Gaspar v. Turn Technologies Inc

Opinion

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3 4 5 6 UNITED STATES DISTRICT COURT 7 WESTERN DISTRICT OF WASHINGTON AT SEATTLE 8 BRIAN GASPAR, 9 Plaintiff, 10 v. C23-1274 TSZ 11 TURN TECHNOLOGIES INC; and MINUTE ORDER 12 RAHIER RAHMAN, 13 Defendants.

14 The following Minute Order is made by direction of the Court, the Honorable Thomas S. Zilly, United States District Judge: 15 (1) Plaintiff’s Motion to Compel Discovery Answers and Responses, docket 16 no. 86, is GRANTED in part and DENIED in part, as follows: 17 (a) Plaintiff’s request for production of his entire Microsoft Outlook account, including email, calendar, tasks, and notes, is GRANTED in part. Plaintiff is 18 directed to identify not more than twenty-five (25) reasonable search terms within seven (7) days of the entry of this Minute Order. Defendants shall use the terms to search 19 Plaintiff’s Outlook email account, including all emails, drafts, and messages sent from and received by Plaintiff, and Plaintiff’s Outlook calendar events and to produce all 20 nonprivileged emails, drafts, messages, calendar events, and their attachments resulting from the search within twenty-one (21) days of the entry of this Minute Order. The 21 remainder of the request is DENIED. 22 1 (b) Plaintiff’s request for identification and production of documents that include internal communications mentioning him, his performance, complaints, 2 background checks, termination, and other related topics is GRANTED in part. Plaintiff may identify not more than ten (10) additional and reasonable search terms within seven 3 (7) days of the entry of this Minute Order. Defendants shall use all terms (i.e. up to thirty- five (35) terms) to search internal communications, and shall produce all nonprivileged 4 documents responsive to this request, to the extent they exist, within twenty-one (21) days of the entry of this Minute Order. The remainder of the request is DENIED. 5 (c) Plaintiff’s request for the production of personnel records of himself, 6 comparators, executives, and other employees allegedly subjected to background checks or similar discipline is GRANTED only as to the personnel file of Defendant Rahier 7 Rahman and limited to documents therein containing any references to Plaintiff and references to any actions taken relating to Plaintiff. Defendants shall produce such 8 nonprivileged documents, to the extent they exist, within twenty-one (21) days of the entry of this Minute Order. The remainder of the request is DENIED. 9 (d) Plaintiff’s request for the identification and production of complaints and performance records involving Defendant Rahier Rahman or other decisionmakers 10 and related personnel is DENIED. 11 (e) Plaintiff’s request that Defendants provide verification for their interrogatory responses as required under Civil Rule 33(a) is DENIED as MOOT. 12 (f) Plaintiff’s request for documents substantiating breach of contract 13 claims regarding the bonus and equity awards, including board meeting minutes and corporate governance documents, is DENIED. 14 (g) Plaintiff’s request for Defendants to disclose their document 15 retention and preservation efforts in response to discovery requests is DENIED. See Zunum Aero, Inc. v. Boeing Co., 2023 WL 11835334 (W.D. Wash. Nov. 13, 2023). 16 (h) Plaintiff’s request that Defendants provide factual support and 17 documents relating to their affirmative defenses is GRANTED in part as to Interrogatory No. 6. The interrogatory and Defendants’ answer are both overly broad. The Court orders 18 Defendants to identify any material facts they claim support their affirmative defenses within twenty-one (21) days of the entry of this Minute Order. The request for the 19 production of documents, Request For Production No. N, is GRANTED. Defendants shall produce any responsive documents within twenty-one (21) days of the entry of this 20 Minute Order and/or produce a privilege log identifying any documents withheld and the nature of any privileged claims. 21 22 1 (i) Plaintiff’s request that Defendants provide factual support and documents for each of their counterclaims, including fraud, conversion, breach of 2 fiduciary duty, and breach of contract is DENIED as overbroad. 3 (2) Within three (3) business days of completing the discovery required, Defendants shall file a certificate of compliance signed by their counsel. 4 (3) The Clerk is directed to send a copy of this Minute Order to all counsel of record. 5 Dated this 8th day of April, 2025. 6 7 Ravi Subramanian Clerk 8 s/Laurie Cuaresma 9 Deputy Clerk 10 11 12 13 14 15 16 17 18 19 20 21 22