Andrew D. Zaron v. Wells Fargo Bank, N.A.

District Court, D. Nevada·Decided September 13, 2022·No. 2:20-cv-00858·Unknown

Opinion

1 UNITED STATES DISTRICT COURT

2 DISTRICT OF NEVADA

3 * * *

4 Mauricio Jasso, et al., Case No. 2:20-cv-00858-CDS-BNW

5 Plaintiffs, ORDER re ECF Nos. 237, 253, and 269 6 v.

7 Wells Fargo Bank, N.A., et al.,

8 Defendants.

9 10 Before the Court are three motions: 11 • Plaintiffs Mauricio Jasso et al.’s sixth motion to compel, filed June 10, 2022. ECF 12 No. 237. Defendants opposed at ECF No. 241, and Plaintiffs replied at ECF No. 13 250. The Court heard oral arguments on August 4, 2022. ECF No. 265. 14 • Defendant Wells Fargo Bank, N.A.’s motion for a protective order related to 15 Plaintiff’s Federal Rule of Civil Procedure 30(b)(6) notice of deposition of 16 Defendant Wells Fargo, filed on July 13, 2022. ECF No. 253.1 Plaintiffs opposed 17 at ECF No. 268, and Defendant replied at ECF No. 273. The Court heard oral 18 arguments on September 1, 2022. ECF No. 276. 19 • Plaintiffs’ Motion to Seal, filed on August 8, 2022. ECF No. 269. Defendants 20 Katherine Darrall and Wells Fargo filed a response in support of Plaintiffs’ motion 21 at ECF No. 274. Plaintiffs did not file a reply. 22 For the reasons discussed below, the Court will grant in part and deny in part Plaintiffs’ 23 sixth motion to compel, Defendants’ motion for a protective order, and Plaintiffs’ motion to seal. 24 I. Plaintiffs’ Sixth Motion to Compel and Defendant’s Motion for Protective Order 25 “Parties may obtain discovery regarding any nonprivileged matter that is relevant to any 26 party’s claim or defense and proportional to the needs of the case . . . .” Fed. R. Civ. P. 26(b)(1). 27 The definition of “relevant information” in Rule 26(b)(1) is broad. Relevant information “need 1 not be admissible in evidence to be discoverable.” Id. Courts construe discovery rules liberally to 2 serve the purposes of discovery: providing the parties with information essential to the proper 3 litigation of all relevant facts, eliminating surprise, and promoting settlement. Oppenheimer Fund, 4 Inc. v. Sanders, 437 U.S. 340, 351 (1978). 5 Under Fed. R. Civ. P. 37, “a party seeking discovery may move for an order compelling 6 an answer, designation, production, or inspection.” Fed. R. Civ. P. 37(a)(3)(B). “The party 7 seeking to compel discovery has the burden of establishing that its request satisfies the relevancy 8 requirements of Rule 26(b)(1). Thereafter, the party opposing discovery has the burden of 9 showing that the discovery should be prohibited, and the burden of clarifying, explaining or 10 supporting its objections.” Garces v. Pickett, No. 217CV0319JAMACP, 2021 WL 978540, at *2 11 (E.D. Cal. Mar. 16, 2021) (citations omitted). The opposing party is “required to carry a heavy 12 burden of showing why discovery was denied.” Id. (citation omitted). 13 A party served with a Rule 30(b)(6) deposition notice may move for a protective order for 14 good cause. Fed. R. Civ. P. 26(c). 15 A. Plaintiffs’ Sixth Motion to Compel (ECF No. 237) 16 In August of last year, this Court ordered Wells Fargo to produce “documents or 17 information regarding policies and procedures concerning the retention of documents that 18 [D]efendants claim no longer exist.” ECF No. 80 at 10. The Court made “clear that its ruling . . . 19 applies to both short- and long-term storage of emails.” Id. at 11. 20 Plaintiffs assert that Wells Fargo has not (entirely) complied with the Court’s order 21 because its production failed to include documentation explaining that it was subject to an Office 22 of the Comptroller Consent Decree between 2015 and 2021. ECF No. 237 at 3. This 2015 OCC 23 Consent Decree required the Bank to save e-mails belonging to its Business Banking Group 24 employees. Id. This would mean that these e-mails were not subject to Wells Fargo’s e-mail 25 retention policy that required automatically deleting e-mails found in an employee’s inbox after 26 six months or after three years if the e-mails had been moved into a folder. See id. 27 According to Plaintiffs, the Consent Decree is significant because it allowed for the 1 these employees helped Daniel Maza Noriega defraud Plaintiffs. Plaintiffs submit that Maza was 2 accepted into the Business Banking Group and began opening multiple accounts with the Bank as 3 early as 2014. Id. at 4. 4 But, as Plaintiffs explain, Wells Fargo’s position has been that, because of its e-mail 5 retention policy, it should only have e-mails dating back to 2017 (three years prior to this lawsuit 6 being filed). Id. at 5. In light of Wells Fargo’s position and prior production and in light of the 7 recently obtained information regarding the Consent Decree, Plaintiffs move to compel a Rule 8 30(b)(6) deposition to better understand “the void of Wells Fargo emails” pre-2017. Id. Such a 9 request necessarily implicates learning about Wells Fargo’s discovery process in this case. 10 i. Discovery on Discovery 11 “Discovery on discovery” allows one party to conduct discovery into another party’s 12 discovery process. Although this type of discovery is not prohibited, it is disfavored. Anstead v. 13 Virginia Mason Med. Ctr., No. 221CV00447JCCJRC, 2022 WL 1641425, at *5 (W.D. Wash. 14 May 24, 2022) (citation omitted). As a result, “requests for such discovery are closely 15 scrutinized” and determined on a case-by-case basis. Id. “Generally, courts will only permit such 16 discovery where there is some indication that a party’s discovery has been insufficient or 17 deficient.” Id. 18 Here, Plaintiffs have established an adequate factual basis to allow “discovery on 19 discovery.” 20 First, Plaintiffs explain that Wells Fargo has claimed that it has limited e-mails from 2014 21 to 2017 because of the Bank’s e-mail retention policy. ECF No. 237 at 3, 5. According to Wells 22 Fargo, its retention policy2 requires deleting all e-mails in an employee’s inbox after six months 23 or after three years if the e-mails were moved into a folder. Id. As a result of this retention policy, 24 Wells Fargo has primarily turned over e-mails from 2017 to present. Id. at 5. 25 Second, Plaintiffs reference the testimony of Wells Fargo Business Banking Group 26 employee Monica Kennedy. Id. at 3, 6. Kennedy testified (at her deposition on February 15, 27

2 1 2022) that her e-mails were subject to the 2015 OCC Consent Decree’s requirement that Business 2 Banking Group employees not delete any e-mails. Id. According to Kennedy, her e-mails were 3 not deleted and at least those from 2017 or 2018 were—as of the deposition date—still likely 4 available on a drive she had to use to comply with the OCC Consent Decree. Id. at 6. In fact, 5 Kennedy was able—as of early 2022—to produce e-mails from at least 2017, putting into 6 question the Bank’s timelines for deleting e-mails. Id. at 8. 7 One of the issues in this case is whether Wells Fargo employees aided Maza in defrauding 8 Plaintiffs by helping him open multiple fake accounts between 2014 and 2019. Subsumed within 9 this issue is Plaintiffs’ other allegation that Wells Fargo employees made statements to Plaintiffs 10 whereby they legitimized Maza’s real-estate investments. Given these allegations (which the 11 Court does not intend to present as exhaustive or as true), any e-mails sent or received by Wells 12 Fargo employees regarding Maza’s accounts are relevant to this case. See Fed. R. Civ. P.

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Andrew D. Zaron v. Wells Fargo Bank, N.A., (D. Nev. 2022).

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