Aldridge v. Goodyear Tire & Rubber Co.

198 F.R.D. 72, 48 Fed. R. Serv. 3d 993, 2000 U.S. Dist. LEXIS 18313, 2000 WL 1843805
CourtDistrict Court, D. Maryland
DecidedDecember 12, 2000
DocketNo. CIV. H-90-140
StatusPublished
Cited by2 cases

This text of 198 F.R.D. 72 (Aldridge v. Goodyear Tire & Rubber Co.) is published on Counsel Stack Legal Research, covering District Court, D. Maryland primary law. Counsel Stack provides free access to over 12 million legal documents including statutes, case law, regulations, and constitutions.

Bluebook
Aldridge v. Goodyear Tire & Rubber Co., 198 F.R.D. 72, 48 Fed. R. Serv. 3d 993, 2000 U.S. Dist. LEXIS 18313, 2000 WL 1843805 (D. Md. 2000).

Opinion

ALEXANDER HARVEY, II, Senior District Judge.

In its Opinion of January 28, 1999, this Court granted the motion for summary judgment of defendant Goodyear Tire & Rubber Company (“Goodyear”). Aldridge v. Goodyear Tire & Rubber Company, 34 F.Supp.2d 1010 (D.Md.1999) (Aldridge II). Plaintiffs appealed to the United States Court of Appeals for the Fourth Circuit which remanded the case for further proceedings. Aldridge v. Goodyear Tire & Rubber Co., Inc., 223 F.3d 263 (4th Cir.2000) (Aldridge III). In its Opinion, the Fourth Circuit did not address the substantive issues raised by plaintiffs in their appeal. Rather, the Fourth Circuit directed this Court to reconsider on remand whether the plaintiffs were entitled to limited discovery before responding to Goodyear’s motion for summary judgment.

Following remand, this Court met with counsel and set a schedule for the filing of and the briefing of the question whether plaintiffs should have been permitted to engage in further discovery or whether this Court was justified in denying discovery altogether before plaintiffs responded to Goodyear’s motion for summary judgment. Aldridge III, 223 F.3d at 266. G. Macy Nelson, Esq., the attorney for the plaintiffs who .had represented them both in this Court and in plaintiffs’ appeal to the Fourth Circuit, duly filed a “Motion for Leave to Conduct Further Discovery under Rule 26.”1 In support of his motion, Mr. Nelson submitted a memorandum of law and various exhibits. Counsel for defendant Goodyear filed an opposition to plaintiffs’ motion, together with several affidavits and other exhibits. After this Court entered a Protective Order, defendant Goodyear submitted several thousand pages of documents which it contends support its position that adequate discovery had been provided to plaintiffs before they filed their opposition to Goodyear’s motion for summary judgment. Mr. Nelson in turn has filed a reply to Goodyear’s opposition. A hearing on plaintiffs’ motion was held in open court on October 27, 2000. At that hearing, the Court requested counsel to file supplementary briefs which have now been received.

The Court has now had an opportunity to review the pleadings, memoranda and exhibits which have been filed by the parties following remand. In particular, the Court has carefully examined the documents which have been submitted by the parties and which relate to the question whether this Court was justified in previously denying plaintiffs the right to undertake further discovery before opposing defendant’s motion for summary judgment.

For the reasons stated herein, plaintiffs’ motion for leave to conduct further discovery will be denied.

I

Background

This consolidated case has had a long and tortuous history. In its prior Opinion, this [74]*74Court discussed in some detail the background facts and the prior related proceedings. See Aldridge II, 34 F.Supp.2d at 1013-15. That discussion will merely be summarized here. Suffice it to say, plaintiffs are the fourth group of employees of Kelly-Springfield Tire Company (“Kelly-Springfield”) who have sought damages from Goodyear under various tort theories for occupational diseases contracted by them during the course of their employment with Kelly-Springfield. See Heinrich v. Goodyear Tire & Rubber Company, 532 F.Supp. 1348 (D.Md.1982); McClelland v. Goodyear Tire & Rubber Company, 735 F.Supp. 172 (D.Md. 1990) (McClelland I); Jewell v. Goodyear Tire & Rubber Co., Civil No. S-89-3235.

The Heinrich case was settled after the parties had engaged- in extensive discovery. In both McClelland I and Jewell, Goodyear’s motions for summary judgment were granted on the ground that plaintiffs could not prove causation by a preponderance of the evidence. This Court’s rulings in McClelland I and in Jewell were affirmed on appeal by the Fourth Circuit. McClelland v. Goodyear Tire & Rubber Co., 929 F.2d 693 (Table), 1991 WL 38700 (4th Cir.1991) (McClelland II). In Aldridge II, this Court granted Goodyear’s motion for summary judgment on the ground that plaintiffs had failed to produce evidence that a “particular, identifiable chemical supplied by Goodyear” was the legal cause of their injuries. 34 F.Supp.2d at 1020; McClelland I, 735 F.Supp. at 174; McClelland II, 1991 WL 38700 at *3.

In opposing Goodyear’s motion for summary judgment in this case, plaintiffs argued, inter alia, that pursuant to Rules 56(e) and 56(f), they should have been permitted to conduct further discovery before responding to Goodyear’s motion. That request was denied by this Court on the ground that a very large amount of discovery had previously been undertaken in the Heinrich and McClelland I litigations, that all this discovery was available for counsel in this case and that there was little new information of any consequence which could be revealed by way of additional discovery. Aldridge II, 34 F.Supp.2d at 1020-21. In remanding this case, the Fourth Circuit directed this Court to reconsider its denial of discovery to the plaintiffs. Aldridge III, 223 F.3d at 266.

In its remand Opinion, the Fourth Circuit stated that this Court should reconsider whether the plaintiffs “are entitled to limited discovery,...” Id. at 265. The Fourth Circuit determined that, on the record before it, it was unclear whether the documents heretofore produced in the “combined litigations” are “fully responsive to all of the individual requests by these plaintiffs.” Id. at 266. Because of this uncertainty, the case was remanded with instructions that this Court provide the plaintiffs with “a limited opportunity for discovery” so that they might seek those documents and information “and only those documents and information” responsive to their requests that have not previously been disclosed in one or the other of the litigations. Id. In remanding, the Fourth Circuit stated that, “we do not intend to imply that the workers are entitled to duplicative discovery,” but the Court anticipated “that any permitted discovery will be quite limited.” The Court further stated (Id.):

Without attempting in any way to limit the district court’s prerogative to supervise discovery, we would expect that the workers would be required to identify very specifically that very small amount of information that they believe might exist and that Goodyear would be required to respond only to that limited discovery request. (Emphasis added).

In instructing this Court to review the parties’ submissions on remand and determine whether plaintiffs were entitled to further discovery, the Fourth Circuit indicated that it was not necessarily directing this Court to order defendant Goodyear to provide additional discovery to plaintiffs. The Court noted that it “may well be that the district court was fully justified in denying further discovery altogether.” Id. at 266. Following its consideration of any “circumscribed discovery,” this Court was directed to assess whether summary judgment is appropriate in this case so that the Fourth Circuit Court might be in a better position to review this Court’s conclusion. Id. at 267.

[75]*75II

Free access — add to your briefcase to read the full text and ask questions with AI

Related

Wickersham v. Ford Motor Company
D. South Carolina, 2023
Aldridge v. Goodyear Tire & Rubber Co.
30 F. App'x 184 (Fourth Circuit, 2002)

Cite This Page — Counsel Stack

Bluebook (online)
198 F.R.D. 72, 48 Fed. R. Serv. 3d 993, 2000 U.S. Dist. LEXIS 18313, 2000 WL 1843805, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/aldridge-v-goodyear-tire-rubber-co-mdd-2000.