that has been discussed that this will settle

2 this lawsuit and all claims that have been presented to

3 this court by and between the parties.

4 THE COURT: Okay. All right. All right. So

5 because the devil is always in the details, I am going to

6 ask that, forthwith, the parties begin exchanging and

7 modifying, correcting, amending a standard settlement

8 agreement and release of claims because that always

9 appears to be where the breakdown occurs, not in the

10 amount of money but in that settlement agreement.

11 So let's get moving on that because I fear

12 that that is where the problem is going to be, not with

13 L.A. County's claim department. If there is a problem, I

14 would like to know about it sooner rather than later,

15 but, as of right now, the trial set for tomorrow is

16 advanced and continued to -- what day is the second of

17 May? That is Monday. It is continued to May 3rd at

18 9:00 a.m.

19 Okay. Is there anything else we need to deal

20 with?

21 MR. RITT: I don't believe so, your Honor.

22 MS. SAVITT: Can't think of anything.

23 THE COURT: All right. Ms. Matsumoto, the purpose

24 of you being here is to confirm that the agreement

25 discussed between the parties is satisfactory to the



8/9

8

1 county?

2 MS. MATSUMOTO: It is, your Honor.

3 THE COURT: All right. Excellent. All right.

4 Thank you all.

5 MR. RITT: Thank you, your Honor.

6 MS. SAVITT: Thank you.

7 (Proceedings concluded.)

8

9

10

11

12

13

14

15

16

17

18

19

20

21

22

23

24

25



9/9

1 CERTIFICATE

2

3

4 I hereby certify that pursuant to Section 753, Title 28,

5 United States Code, the foregoing is a true and correct

6 transcript of the stenographically reported proceedings held

7 in the above-entitled matter and that the transcript page

8 format is in conformance with the regulations of the

9 Judicial Conference of the United States.

10 Date: April 11, 2011

11

12 /s/ Katie Thibodeaux, CSR No. 9858, RPR, CRR

13

14

15

16

17

18

19

20

21

22

23

24

25


TranscriptSettlement4-4-11

Documents

Transcript of TranscriptSettlement4-4-11