Culp v. Devlin

78 F.R.D. 136, 25 Fed. R. Serv. 2d 770, 1978 U.S. Dist. LEXIS 19538
CourtDistrict Court, E.D. Pennsylvania
DecidedFebruary 16, 1978
DocketCiv. A. No. 77-44
StatusPublished
Cited by12 cases

This text of 78 F.R.D. 136 (Culp v. Devlin) is published on Counsel Stack Legal Research, covering District Court, E.D. Pennsylvania primary law. Counsel Stack provides free access to over 12 million legal documents including statutes, case law, regulations, and constitutions.

Bluebook
Culp v. Devlin, 78 F.R.D. 136, 25 Fed. R. Serv. 2d 770, 1978 U.S. Dist. LEXIS 19538 (E.D. Pa. 1978).

Opinion

MEMORANDUM AND ORDER

NEWCOMER, District Judge.

The discovery proceedings in this civil rights suit against Philadelphia police officers, the City of Philadelphia, the Mayor and the Police Commissioner of the City, have become very complicated and have posed many problems to the parties and this Court. During the course of discovery, this Court has ruled on various motions to compel, motions for sanctions and motions for protective orders. Despite these rulings, the parties now have submitted motions for reconsideration of previous court orders and additional motions for sanctions. To clarify its position and give the parties further direction, the Court finds this Memorandum is necessary. The Court will outline the history of this litigation, and then address the merits of the three outstanding discovery motions.

History of the Litigation

In this case, the plaintiff alleges that he was a victim of police brutality, and is suing the police officers allegedly involved in the incident, the City of Philadelphia, Mayor Frank L. Rizzo and Police Commissioner Joseph O’Neill. On May 25,1977, the Court ruled upon the defendants’ Motion to Dismiss and the plaintiff’s Motion to Amend his complaint. As this Court found that it had jurisdiction over a municipality for claims based on the Constitution under 28 U.S.C. § 1331 when the amount in controversy requirement was satisfied, the City’s Motion to Dismiss for lack of jurisdiction was denied. Nonetheless, the City, the Mayor and the Police Commissioner moved to dismiss the plaintiff’s allegations of negligent supervision and training and this [138]*138Court granted that motion because it found that the facts supporting plaintiff’s claims were not pleaded with specificity. With regard to the Motion to Amend the plaintiff’s complaint, the Court granted the plaintiff’s Motion so as to allow a claim against the City under the doctrine of respondeat superior; however, the Motion to Amend the Complaint so as to allow a claim against the Mayor and the Police Commissioner to go forward under the respondeat superior doctrine was denied, as the Mayor and the Police Commissioner were not the police officers’ employers. See Culp v. Devlin, 437 F.Supp. 20 (E.D.Pa.1977). Although the plaintiff’s claims of negligent supervision and training were dismissed on May 25, 1977, the plaintiff subsequently amended his complaint, specifically outlining the factual allegations supporting his negligent supervision and training claims against the City, the Mayor, and the Police Commissioner and, therefore, on July 6, 1977, this Court denied defendant’s Motion to Dismiss these claims. Thus, the police officers, the City, its Mayor and Police Commissioner remained defendants in this action.

After the Motions to Dismiss were ruled upon, the parties commenced discovery. The plaintiff served all defendants with interrogatories and requests for documents; defendants Rizzo and O’Neill objected to the plaintiff’s discovery requests on the ground that they had already filed a summary judgment motion with the Court. When the summary judgment motion was denied, the Mayor and the Police Commissioner then filed a further objection to plaintiff’s discovery requests, asserting that the information requested was privileged, confidential, immaterial, irrelevant and propounded for the purpose of harassment. The City and the defendant Devlin failed to respond timely to the discovery requests. Given the responses and non-responses of the defendants, the plaintiff filed a Motion for Sanctions. By that time the plaintiff also had noticed the depositions of the May- or and the Police Commissioner and these defendants had filed a Motion for a Protective Order. The Court on October 25,1977, denied the Motion for a Protective Order finding that (1) the defendants had not shown that their depositions would cause undue annoyance and oppression, (2) their depositions might lead to the discovery of relevant and admissible evidence, and (3) the defendants’ mere allegations that they did not have personal knowledge of the incident were insufficient to allow a protective order to be issued. Although defendants Rizzo and O’Neill opposed plaintiff’s Motion for Sanctions, in part, on the ground that they were not parties to this action, this Court found to the contrary, reiterating its earlier decisions, and ordered inter alia, that the defendants file answers to interrogatories and produce documents requested by the plaintiff within ten (10) days.

While the Court anticipated that its October 25, 1977, Order would clearly instruct the parties as to their obligations and responsibilities and that discovery would then proceed smoothly, such was not the case. On November 25, 1977, the plaintiff filed his Second Motion for Sanctions claiming that the defendants had failed to comply with the Court’s earlier Order. Defendant O’Neill had failed to sign and verify the answers to his interrogatories. Defendant Rizzo had not filed his interrogatories within the time limits established by the Court’s October 25, 1977, Order. And plaintiff contended that defendants Rizzo and O’Neill failed to make adequate responses to plaintiff’s interrogatory 1.5. Thus, upon consideration of plaintiff’s Second Motion for Sanctions the Court on December 16, 1977, ordered defendant O’Neill to supply the plaintiff and the Court signed copies of his answers to plaintiff’s interrogatories and to attach an affidavit to those interrogatories verifying the validity of the answers. In addition, as the defendants had not specifically objected to answering plaintiff’s interrogatory 1.5 when they first responded to the plaintiff’s interrogatories, had put forth a blanket refusal to answer any of the interrogatories at that time in violation of the requirements of Rule 33 of the Federal Rules of Civil Procedure and then had disregarded the October 25, 1977, Order to re[139]*139spond fully to interrogatories, this Court ordered defendants Rizzo and O’Neill to answer plaintiff’s interrogatory 1.5 fully. Finally, as the plaintiff appeared to have invested substantial time and expense in seeking the defendants’ compliance with this Court’s Order, the Court, under Rule 37 of the Federal Rules of Civil Procedure, ordered the defendants to pay the plaintiff $350.00 as reasonable expenses incurred in preparing the Second Motion for Sanctions.

On December 22, 1977, the defendants’ attorney made oral application to this Court for reconsideration of the December 16, 1977, Order. Defendants’ attorney claimed that by requiring defendants Rizzo and O’Neill to respond to plaintiff’s interrogatory 1.5, these defendants would be required to produce thousands of documents and that such production would be overly burdensome to the defendants. Plaintiff’s interrogatory 1.5 is a follow-up question to plaintiff’s interrogatory 1.4 which reads:

1.4 State whether any incidents of alleged police brutality and/or abuse of a police officer’s lawful authority were ever made known and/or reported to you in your official capacity prior to January 28, 1975?

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Bluebook (online)
78 F.R.D. 136, 25 Fed. R. Serv. 2d 770, 1978 U.S. Dist. LEXIS 19538, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/culp-v-devlin-paed-1978.