Go v. Rockefeller University

280 F.R.D. 165, 2012 WL 794940
CourtDistrict Court, S.D. New York
DecidedMarch 9, 2012
DocketNos. 04 Civ. 4008 (JSR)(HBP), 06 Civ. 1825 (JSR)(HBP)
StatusPublished
Cited by13 cases

This text of 280 F.R.D. 165 (Go v. Rockefeller University) is published on Counsel Stack Legal Research, covering District Court, S.D. New York primary law. Counsel Stack provides free access to over 12 million legal documents including statutes, case law, regulations, and constitutions.

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Go v. Rockefeller University, 280 F.R.D. 165, 2012 WL 794940 (S.D.N.Y. 2012).

Opinion

OPINION AND ORDER

PITMAN, United States Magistrate Judge:

I. Introduction

Plaintiff moves for an Order, pursuant to Rule 37(a)(2) of the Federal Rules of Civil Procedure, compelling (a) production of additional documents in response to her document requests, and (b) revised responses to her requests for admissions (Plaintiffs Response to Order Filed October 28, 2010, dated Nov. 19, 2010 (“Plaintiffs Response to Order”) (Docket Item 1291) at 11-13). For [169]*169the reasons set forth below, plaintiffs motion is granted in part and denied in part.

II. Facts

A. Background

Plaintiff, Rosita Go, proceeding pro se, brings this action against her former employer, Rockefeller University, and several of her former co-workers, alleging discrimination on the bases of race, gender, national origin, disability, and age. Plaintiffs claims are discussed in detail in my March 2, 2009 Report and Recommendation (Docket Item 62), familiarity with which is assumed.

On February 16, and May 10, 2010, plaintiff served discovery requests on the defendants which contained 67 requests for production of documents and 248 requests for admissions (Exhibits 9, 15, 17, 18, 19 to Declaration in Response to Court Order Filed October 28, 2010, filed Nov. 24, 2010 (“Go Decl.”) (Docket Item 130)). On March 18 and 26, April 22, and July 12, 2010, defendants served objections and responses to plaintiffs discovery requests and produced a total of 1,151 pages of documents and a privilege log of documents redacted or withheld on the basis of privilege (see Exhibits 1 and 2 to Go Decl.).

Following the dismissal of certain claims and defendants, I issued an Order, dated October 28, 2010 (Docket Item 128), outlining the claims remaining in the cases:

Based on my review of the record in these cases, it is my understanding that only the following claims remain: (1) plaintiffs claims against Rockefeller University for (a) race and national origin-based discrimination in violation of Title VII, (b) age discrimination in violation of the ADEA, (c) discrimination and retaliation in violation of the NYSHRL and NYCHRL, (d) violation of the Rehabilitation Act and (e) racial discrimination in violation of Section 1981, and (2) plaintiffs claims against the Individual Rockefeller Defendants (Roberta Maloney, Kathleen Cassidy, Michelle Keenan, and Gloria Chang DiGennaro) (a) for racial discrimination in violation of the NYSHRL and the NYCHRL, and (b) for racial discrimination in violation of Section 1981.
No later than November 19, 2010, all parties are to advise whether they disagree with my understanding of what is left in these eases. The parties are also to advise me at that time whether there is any reason why the pretrial order should not be filed by December 31,2010.

I also directed plaintiff to raise all existing discovery issues with me no later than December 20, 2010. Plaintiff and counsel for the remaining defendants responded to my October 28, 2010 Order and concurred with my understanding of the claims remaining in the case (see Order, dated Dec. 2, 2010 (Docket Item 131)).

B. The Present Dispute

As part of her submission responding to my October 28, 2010 Order, plaintiff requested my “assistance in requiring defendants^] ... [production of [documents ... pursuant to Fed.R.Civ.P. 37(a)(2)” and in obtaining revised responses to her requests for admissions (Plaintiffs Response to Order at 11 (the “November 19, 2010 Motion to Compel”)).

With respect to her document requests, plaintiff argues that (a) defendants did not produce all responsive documents; (b) defendants’ “dumping 1,151 documents without identifying which, if any, of the documents produced are responsive to plaintiffs specific requests” was improper pursuant to Federal Rule of Civil Procedure 34; (e) defendants produced many “after-the-fact ‘handwritten’ documents [that are] clearly fabricated]”; (d) defendants improperly restricted their responses to a more narrow time frame than plaintiff sought; (e) defendants erroneously relied upon claims of privilege and confidentiality “as a shield from their disclosure”; (f) defendants improperly withheld documents which were electronically stored; and (g) defendant’s improperly “interposed the familiar litany that the request [is] ‘irrelevant, burdensome, oppressive, overly broad’ and a plethora of frivolous, unreasonable and groundless objections without clarifying and explaining their objections and providing] support thereof’ (Plaintiffs Response to Order at 11-12; Plaintiffs Memorandum of [170]*170Law attached to Go Deel., dated Nov. 19, 2011 (“Plaintiffs Nov. 19 Memo, of Law”) at ¶¶ 2-5, 8, 10-12, 15, 18, 20, 23-29, 34-36, 40-45).

With respect to her requests for admissions, plaintiff contends that it was improper for defendants’ attorney to sign the responses to the requests (Plaintiffs Response to Order at 11-12).

Defendants argue that they have fully responded to forty-eight of plaintiffs documents requests,2 and represent that, as to another four of plaintiffs requests,3 “[they] have diligently searched for responsive documents but have been unable to locate any” (Defendants’ Memorandum of Law in Opposition to Plaintiffs Motion to Compel Dated November 19, 2010, filed Dec. 20, 2010 (“Defendants’ Memo. Of Law”) (Docket Item 132) at 3-4). As to the remaining fifteen document requests,4 defendants make individual arguments as to why each is improper, arguing generally that the requests “call for the production of information that is irrelevant, overly broad ... unduly burdensome ... ha[ve] no probative value to this litigationf, are] personal and confidential [and the requests amount to a] fishing expedition that is meant to do nothing more than harass Defendants” (Defendants’ Memo, of Law at 5-16). Additionally, defendants agreed to provide plaintiff with a reference sheet identifying the specific requests to which each document is responsive (Defendants’ Memo of Law at 3^4). With respect to plaintiffs requests for admission, defendants assert that they have complied with the Federal Rules of Civil Procedure in replying to plaintiffs requests (Defendants’ Memo, of Law at 2).

By notice of motion dated April 30, 2011, plaintiff again moved, pursuant to Federal Rule of Civil Procedure 37(a)(2), to compel further production of documents responsive to her sixty-seven document requests and to compel revised responses to her requests for admission (Docket Item 133) (the “April 30, 2011 Motion to Compel”). Plaintiff claims that defendants only provided her with a reference sheet identifying which documents are responsive to each request eight months after defendants produced those documents (Plaintiffs Affirmation, dated Apr.

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280 F.R.D. 165, 2012 WL 794940, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/go-v-rockefeller-university-nysd-2012.