Grano v. Sodexo, Inc.

District Court, S.D. California·Decided June 24, 2020·No. 3:18-cv-01818·Unknown

Opinion

1 2 3 4 5 6 7 UNITED STATES DISTRICT COURT 8 SOUTHERN DISTRICT OF CALIFORNIA 9 Case Nos.: 18cv1818-GPC(BLM) 10 VINCENT GRANO,

11 Plaintiff, ORDER GRANTING IN PART PLAINTIFFS’ MOTION TO COMPEL 12 v. [ECF No. 134] 13 SODEXO MANAGEMENT, INC., et al.,

14 Defendants. 15 ____________________________________ 16 AND RELATED CASES 17 18 Currently before the Court is Plaintiffs’ May 20, 2020 Motion to Compel Production by 19 Defendant Sodexo, Inc. [ECF No. 134-1 ("MTC")], Defendant Sodexo Management Inc.'s May 20 27, 2020 opposition to the motion [ECF No. 138 ("Oppo.")]1, and Plaintiffs' June 2, 2020 reply 21 [ECF No. 142 ("Reply")]. For the reasons set forth below, Plaintiffs' motion is GRANTED IN 22 PART. 23 /// 24 25 1 Defendant’s opposition was initially filed on the docket as ECF No. 135. On May 28, 2020 Sodexo filed a Notice of Errata to Sodexo’s Response in Opposition to Plaintiffs’ Motion to 26 Compel. ECF No. 136. On May 29, 2020, Sodexo filed a Notice of Withdrawal of Sodexo’s 27 Response in Opposition to Plaintiffs’ Motion to Compel [ECF No. 135] and a Notice of Withdrawal of the Notice of Errata [ECF No. 136]. ECF Nos. 137 and 139. Sodexo refiled the opposition at 28 1 DISCOVERY RELATED BACKGROUND 2 On November 14, 2018, the parties filed a Joint Motion for Protective Order. ECF No. 3 20. On November 15, 2018, the Court issued an order granting the parties' motion 4 with modification. ECF No. 21. On December 5, 2019, the parties filed a motion to amend the 5 protective order. ECF No 52. The Court granted the parties' motion to amend the protective 6 order on December 6, 2019. ECF No. 55. 7 On January 3, 2019, Plaintiffs served discovery requests on Sodexo which included 8 Request for Production ("RFP") No. 23. MTC at 2; see also ECF No. 134-2, Declaration of Bruce 9 T. Clark in Support of Plaintiffs’ Motion to Compel Production by Defendant Sodexo Management, 10 Inc. ("Clark Decl.") at ¶ 3. Sodexo objected to RFP No. 23 on April 15, 2019 and later produced 11 a heavily redacted document in response to the request. MTC at 3; see also Clark Decl. at ¶ ¶ 12 4-5, Exh. 4. 13 On January 6, 2020, Plaintiffs served Sodexo with additional discovery including 14 interrogatory No. 22 and corresponding RFP No. 69. MTC at 3-4; see also Clark Decl. at ¶ 15 6. Sodexo objected to interrogatory No. 22 on February 5, 2020 as over broad, burdensome, 16 irrelevant, and privileged. MTC at 3; see also Clark Decl. at ¶ 7. Sodexo has yet to respond to 17 interrogatory No. 22. Id. Sodexo responded with the same objections to RFP No. 69 and stated 18 that it would not produce any responsive documents. MTC at 4; see also Clark Decl. at ¶ 8. 19 Plaintiffs sent a letter to Sodexo on February 5, 2020 addressing Sodexo's response to 20 RFP No. 23. Clark Decl. at ¶ 9. Sodexo responded on February 12, 2020 and explained the 21 reasoning behind its redactions. Id. at ¶ 10. Plaintiffs sent another letter to Sodexo on March 22 13, 2020, Sodexo responded, and on March 18, 2020, the parties met and conferred 23 telephonically. Id. at ¶ 11. As a result of the meet and confer, Plaintiffs agreed to limit the 24 scope of Interrogatory No. 22 and corresponding RFP No. 69. Id. 25 On March 26, 2020, the Court held a telephonic Case Management Conference regarding 26 discovery. ECF No. 99. After the hearing, Plaintiffs sent another meet and confer letter to 27 Sodexo. Clark Decl. at ¶ 14. The parties had a telephonic meet and confer on April 13, 2020 28 and in an April 14, 2020 letter, Plaintiffs offered to limit the time frame of interrogatory No. 22 1 and corresponding RFP No. 69 to 1993 to the present. Id. at ¶¶ 15-16. Plaintiffs emailed 2 Sodexo three more times regarding the discovery issues and on May 1, 2020, Sodexo responded 3 that it stood on its original objections and would not produce any additional documents. Id. 4 at ¶¶ 17-18; see also Exh. 18. 5 On May 7, 2020, counsel for Defendant Sodexo, Messrs. Carlson, Rodolff, and Zackary, 6 counsel for Defendant Cargill, Ms. Bullard, and counsel for Plaintiffs, Messrs. Falkenstein and 7 Clark, jointly contacted the Court regarding a discovery dispute. ECF No. 131. In regard to the 8 dispute, the Court issued a briefing schedule. Id. In accordance with that schedule, the parties 9 timely filed their motion, opposition, and reply. Id.; see also MTC, Oppo., and Reply. 10 LEGAL STANDARD 11 The scope of discovery under the Federal Rules of Civil Procedure (“Fed. R. Civ. P.”) is 12 defined as follows: 13 Parties may obtain discovery regarding any nonprivileged matter that is relevant 14 to any party’s claim or defense and proportional to the needs of the case, considering the importance of the issues at stake in the action, the amount in 15 controversy, the parties’ relative access to relevant information, the parties’ 16 resources, the importance of the discovery in resolving the issues, and whether 17 the burden or expense of the proposed discovery outweighs its likely benefit. Information within this scope of discovery need not be admissible in evidence to 18 be discoverable. 19 20 Fed. R. Civ. P. 26(b)(1). 21 District courts have broad discretion to determine relevancy for discovery purposes. See 22 Hallett v. Morgan, 296 F.3d 732, 751 (9th Cir. 2002). District courts also have broad discretion 23 to limit discovery to prevent its abuse. See Fed. R. Civ. P. 26(b)(2) (instructing that courts must 24 limit discovery where the party seeking the discovery “has had ample opportunity to obtain the 25 information by discovery in the action” or where the proposed discovery is “unreasonably 26 cumulative or duplicative,” “obtain[able] from some other source that is more convenient, less 27 burdensome, or less expensive,” or where it “is outside the scope permitted by Rule 26(b)(1)”). 28 A party may request the production of any document within the scope of Rule 26(b). 1 Fed. R. Civ. P. 34(a). “For each item or category, the response must either state that inspection 2 and related activities will be permitted as requested or state with specificity the grounds for 3 objecting to the request, including the reasons.” Id. at 34(b)(2)(B). The responding party is 4 responsible for all items in “the responding party’s possession, custody, or control.” Id. at 5 34(a)(1). Actual possession, custody or control is not required. Rather, “[a] party may be 6 ordered to produce a document in the possession of a non-party entity if that party has a legal 7 right to obtain the document or has control over the entity who is in possession of 8 the document.” Soto v. City of Concord, 162 F.R.D. 603, 619 (N.D. Cal. 1995). 9 An interrogatory may relate to any matter that may be inquired under Rule 26(b). Fed. 10 R. Civ. P. 33(a)(2). “The grounds for objecting to an interrogatory must be stated with 11 specificity, [and] [a]ny ground not stated in a timely objection is waived unless the court, for 12 good cause, excuses the failure.” Fed. R. Civ. P. 33(b)(4). Any interrogatory not objected to 13 must be answered fully in writing under oath. Fed. R. Civ. P. 33(b)(3).

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