Garcia v. City of Imperial

270 F.R.D. 566, 2010 U.S. Dist. LEXIS 78135, 2010 WL 3063289
CourtDistrict Court, S.D. California
DecidedAugust 2, 2010
DocketNo. 08cv2357 BTM (PCL)
StatusPublished
Cited by3 cases

This text of 270 F.R.D. 566 (Garcia v. City of Imperial) is published on Counsel Stack Legal Research, covering District Court, S.D. California primary law. Counsel Stack provides free access to over 12 million legal documents including statutes, case law, regulations, and constitutions.

Bluebook
Garcia v. City of Imperial, 270 F.R.D. 566, 2010 U.S. Dist. LEXIS 78135, 2010 WL 3063289 (S.D. Cal. 2010).

Opinion

ORDER ON PLAINTIFF’S SECOND MOTION TO COMPEL PRODUCTION OF DOCUMENTS

PETER C. LEWIS, United States Magistrate Judge.

INTRODUCTION

Plaintiff, Ruben Garcia, a minor, brings this civil rights action for money damages pursuant to 42 U.S.C. § 1983 for alleged use of excessive force stemming from an incident which occurred on November 3, 2007. (Doe. No. 1, 2.) Plaintiff now moves the Court for an Order pursuant to Rule 37(a) of the Federal Rules of Civil Procedure compelling Defendants to produce (1) insurance or third party investigation reports of the incident; (2) Defendant Officers’ financial information; (3) documents concerning “the alleged mixed martial arts training or and response tactics used by City police officers;” and (4) documents concerning investigations, reports, complaints or lawsuits alleging the use of excessive force by City officers. (Doc. No. 79-1 at 6.)

[568]*568Defendants filed a response opposing the Motion. (Doc. No. 92.) Defendants argue the documents requested are protected by work-product and official information privileges as well as the Officers’ right to privacy and are irrelevant in this litigation. (Id. generally.) In addition to providing Plaintiff a privilege log of the documents requested, Defendants have submitted one category of documents for in camera review.1

Having considered the arguments submitted for and in opposition to this Motion, the Court GRANTS in part, and DENIES in part, Plaintiffs Motion to Compel Production of Documents.

BACKGROUND

Plaintiff alleges that on November 3, 2007, Officer Abel Heredia, a City of Imperial police officer, shot him in the back with a Taser while detaining him for investigation of a minor graffiti charge. (FAC, ¶¶ 14-21.) Plaintiff has brought claims under 42 U.S.C. § 1983 as well as tort claims against Officer Heredia and Officer Valenzuela, another officer at the scene. Plaintiff has also brought a Monell claim against the City of Imperial (the “City”), alleging that the City has unlawful customs or practices of (1) improper and inadequate hiring, training, retention, discipline and/or supervision of its police officers; and (2) permitting or condoning the application of excessive force, including the improper use ofTasers. (FAC, ¶¶ 43-49.)

(Doc. No. 62 at 1-2.)2

During the discovery process, Plaintiff served Defendant City of Imperial (hereinafter “City”) with Request for Production of Documents Set No. 2 and Interrogatories Set No. 2 (Id. Ex. B) requesting insurance or third party investigation reports of the incident; documents concerning “the alleged mixed martial arts training” of citizens and “response tactics used by City police officers;” and documents concerning investigations, reports, complaints or lawsuits alleging the use of excessive force by City officers. (Doc. No. 79-3, Ex. A; Ex. B.) Plaintiff also served both Officers Valenzuela and Heredia with Requests for Production of Documents Set No. 1 and Interrogatories Set No. 1 requesting financial documents to show annual salary, assets, liabilities and net worth for the years 2007 through 2009. (Doc. No. 79-3, Exs. C; E; D; F.)

Defendants declined to produce the requested documents citing various privileges, right to privacy and relevancy issues. (Id. Exs. G-L.) On December 18, 2009, Plaintiffs counsel sent a letter to Defendants in an attempt to “meet and confer” regarding the lack of production. (Id. Ex. M.) The specific documents requested were not produced, however, Defendants prepared and produced a privilege log regarding the requests for the insurance investigation reports on February 10, 2010. (Id. Exs. O; P.) On March 18, 2010, Plaintiffs counsel wrote to Defense counsel requesting a supplemental privilege log for the insurance reports. (Id. Ex. Q.) Defendants produced responses intended to supplement the privilege log in accordance with Plaintiffs request on March 29, 2010. (Id. Ex. R.) The Court notes the correspondence between the parties of April 7, 2010 (Id. Ex. S) and April 8, 2010 (Id. Ex. T) contains no dispute regarding production of the Defendant Officers’ financial records or documents concerning “the alleged mixed martial arts training” of citizens and “response tactics used by City police officers.” On May 25, 2010, Plaintiff filed this Motion. (Doc. No. 79.) By Minute Order dated June 14, 2010, District Judge Moskowitz referred the Motion to the undersigned for decision. (Doc. No. 85.)

[569]*569DISCUSSION

Federal Rule of Civil Procedure 37(a) provides that upon “notice to other parties and all affected persons, a party may move for an order compelling disclosure or discovery.”

A party seeking discovery may move for an order compelling an answer, designation, production, or inspection .. if ... a party fails to respond that inspection will be permitted — or fails to permit inspection — as requested under Rule 34____ [E]vasive or incomplete disclosure, answer, or response must be treated as a failure to disclose, answer, or respond.

Fed.R.Civ.P. 37(a)(3)(B), (4).

Generally, discovery may be obtained “regarding any nonprivileged matter that is relevant to any party’s claim or defense.” Fed. R.Civ.P. 26(b)(1). Relevancy in the discovery context has been construed broadly to encompass any matter that bears on, or that reasonably could lead to other matters that bear on, any issue that is in the case. See Oppenheimer Fund, Inc. v. Sanders, 437 U.S. 340, 352, 98 S.Ct. 2380, 57 L.Ed.2d 253 (1978) (citing Hickman v. Taylor, 329 U.S. 495, 501, 67 S.Ct. 385, 91 L.Ed. 451 (1947)). Therefore, a discovery request directed at discovering a matter which is not reasonably calculated to lead to the discovery of admissible evidence is not within the scope of Federal Rule of Civil Procedure 26(b)(1). See id. Consistent with this rule, discovery is not limited to the merits of a case, for a variety of fact-oriented issues may arise during litigation that are not related to the merits. See id.

The Court notes Plaintiffs Motion requests documents and information in four distinct categories. As each of these categories is subject to analysis under a different privilege or doctrine of protection, the Court reviews each disputed request in turn.

A. Documents Regarding Insurance Investigation Reports of the Incident

In RFP No. 31, Plaintiff requests: “All documents concerning any investigation or evaluation conducted by ... any third party, including Carl Warren & Co.

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Bluebook (online)
270 F.R.D. 566, 2010 U.S. Dist. LEXIS 78135, 2010 WL 3063289, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/garcia-v-city-of-imperial-casd-2010.