RONALD WHYTE, District Judge
Cal. Water asks the court to continue the hearing on five currently-pending motions for summary judgment until after a deposition of Wausau's hydrogeology expert Russell Juncal, contending that an upcoming deposition of Juncal may reveal testimony requiring Juncal's disqualification as an expert for Wausau. Cal. Water's application to continue the hearing on the motions for summary judgment currently pending in this case is granted.
Although the evidence justifying an attempt to disqualify Juncal appears to be slim, Cal. Water's accusations regarding Juncal's previous work in the underlying actions are such that allowing Juncal's deposition to go forward before the summary judgment hearing appears to be prudent so that the parties may explore Juncal's role with respect to Cal. Water and the joint defense group in the underlying actions.
The court is also unconvinced that Wausau delayed Juncal's deposition "to prevent Cal. Water from divulging his conflict of interest" in advance of summary judgment, particularly in light of the parties' stipulation that Juncal only be deposed after Cal. Water's hydrogeology expert, Patrick Hubbard. Hubbard's deposition will be taken shortly after this court's upcoming ruling as to whether Hubbard may testify as an expert.
There does not appear to be significant prejudice to Wausau in delaying the hearing on the motions for summary judgment. The court has continued the trial date to March 3, 2008, so the delay in hearing these motions will not, by itself, result in prejudice to Wausau. Wausau also expresses concern that it will be prejudiced if at this late date its expert were to be disqualified because it would be precluded from effectively presenting expert testimony in connection with its summary judgment motion and at trial. However, if the court were to find that there were grounds to disqualify Juncal and that Wausau was without significant wrongdoing, the court could also determine whether circumstances would justify Wausau retaining a new expert and granting other appropriate relief.
The court will thus continue the hearing on the five motions for summary judgment and Cal. Water's related motion to strike Wausau's answer until January 18, 2007. Although only a subset of those motions concern Mr. Juncal, the court finds that it will be more efficient to address the motions together on the same date. Wausau's motion to exclude Cal. Water's experts and Cal. Water's motion to continue discovery deadlines will be heard as currently scheduled on December 7, 2007.