Carlson v. Carrington Square

District Court, D. Utah·Decided March 11, 2025·No. 2:22-cv-00372·Unknown

Opinion

THE UNITED STATES DISTRICT COURT DISTRICT OF UTAH

Danny Carlson, MEMORANDUM DECISION AND ORDER Plaintiff, v. Case No. 2:22-cv-372 RJS DBP

Carrington Square et al., Chief Judge Robert J. Shelby

Defendants. Chief Magistrate Judge Dustin B. Pead

Before the court is Plaintiff’s Motion to Compel Discovery from Carrington Square.1 This matter arises from Plaintiff’s claims that he was evicted in July 2021 and discriminated against due to his disability. Mr. Carlson allegedly requested safety grab bars in his bathroom and this request was denied. This led to injuries sustained from a fall. Plaintiff brings claims for Utah Fair Housing Act violations, discrimination, breach of contract, violations of the American with Disabilities Act, negligence, and fraudulent misrepresentation. As set forth herein, the court denies Plaintiff’s Motion. BACKGROUND There have been many discovery disputes in this case. Not all however have resulted in progress toward resolution. Plaintiff has struggled at times to comply with the short form discovery rules. These struggles have resulted in multiple court decisions denying discovery motions due these failures.2 At other times, the court has compelled production of discovery.3

1 ECF No. 203. 2 For example, see Memorandum Decision and Order Denying Plaintiff’s Motion for Short Form Discovery dated October 11, 2024, (ECF No. 156) and Memorandum Decision and Order dated January 28, 2025 (ECF No. 202). 3 See, e.g., Memorandum Decision dated May 8, 2023 (ECF No. 61), Memorandum Decision and Order dated October 11, 2024 (ECF No. 155). The instant motion came after Plaintiff properly sought leave to file excess pages for a motion to compel. One theme throughout Plaintiff’s discovery motions is the repeated assertion that Defendants discovery production has been so “woeful that it is suggestive of deceptive nondisclosure.”4 In regard to information regarding the construction renovation project, Plaintiff

makes an additional serious allegation that “the documents must either be in Defendants’ possession or must have been destroyed.”5 Essentially “Defendants’ gamesmanship should not be rewarded” and the discovery should be produced.6 Plaintiff sets forth the following alleged deficiencies in Defendants’ discovery responses: 1. Defendants identified three individuals (Brian Packer, Bonnie LePage and Ralph Burkhardt) as individuals with whom its clients corresponded regarding the rental of a handicapped accessible unit that became available at or around the time Defendants issued Plaintiff his Notice of Non-Renewal, but failed to provide all information regarding these tenants’ files (including paperwork related to the timing of the parties’ initial contacts, email communications, lease execution, in-office visits, phone calls, etc.) (see, Plaintiffs Letter to Defense Counsel dated June 30, 2024 at 2); See also, Plaintiffs July 31, 2024 Letter to Defense Counsel at 2.

2. The Brian Packer Reservation Agreement was provided, but wholly redacted and failed to include information related to the rental rates, an integral part of Plaintiffs allegations as against Defendants, as set forth in its Motion for Summary Judgment and Reply. Plaintiff requested an unredacted version; Defendants refused.

3. Defendants disclosed client emails but refused to produce the requested attachments referenced therein despite repeated requests; (See, Plaintiffs Letter to Defense Counsel dated June 30, 2024 at 3).

4. Defendants failed to provide the last known addresses and contact information for former employees identified in Defendants' Initial Disclosures. (See, Plaintiffs Letter to Defense Counsel dated June 30, 2024 at 7).

4 Plaintiff’s Motion to Compel Discovery from Carrington at 3; See also Plaintiff’s Motion for Short Form Discovery at 3, ECF No. 136. 5 Plaintiff’s Motion to Compel Discovery from Carrington at 9. 6 Id. at 11. 5. Defendants failed to provide complete insurance information including certified copies of insurance policies, excess insurance information and/or affidavits of excess/no excess insurance, and failed to produce any documentation demonstrating that FourSite Property Management is an additional insured under the Carrington Square AutoOwners’ Insurance policy provided (therefore, it failed to provide complete insurance information for FourSite Property Management).

6. In an effort to identify the availability of ADA-accessible apartments at the complex that had become available or would have become available around the time that Danny could have been reasonably accommodated by relocation to one prior to his eviction, Plaintiff submitted to Defendants Interrogatory No. 21 and 23. Interrogatory No. 21 asked Defendants to identify the number of handicap compliant apartments, tenants and units at the premises. Defendants responded that they had 256 units at the Premises in 2021, but did not provided responses to any other aspects of the interrogatory without further specification, which was subsequently provided. To date, Defendants stand on their objection as to the vagueness of the interrogatory, despite that Plaintiff conceded it would adopt the Carrington Defendants' definition of “handicapped” for the purpose of the Interrogatory. See, Exhibit “D”.

7. With respect to Interrogatory No. 23, Plaintiff asked Defendants to “identify those tenants whose leases were not renewed during the construction remodeling project and set forth the grounds upon which those leases were not renewed. Defendants responded, “Objection, this Interrogatory is irrelevant, unduly burdensome and not proportional and calls for the disclosure of private individual's information who are not parties to the lawsuit.” See, Plaintiffs Letter to Defendants regarding discovery dated June 30, 2024. Plaintiff responded that this information speaks directly to Plaintiff’s allegations as against the Carrington Square Defendants who failed to offer Plaintiff a reasonable accommodation (Le., an apartment relocation and transfer in a timely manner). Plaintiff thereafter even limited the request to a time period of six months (from January 2021 until August 2021) but Defendants have refused to provide it. See, Exhibit “D at 8.

8. To the extent that Defendants objected to requests upon the grounds that they were allegedly vague, Plaintiff sought clarification as to what was vague and has received no response. See, Plaintiff s Letter to Defense Counsel dated June 30, 2024. Plaintiff therefore asks that this Court order the disclosure based upon a reasonable interpretation of the requests.

9. Defense counsel objected to providing any documents related to the below upon the grounds that it was allegedly unduly burdensome, while contrarily, disclosing thousands of pages of irrelevant information it found not unduly burdensome to produce including and all documents related to the construction remodeling project, as itemized specifically in Plaintiff s June 30" good faith letter. Counsel instead directed the undersigned to the contractor, Bach Development, which is an entity in its possession, custody and control []upon information and belief, and which it must have exchanged communications and documentation with in order to implement and execute the construction remodeling project. To the extent that counsel failed to provide the documents, Defendants also neglected to provide an affidavit demonstrating that such a search was conducted, by whom, and what the investigation entailed.7

Defendants oppose Plaintiff’s Motion on three primary grounds.8 First, Defendants argue Plaintiff’s motion to compel is untimely under the Local Rules. Local Rule 37-1(a) requires parties to “make reasonable efforts to resolve a discovery dispute . . .

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Carlson v. Carrington Square, (D. Utah 2025).

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