Corbera v. Taylor

District Court, E.D. California·Decided May 26, 2022·No. 2:21-cv-01998·Unknown

Opinion

UNITED STATES DISTRICT COURT FOR THE EASTERN DISTRICT OF CALIFORNIA WESLEY CORBERA, as executor of the No. 2:21–cv–1998–WBS–KJN Estate of Harrison Breedlove, ORDER ON MOTION TO COMPEL Plaintiff, (ECF No. 10) v. Defendant. On May 24, 2022, the court held a remote hearing on plaintiff’s motion to compel discovery from non-party the County of Shasta in response to plaintiff’s Rule 45 subpoena. (ECF No. 10.) Plaintiff and the County filed a Joint Statement and an Amended Joint Statement regarding the present discovery dispute. (ECF Nos. 11, 14.) At the hearing, David Fiol appeared for plaintiff, and Christopher Pisano appeared for the County. There was no appearance by or on behalf of the sole defendant, Henry James Taylor.1 (ECF No. 15.) 1 In all future motions implicating defendant Taylor’s interests—even if not formally involving him—the court expects defense counsel to attend any hearings on such motions. The Courtroom Deputy sent instructions for joining the Zoom hearing to all counsel of record in this case—including the sole defense counsel of record, Caitlyn Andrijich—and received no bounce-backs. At the hearing, plaintiff’s counsel reported that Ms. Andrijich has left the firm that is representing defendant Taylor but that one of the firm’s principals is still representing Mr. Taylor. Plaintiff’s counsel is requested to serve a copy of this order on present defense counsel. In order to ensure receipt of filings, orders, and hearing notifications in this case, defense counsel must enter a new Notice of Appearance as soon as practicable. For the following reasons, the court GRANTS IN PART and DENIES IN PART plaintiff’s motion. Plaintiff Wesley Corbera is the administrator of the Estate of Harrison Breedlove (his half- brother), who was killed in a traffic accident involving defendant Henry Taylor—a deputy with the Shasta County Sheriff’s Department (“SCSD”) at the time. The present discovery dispute relates to plaintiff’s subpoena duces tecum served on Taylor’s now-former employer, the County of Shasta—which is not a party to this lawsuit. Plaintiff seeks to compel the County to produce documents responsive to 17 subpoena requests largely in service of a potential Monell claim he might choose to add at a later point. A. Complaint Allegations According to the complaint, decedent Mr. Breedlove was killed on November 6, 2019, when the car he was riding in was struck by defendant Taylor’s patrol car after Taylor lost control upon hitting a deer in the roadway at high speed. That evening, defendant Taylor was responding as a second back-up unit to a non-emergency dispatch for a report of possible trespassing. (ECF No. 1 ¶¶ 24, 26.) In full darkness around 8:00 P.M., in the middle of deer season, Taylor accelerated to a top speed of over 105 mph traveling down an unlit, undivided two-lane state highway (CA Route 299) without his emergency lights or sirens on. (Id. ¶¶ 32, 35, 39, 41, 43.) There was no indication that this was a “Code 3” emergency response situation, which would have permitted such excess speeds. (Id. ¶¶ 23-24, 27.) And in any event, Taylor did not attempt to comply with SCSD Policy 308.4, which required deputies to first inform the dispatcher of their Code 3 decision in order to initiate supervisory review. (Id. ¶¶ 36-37.) Meanwhile, Mr. Breedlove was riding as a passenger in a friend’s sedan, traveling at about 55 mph in the opposite direction as Taylor on the same highway. (Id. ¶ 43.) With remarkably tragic timing, just as the two cars were about to pass each other, Taylor’s patrol car struck a deer at over 109 mph, causing his air bags to deploy. (Id. ¶¶ 44, 46.) Taylor lost control of the patrol car, which crossed into the opposite lane, and slammed into Mr. Breedlove’s side of /// the sedan. (Id. ¶¶ 45, 37-51.) Mr. Breedlove lived for a time but died at the scene. (Id. ¶ 52; ECF No. 14 at 3.) B. Surrounding Proceedings & Causes of Action Plaintiff filed this suit in October 2021, about a year after filing a pure negligence action in state court against both Taylor and the County. (ECF No. 1; Corbera v. Taylor, No. 195574 (Shasta Cty Super. Ct.).) In November 2020, the County District Attorney launched a criminal prosecution of Taylor, which is ongoing. (State v. Taylor, No. 20F7377 (Shasta Cty. Super. Ct.).) Taylor’s criminal trial was originally slated for January 2022 but after two continuances, it is now set to start August 2, 2022. (ECF No. 14 at 3.) Based on Taylor’s Fifth Amendment rights, all three parties to the state civil suit stipulated to a full stay of the case until “completion of the [criminal] trial.” (ECF No. 14, Exs. 1 & 2.) The State Court entered the stay on October 15, 2021, and two weeks later plaintiff filed this parallel federal suit. The operative complaints in both the State Court case and this federal case assert the same two § 1983 causes of action against defendant Taylor under the Fourteenth Amendment’s Due Process Clause. (ECF No. 1 at 10-11; ECF No. 14 at 4.) The twin § 1983 substantive due process claims are: (1) a survivorship claim on behalf of decedent’s estate for depriving Mr. Breedlove of “the right to be free of unlawful, deliberately indifferent conduct” and “free from deprivation of life, liberty and property without substantive due process”; and (2) a wrongful death claim on behalf of decedent’s mother, Patricia Breedlove, via plaintiff Corbera,2 to be “free of unlawful, reckless, deliberately indifferent, and conscience shocking conduct” and “free from interference with her parent-child relationship” with the decedent. (ECF No. 1 ¶¶ 56, 60.) As mentioned, the State Court complaint (unlike the federal complaint) also includes state-law negligence claims. From the outset in State Court, plaintiff named both Taylor and the County as defendants, asserting the County’s vicarious liability for Taylor’s negligent vehicle 2 Decedent’s mother, Patricia Breedlove, post-deceased him in November 2020; plaintiff Corbera is also the trustee of Patricia Breedlove’s estate, and simultaneously brings this action under Cal. Code Civ. Pro. § 377.60(a) to pursue Patricia’s surviving wrongful death claims. (Complaint ¶¶ 7-8, 10.) operation under Cal. Vehicle Code § 17001. (ECF No. 14 at 6.) In this federal case, Taylor is the only defendant. Plaintiff represents that by the time he had a sufficient basis to bring a § 1983 action in this court, the six-month deadline to file a state- law tort claim against the County had expired. (Id.) Thus, the only claims plaintiff might be able to bring against the County would be Monell claims, which plaintiff represents he “can not state at this time.” (Id.) Plaintiff candidly acknowledges the current lack of a Monell claim pleaded in the complaint, and the complaint itself states that plaintiff “intends to investigate in the course of discovery whether the County of Shasta is liable” and to seek leave to add Monell claims if he can do so in good faith. (ECF No. 1 ¶ 14.) In the Amended Joint Statement, plaintiff represents that it was and is his intent to pursue this federal case as the primary litigation, and he plans to consent to a stay of the State Court case for the duration of this action. (ECF No. 14 at 3, 15 n.1.) On December 21, 2021, again based on Taylor’s Fifth Amendment concerns, plaintiff and defendant Taylor agreed to a limited stay of discovery in this action. As approved by the district judge on December 27, 2021, the parties agreed to stay Taylor’s discovery obligations to plaintiff until the earlier of six months or after Taylor no longer faced the risk of criminal prosecution.3 (ECF No. 9 at 2.) The parties specifically agreed that “Plaintiff may direct discovery to third parties, but TAYLOR and those third parties retain all rights to object to that discovery on any applicable grounds.” (Id.) This discovery dispute arose because the County of Shasta, which is not currently a party to this action, served objection-only responses to a Rule 45 subpoe

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