Bregman v. District of Columbia

182 F.R.D. 352, 42 Fed. R. Serv. 3d 888, 1998 U.S. Dist. LEXIS 22134, 1998 WL 736843
CourtDistrict Court, District of Columbia
DecidedOctober 23, 1998
DocketCivil Action No. 97-789 HHK/JMF
StatusPublished
Cited by9 cases

This text of 182 F.R.D. 352 (Bregman v. District of Columbia) is published on Counsel Stack Legal Research, covering District Court, District of Columbia primary law. Counsel Stack provides free access to over 12 million legal documents including statutes, case law, regulations, and constitutions.

Bluebook
Bregman v. District of Columbia, 182 F.R.D. 352, 42 Fed. R. Serv. 3d 888, 1998 U.S. Dist. LEXIS 22134, 1998 WL 736843 (D.D.C. 1998).

Opinion

[354]*354MEMORANDUM OPINION

FACCIOLA, United States Magistrate Judge.

Plaintiff claims that the defendant Paul A. Clark, a Metropolitan Police Department Officer, falsely arrested him and, for no apparent reason, kicked him in the head. The defendants are Officer Clark and the District of Columbia.

Plaintiff has now moved to compel the defendants to (1) designate an official to testify on behalf of the District, (2) answer certain interrogatories and (3) produce certain documents. Defendants subsequently moved for a protective order to preclude discovery of the information of the Metropolitan Police Department’s hiring, training, supervision and discipline of officers other than Mr. Clark. In addition, Defendants have moved to compel plaintiffs answers to interrogatories and production of documents.

PLAINTIFF’S MOTION TO COMPEL

The defendants’ refusal to designate. On June 22, 1998, plaintiff sent to defendants’ counsel1 a Notice of Rule 80(B)(6) deposition and Request for Production of Documents. The Notice sought to take the deposition of the District of Columbia, asked the District to designate a person to testify as to six specific areas, and that the designee bring with him or her “all documents reasonably relating” to the specified areas of inquiry. The District, however, refused to designate any one and the deposition never took place.

[355]*355The District’s failure to designate an official to testify violated the unequivocal command of Fed.R.Civ.P. 30(b)(6) that “the organization2 so named shall designate one or more officers, directors, .or managing agents, or other persons who consent to testify on its behalf ...” Confronted with a notice of deposition (or any other type of discovery) a party must either comply with the discovery demand or seek a protective order under Fed. R.Civ.P. 26(c). Fed.R.Civ.P. 37(d) provides: “The failure to act3 described in this subdivision may not be excused on the ground that the discovery sought is objectionable unless the party failing to act has a pending motion for a protective order as provided by Rule 26(c).” Since the District neither designated the official or moved for a protective order, its conduct was literally inexcusable under the Federal Rules of Civil Procedure. I will therefore order the District to designate the official so that the deposition of the District can be taken. I note that the District has been fully advised of the topics of the deposition and that, unless it seeks and secures a protective order in advance, I will not entertain its objection on the grounds of relevancy to the deponent answering any question which falls within the six topics plaintiff has specified.

Discovery of trial exhibits. Plaintiff seeks by interrogatory or request to produce documents (1) the defendants’ intended lay and expert witnesses and the witnesses’ anticipated testimony and (2) the defendants’ trial exhibits. The defendants said they would be providing a preliminary witness list and a 26(b)(4) statement as to their expert witness, Jerry V. Wilson. They objected to providing their exhibits prior to submission of their pretrial statement. Plaintiff, however, never got the defendants’ witness list or 26(b)(4) statement.

It would be hard to imagine a more fit subject for discovery than one’s opponent’s trial witnesses and exhibits. Under Fed. R.Civ.P. 26(a)(1), each party, without even awaiting a discovery request, must disclose to its opponent the (1) name, address and phone number of “each individual likely to have discoverable information relevant to disputed facts” and (2) a copy of, or a description by category and location of, all documents ... “that are relevant to the disputed facts.”4 Under Fed.R.Civ.P. 26(B)(3) the parties are then required within 30 days of trial to name their trial witnesses and identify the exhibits they plan to offer at trial. In light of that obligation, any claim that a party’s potential witnesses and exhibits are not fit subjects for discovery is fatuous. Furthermore, that a party may have to list what witnesses she will call and what exhibits she will introduce in her pretrial statement does not operate retroactively to make those matters unfit subjects for discovery. Defendants will therefore have to answer the interrogatories and requests to produce which seek the names of defendants’ potential witnesses and copies of defendants’ potential exhibits.

An analogous objection was made by the defendants as to plaintiffs interrogatories numbers one and two which asked the defendants to state, as to each part of the complaint they denied, what they contended the true facts to be and each fact which supported the position they took “[f|or every part of your affirmative pleadings.” Defendants answered that (1) insofar as this discovery sought applicable law, it “is equally available to the plaintiff’; (2) insofar as it [356]*356sought relevant facts and documents, they were being produced in “the course of discovery”; and (3) insofar as plaintiff sought the thought processes of the defense of how the defense will ultimately apply the law to the facts, “the request is improper and/or premature.” Answers of Defendant to Plaintiffs Interrogatories, Nos. 1 & 2. I believe that plaintiff is entitled to a less obfuscated answer. Asking the defendants what factual information they will rely on to support their case is perfectly appropriate discovery which does not impermissibly invade defendant’s counsel’s thought processes. The work product rule, Fed.R.Civ.P. 26(b)(3), applies only to documents and is not invoked merely because one party asks the other for the facts which support its position. Defendants must therefore answer these interrogatories.

Files. Plaintiff seeks defendant Clark’s personnel, disciplinary and training files and has gotten in response confusing answers which simultaneously object to the request as vague, or vague and unduly burdensome, and has produced documents which one has to suppose are responsive. As plaintiff points out, it is impossible to know whether the District is, by the production, representing that, despite its objections, it has produced all of the documents or whether it is objecting to producing more than it has on the grounds of the vagueness or over breadth of the request.

Moreover, its objections on the grounds of vagueness and overbreadth are not well taken. It would be hard to imagine how plaintiff could have been any more specific than he was when he asked for the personnel, disciplinary, and training files “on Paul A.

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Bluebook (online)
182 F.R.D. 352, 42 Fed. R. Serv. 3d 888, 1998 U.S. Dist. LEXIS 22134, 1998 WL 736843, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/bregman-v-district-of-columbia-dcd-1998.