Cargill, Inc. v. Ron Burge Trucking, Inc.

284 F.R.D. 421, 82 Fed. R. Serv. 3d 728, 2012 WL 2064946, 2012 U.S. Dist. LEXIS 86419
CourtDistrict Court, D. Minnesota
DecidedJune 1, 2012
DocketCiv. No. 11-2394 (PAM/JJK)
StatusPublished
Cited by33 cases

This text of 284 F.R.D. 421 (Cargill, Inc. v. Ron Burge Trucking, Inc.) is published on Counsel Stack Legal Research, covering District Court, D. Minnesota primary law. Counsel Stack provides free access to over 12 million legal documents including statutes, case law, regulations, and constitutions.

Bluebook
Cargill, Inc. v. Ron Burge Trucking, Inc., 284 F.R.D. 421, 82 Fed. R. Serv. 3d 728, 2012 WL 2064946, 2012 U.S. Dist. LEXIS 86419 (mnd 2012).

Opinion

ORDER

JEFFREY J. KEYES, United States Magistrate Judge.

This matter is before the Court on Plaintiff Cargill, Incorporated’s (“Cargill”), Motion to Compel Discovery Responses. (Doc. No. 56.) In its motion, Cargill asks the Court (1) to order Defendant National Interstate Insurance Corp. (“National Interstate”) to provide complete responses to all Cargill’s interrogatories and requests for production of documents, (2) to deem all National Interstate’s objections to Cargill’s discovery (including privilege and work-product objections) waived, and (3) to require National Interstate to pay Cargill’s reasonable attorney’s fees and expenses incurred in bringing the motion to compel. (Id.) On May 23, 2012, the Court held a hearing on the motion and counsel [423]*423appeared on behalf of both Cargill and National Interstate. (Doc. No. 66.)

Based on the file, and all the records and proceedings in this action, and on the arguments of counsel, IT IS HEREBY ORDERED that:

1. Cargill’s Motion to Compel Discovery Responses (Doc. No. 56), is GRANTED as set forth in the accompanying Memorandum, which is incorporated in this Order by reference, and as follows:

a. National Interstate has waived its objections to the discovery requests at issue, including those based on attorney-client privilege and the work-product doctrine;
b. On or before June 15, 2012, National Interstate must provide revised responses to the discovery requests at issue, removing all objections and otherwise complying with the Court’s instructions set forth in the accompanying Memorandum;
c. On or before June 6, 2012, Cargill shall submit an affidavit and any other support showing the amount of the reasonable expenses incurred in bringing this motion to compel. On or before June 11, 2012, National Interstate may file a letter brief of no more than two (2) pages in response to Cargill’s submission; and
d. When the Court receives the submissions discussed in subparagraph c above, the Court will issue a separate Order awarding Cargill its reasonable fees and costs incurred in making its motion to compel.

MEMORANDUM

I. BACKGROUND

Cargill and Defendant Ron Burge Trucking, Inc. (“Burge Trucking”), entered into an agreement for the transport of certain Car-gill products. Under that agreement, Burge Trucking hauled a load of food-grade salt from Cargill’s Akron, Ohio, location to Car-gill’s customer, Leprino Foods Company (“Leprino”). Cargill claims that Burge Trucking failed to clean its trailer and the salt was contaminated by Burge Trucking’s previous load of roofing aggregate. The contamination was apparently not discovered, and Leprino used the salt to produce nearly a million pounds of mozzarella cheese. Lep-rino submitted a claim to Cargill for $2.4 million in losses attributable to the allegedly contaminated salt.

Under the agreement between Cargill and Burge Trucking, Burge Trucking was required to add Cargill to its insurance policy as an additional insured, and Burge Trucking complied with that obligation by purchasing an insurance policy through National Interstate. Cargill and Burge Trucking both informed National Interstate about the incident described above and the potential exposure they faced. National Interstate hired a law firm to investigate and defend both Burge Trucking and Cargill, a fact that Car-gill contends created an improper conflict of interests.

Cargill settled Leprino’s claim against it for $1.6 million following what it claims was National Interstate’s alleged refusal to negotiate with Leprino in good faith. Cargill then brought this action on its own behalf and as subrogee for Leprino against Burge Trucking and National Interstate, asserting several causes of action, including bad faith denial of insurance benefits.1

The discovery dispute at issue in Cargill’s motion began earlier this year. On January 13, 2012, Cargill served interrogatories and requests for production of documents on National Interstate under Rules 33 and 34 of the Federal Rules of Civil Procedure. (Doc. No. 58, Benjamin J. Rolfs Deck in Supp. of Mot. to Compel Discovery Responses (“Rolf Deck”) ¶¶ 2-3, Exs. A & B.) Cargill did not receive responses from National Interstate, and on March 28, 2012, Cargill sent a letter to National Interstate to confer regarding the overdue discovery responses. (Rolf Deck ¶ 5, Ex. C.) Cargill informed National Interstate that it considered National Interstate’s objections to the discovery requests waived and demanded responses to those requests. [424]*424(Id.) Cargill also told National Interstate that Cargill would be forced to bring a motion to compel if National Interstate failed to respond. (Id.) On May 9, 2012, Cargill brought this motion. As of that date, National Interstate had not served responses or objections to Cargill’s discovery requests. (Rolf Decl. 58 ¶ 5.)

In its motion, Cargill “seeks full responses [to all its discovery requests] in 14 days [from the date the Court rules on its motion] and its reasonable attorneys’ fees and expenses” incurred in bringing its motion. (Doc. No. 56.) Cargill also asks the Court to prohibit National Interstate from raising any objection to Cargill’s discovery requests. (See Cargill’s Proposed Order, provided to the undersigned via email (proposing that National Interstate “must fully respond to Cargill’s discovery requests, without objection within 14 days of the date of this order”).)

National Interstate opposes Cargill’s motion. It contends that the motion is moot because it has now served responses to Car-gill’s discovery requests. (Doe. No. 64, Def. Nat’l Interstate Ins. Corp.’s Mem. of Law in Opp’n to PL’s Mot. to Compel Discovery Resp. (“Nat’l Interstate’s Mem.”) at 1; Doe. No. 65, Aff. of Christopher L. Goodman (“Goodman Aff.”) ¶¶2-3, Exs. A & B.) National Interstate also argues that its delay in responding to the discovery has not prejudiced Cargill, that Cargill already had information responsive to its discovery requests from documents produced with National Interstate’s initial disclosures, and that sanctions are inappropriate because National Interstate’s failure to respond was substantially justified. (Nat’l Interstate’s Mem. at 2^4.)

II. DISCUSSION

A. National Interstate has Waived its Objections

1. Waiver of Objections under Rules 33 and 34

The primary issue on this motion concerns National Interstate’s waiver of its objections to Cargill’s discovery. Cargill contends that National Interstate has waived all of its objections to Cargill’s discovery requests. Car-gill asks the Court to strike those objections and order National Interstate to serve revised discovery responses.

“The party upon whom the interrogatories have been served shall serve a copy of the answers and objections if any within 30 days after the service of the interrogatories.” Fed.R.Civ.P. 33(b)(2). “All grounds for an objection to an interrogatory shall be stated with specificity.

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284 F.R.D. 421, 82 Fed. R. Serv. 3d 728, 2012 WL 2064946, 2012 U.S. Dist. LEXIS 86419, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/cargill-inc-v-ron-burge-trucking-inc-mnd-2012.