Adams v. City of Montgomery

282 F.R.D. 627, 2012 WL 1933898, 2012 U.S. Dist. LEXIS 73581
CourtDistrict Court, M.D. Alabama
DecidedMay 29, 2012
DocketCivil Action No. 2:10cv924-MHT
StatusPublished
Cited by8 cases

This text of 282 F.R.D. 627 (Adams v. City of Montgomery) is published on Counsel Stack Legal Research, covering District Court, M.D. Alabama primary law. Counsel Stack provides free access to over 12 million legal documents including statutes, case law, regulations, and constitutions.

Bluebook
Adams v. City of Montgomery, 282 F.R.D. 627, 2012 WL 1933898, 2012 U.S. Dist. LEXIS 73581 (M.D. Ala. 2012).

Opinion

OPINION AND ORDER

MYRON H. THOMPSON, District Judge.

In this employment-discrimination case, an eleventh-hour discovery revelation forced the continuation of the trial and precipitated a protracted dispute between the parties. Three days before the scheduled trial date, defendant City of Montgomery disclosed over 100 pages of documents to plaintiff Willie Adams. Some of these documents relate to the city’s internal-affairs investigation into Adams’s race-discrimination claim, a point that has been hotly contested by the parties. Additionally, the city has asserted the attorney-client privilege and work-produet doctrine for two never disclosed documents and a set of audio recordings. Adams has filed six motions seeking various forms of relief including sanctions, in-eamera review of the allegedly privileged documents and recordings, and additional discovery. For the reasons that follow, these motions will be granted in part and denied in part.

I. BACKGROUND

A. Overview of the Litigation

To provide context to this discovery dispute, the court will first give a truncated synopsis of the facts and procedural history of this litigation, with particular attention to Adams’s remaining claims.1

Plaintiff Adams, an African-American, first worked for the City of Montgomery from September 2003 to August 2004. After a stint as a long-distance truck driver, he returned to work for the city on August 10, 2007. Upon his re-employment, he was assigned to the patch crew, which does repair work on the city’s roads. His supervisor was James Ivey (white). Adams has submitted evidence indicating that Ivey has frequently used racial slurs in the workplace.

On May 28, 2008, Adams was told that he was being transferred to the ditch crew, which handles weed cutting and other gardening work along the city’s roads. According to an Employee Counseling Record dated May 28, Ivey stated that Adams was “not pulling [his] own weight” on the patch crew. Ivey specifically criticized Adams for an incident on May 22, when Adams’s alleged laziness resulted in other workers carrying his load and a construction job taking longer than planned. Employee Counseling Record (Doc. No. 38-8) at 2.

Upon learning of this reassignment, Adams left work to file an internal-affairs complaint alleging racial discrimination. His internal-affairs complaint states: “[Discrimination put a man with Class A CDL on grass. According to consevation [sic] a job doing I was told to speed up, but wasn’t told to do so.” Complaint Form (Doc. No. 38-2) at 2. Thus, his internal-affairs complaint focuses on his reassignment to the ditch crew.

The next day, on May 29, Adams was called in to meet with Ivey and Kim McGough, the Administrative Officer for the [630]*630Maintenance Department. Adams was handed the May 28 counseling record that detailed the May 22 incident that precipitated his transfer to the ditch crew. He was also given a letter of reprimand for taking unapproved sick leave the day before. According to the reprimand letter, he did not clock out for the day and failed to produce a doctor’s note. Of course, Adams was not on sick leave the prior day; he had left work to file his internal-affairs complaint. He states that he received permission to leave work early from his new supervisor, Sedrick Cross, and that white employees have left work early without disciplinary action being taken.

On August 7, 2008, Adams received a second letter of reprimand for taking an unapproved absence on July 30 without a doctor’s note. Letter of Reprimand (Doe. No. 19-16) at 1. Adams states that he did not come to work because a bad storm had caused trees to fall on his property. As a result of this letter of reprimand and the May 28 and 29 disciplinary actions, he received a three-day suspension without pay on September 3, 2008. Id. at 1-4.

On October 29, 2010, Adams filed this lawsuit alleging race discrimination and retaliation.

On April 24, 2012, this court entered an opinion and order granting summary judgment in part and denying it in part. Adams v. City of Montgomery, 2012 WL 1414979 (M.D.Ala. Apr. 24, 2012) (Thompson, J.). That order denied the city’s request for summary judgment on Adams’s race-discrimination claims arising out of the September 3 three-day suspension and all prior disciplinary actions that factored into that decision. The order also denied the city’s request for summary judgment on Adams’s retaliation claims arising out of his receipt of the May 29 and August 7 letters of reprimand and his September 3 suspension. This court granted the city’s request for summary judgment on all other claims—some of which have been omitted here for the sake of brevity. Significantly, this court granted summary judgment in favor of the city on Adams’s retaliation claim involving the May 28 employee counseling record because it was dated the same day Adams filed his internal-affairs complaint.

B. Discovery Dispute

Two sets of documents are at the core of this discovery dispute.2 An explanation of the two sets is necessary to understand how the discovery dispute unfolded.

The first set of documents, the “Alexander documents,” Bates Stamps 388 to 417, relates to an Equal Employment Opportunity Commission (EEOC) charge filed by Samuel Alexander. During discovery, Adams requested access to other discrimination charges filed against the city’s maintenance department. The city proffered Alexander’s charge as the sole example in its records. Although at various times the city asserted these documents were protected by the attorney-client privilege, the city has now withdrawn its objection and concedes that these documents are discoverable. As such, the court will address the Alexander documents only as they relate to the issue of sanctions.

The second set of documents, the “Lilley documents,” Bates Stamps 418 to 503, raise more serious concerns. These documents contain information relating to the city’s investigation of Adams’s internal-affairs complaint. According to Adams, these documents revealed several important facts:

• The identity of the city’s investigator: Walter Lilley, Jr. Previously, Adams’s attorneys believed that city attorney C. Michael “Mickey” Mclnnish conducted the internal-affairs investigation.
• James Ivey, who issued the May 28 employee counseling record and attended the May 29 disciplinary meeting, was interviewed by Lilley about Adams’s race-discrimination complaint sometime on May 29. This fact was disclosed by signed statements indicating the dates on which Lilley interviewed witnesses. It is unclear if Ivey was notified about the interview (or sat for the interview) before or after his meeting with Adams. Although initially claiming attorney-client privilege for the signed witness statements, the city has [631]*631since dropped its objection as to these documents.
• Lilley tape recorded his interviews with Ivey, Cross, and three other supervisors. These audio recordings have never been turned over to Adams and the city maintains that they are protected by the work-produet doctrine.

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282 F.R.D. 627, 2012 WL 1933898, 2012 U.S. Dist. LEXIS 73581, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/adams-v-city-of-montgomery-almd-2012.