Allen v. Protective Life Insurance Company

District Court, E.D. California·Decided June 23, 2022·No. 1:20-cv-00530·Unknown

Opinion

BEVERLY ALLEN, Individually, and on No. 1:20-cv-00530-JLT-BAK (BAM) Behalf of the Class, Plaintiff, ORDER GRANTING IN PART AND DENYING IN PART PLAINTIFF’S MOTION v. TO COMPEL DISCOVERY

PROTECTIVE LIFE INSURANCE (Doc.75) COMPANY, a Tennessee Corporation; COMPANY, an Alabama Corporation, Defendants. Currently before the Court is Plaintiff Beverly Allen’s Motion to Compel Discovery. (Doc. 75.) At issue is Plaintiff’s pre-certification discovery of: (1) contact and certain policy information for putative class members (Interrogatories, Set One, Nos. 17, 19, 20 and 21); (2) compliance activities in response to the California Supreme Court’s decision in McHugh v. Protective Life Ins. Co., 12 Cal.5th 213 (2021), (Requests for Production, Set One, Nos. 23-25) and (3) insurance reserve information, including reserve amounts for certain terminated policies (Requests for Production, Set One, Nos. 29-32). The parties filed a Joint Statement Re Discovery Disagreement on April 25, 2022. (Doc. 76.) Plaintiff filed a notice of supplemental authorities in support of the motion to compel discovery. (Doc. 81.) The Court deemed the matter suitable for decision without oral argument, vacated the June 24, 2022 hearing date, and the matter is deemed submitted on the papers. E.D. Cal. L.R. 230(g). Having considered the parties’ briefs and the record in this action, and for the reasons explained below, Plaintiff’s motion to compel will be granted in part and denied in part. Plaintiff filed this putative class action against Protective Life Insurance Company, which is the successor by merger to Empire General Life Assurance Corporation. Plaintiff alleges that Defendant violated California Insurance Code §§ 10113.71 and 10113.72, both of which require proper notice of and grace periods for pending lapses or terminations of life insurance. On October 2, 2020, the Court issued a stay of discovery pending resolution of the California Supreme Court’s decision in McHugh v. Protective Life Insurance Company or the Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals’ decision in Thomas v. State Farm Insurance Co. and Bentley v. United of Omaha Life Insurance Co. (Doc. 39.) On November 23, 2021, the Court issued a Scheduling Order and opened “all non-expert discovery pertaining to the class certification motion and to the merits, to the extent it overlaps with the class issues.” (Doc. 56 at 1.) The Court also set the deadline to complete all non-expert discovery related to the motion for class certification as September 29, 2023, and the deadline to file a motion for class certification as April 7, 2023. (Doc. 56.) On November 24, 2021, Plaintiff served Defendant with Interrogatories and Requests for Production of Documents (Set One). Defendant served written responses and objections on January 24, 2022. Thereafter, the parties met and conferred regarding Defendant’s discovery responses. Defendant agreed to supplement some responses, but not its responses to Interrogatory Nos. 17, 19, 20, and 21, and Requests for Production Nos. 23-25 and 29-32. On January 14, 2022, the Court lifted the stay of discovery following the California Supreme Court’s decision in McHugh and the Ninth Circuit’s decision in Thomas. (Doc. 65.) On February 22, 2022, Defendant filed a motion for judgment on the pleadings, seeking dismissal of Plaintiff’s claims for declaratory judgment under California and federal law (Counts I and II, for violation of the California Unfair Competition Law (Count IV), and for bad faith (Count VI). (Doc. 68.) The motion remains pending before the district court. On April 25, 2022, Plaintiff filed the instant motion to compel, and the parties filed a Joint Statement Re Discovery Disagreement. (Docs. 75, 76.) On April 28, 2022, the Court held a Mid-Discovery Status Conference. The Court provided the parties with preliminary input on the pending discovery motion and directed the parties to further meet and confer in an effort to resolve or otherwise narrow the dispute. (Doc. 78.) On May 16, 2022, the Court held a Status Conference to address the motion to the compel and the parties’ meet and confer efforts. The parties reported that they were unable to narrow the issues presented in the motion to compel. (Doc. 80.) On May 27, 2022, Plaintiff filed a Notice of Supplemental Authorities in support of the motion to compel. (Doc. 81.) Broad discretion is vested in the trial court to permit or deny discovery . . . .” Hallett v. Morgan, 296 F.3d 732, 751 (9th Cir. 2002). Federal Rule of Civil Procedure 26 provides that parties “may obtain discovery regarding any nonprivileged matter that is relevant to any party’s claim or defense and proportional to the needs of the case.” Fed. R. Civ. P. 26(b)(1). Information within the scope of discovery need not be admissible in evidence to be discoverable. Id. However, the Court must limit the extent of discovery if it determines that (1) the discovery sought is unreasonably cumulative, duplicative or can be obtained from other source that is more convenient, less burdensome, or less expensive, (2) the party seeking discovery has had ample opportunity to obtain the information by discovery, or (3) the proposed discovery is outside the permissible scope. Fed. R. Civ. P. 26(b)(2)(C)(i)-(iii). Pursuant to Rule 33 of the Federal Rules of Civil Procedure, any party may serve upon any other party written interrogatories within the scope of Rule 26(b). Fed. R. Civ. P. 33(a)(2). Each interrogatory must, to the extent it is not objected to, be answered separately and fully in writing under oath. Fed. R. Civ. P. 33(b)(3). The grounds for objecting to an interrogatory must be stated with specificity. Fed. R. Civ. P. 33(b)(4). A party may serve on any other party a request within the scope of Rule 26(b) to produce and permit the requesting party or its representative to inspect, copy, test, or sample the following items in the responding party’s possession, custody or control: any designated documents, electronically stored information, or tangible things. Fed. R. Civ. P. 34(a)(1). “For each item or category, the response must either state that inspection and related activities will be permitted as requested or state with specificity the grounds for objecting to the request, including the reasons.” Id. at 34(b)(2)(B). A. Disputed Interrogatories – Nos. 17, 19-21 Plaintiff’s disputed interrogatories seek contact information, the policy number and type, and face amount for the policies of putative class members. Defendant objects to these interrogatories on identical grounds. Plaintiff’s Interrogatory No. 171 Please identify, by POLICY owner name, address, phone number, email address, POLICY type (i.e. group versus individual), all CLASS MEMBERS, including beneficiaries for POLICIES where the insured has died. This information should

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Related

Hallett v. Morgan
296 F.3d 732 (Ninth Circuit, 2002)
Caminetti v. Pacific Mutual Life Insurance
142 P.2d 741 (California Supreme Court, 1943)
McHugh v. Protective Life Ins. Co.
494 P.3d 24 (California Supreme Court, 2021)
Artis v. Deere & Co.
276 F.R.D. 348 (N.D. California, 2011)