GREENBANK v. GREAT AMERICAN ASSURANCE COMPANY

District Court, S.D. Indiana·Decided December 4, 2019·No. 3:18-cv-00239·Unknown

Opinion

UNITED STATES DISTRICT COURT SOUTHERN DISTRICT OF INDIANA EVANSVILLE DIVISION

JULIE GREENBANK, ) ) Plaintiff, ) ) v. ) No. 3:18-cv-00239-SEB-MPB ) GREAT AMERICAN ASSURANCE ) COMPANY, ) ) Defendant. )

ORDER ON PLAINTIFF’S MOTIONS TO COMPEL AND DEFENDANT’S MOTION FOR ORAL ARGUMENT

This matter is before the Court on Plaintiff’s Julie Greenbank, Motion to Compel (Docket No. 48) and Supplemental Motion to Compel (Docket No. 53). These motions are fully briefed with a combined response (Docket No. 57) and a reply (Docket No. 62). Defendant, Great American Assurance Company (“Great American”) has also requested Oral Argument as to Plaintiff’s motions. (Docket No. 58). As explained below, the Court GRANTS in part and DENIES in part Julie Greenbank’s Motion and Supplemental Motion to Compel (Docket No. 48; Docket No. 53). Great American’s request for Oral Argument (Docket No. 58) is DENIED as moot. I. OVERVIEW This matter involves a dispute between Ms. Greenbank, a horse owner, and the insurance company that provided the horse’s equine mortality policy, which included a major medical provision. On December 20, 2018, Julie Greenbank filed her Amended Complaint alleging that Great American, the insurer for Ms. Greenbank’s horse, Thomas, breached its contract with Ms. Greenbank and was liable for bad faith, theft, conversion, criminal mischief, fraud, and negligence. (See generally Docket No. 10). Ms. Greenbank’s legal claims against Great American are grounded in allegations that Great American improperly took possession and control of Thomas, rather than authorizing euthanization, so that Great American could avoid having to pay out benefits for a mortality loss under the parties’ insurance policy. (Id.). Ms.

Greenbank argues that Great American has subjected Thomas to inhumane, controversial, and excessive medical procedures to keep him alive and avoid paying out the policy. (Id.). Great American held an $500,000 equine mortality policy, which included major medical and guaranteed renewal endorsements, on Thomas. (Docket No. 10, ¶ 11). It asserts that it took possession of Thomas pursuant to a policy provision that permitted it to assume control over Thomas’s medical treatment at its expense. (See generally Docket No. 11; Docket No. 15-1 at ECF pp. 3–4). Great American retained Hagyard Equine Medical Institute (“Hagyard”) to provide Thomas’s ongoing medical treatment, which is where he remains today. (Docket No. 48- 1 at ECF p. 34). Great American subsequently terminated the insurance policy for a multitude of reasons. (See generally Docket No. 11; Docket No. 15-1 at ECF pp. 3–4). Great American claims

that since it took possession and control of Thomas’s care, Thomas has made a significant recovery. (Id.). Of relevance, in its Answer, Great American asserts Affirmative Defense No. 27, which provides that “[a]t all times, Defendant has acted appropriately and in good faith and in compliance with applicable provisions of law.” (Docket No. 11 at ECF p. 13). At the time of the instant dispute, Ms. Greenbank had served six sets of discovery, constituting over 100 individual requests for documents. (Docket No. 57-2). These included Ms. Greenbank’s Requests for Production (“RFP) seeking, in part, documents relating to the possession, control, and treatment of Thomas, the policies, claims and investigation under the policies, including internal communications, from June 2018 to present. (Docket No. 48-4; Docket No. 48-5; Docket No. 48-6). In response, Great American has served over 5,000 pages of documents, including pre and post-suit text communications of Great American personnel, Great American’s pre-suit claim notes, post-suit photographs, and videos of Thomas. (Docket No. 57- 3; Docket No. 57-4; Docket No. 57-5; Docket No. 57-6).

On May 7, 2019, Great American produced a 79-page Privilege Log withholding or redacting nearly 800 documents based on confidentiality, relevance, and attorney-client/work- product privileges. (Docket No. 48-7). Ms. Greenbank took issue with several documents in the original privilege log and demanded to review almost the entirety of the alleged attorney-client and work-product privileged documents enclosed therein. (Docket No. 57-9 at ECF p. 1). On June 27, 2019, Great American provided a Supplemental Privilege Log with additional explanations for the items that Ms. Greenbank wished to review. (Docket No. 57 at ECF p. 7).1 The Supplemental Log specifies responsive documents withheld or redacted under privileges for (i) attorney-client, (ii) work product, (iii) relevance and, (iv) confidentiality. (Docket No. 57-8). Ms. Greenbank argues that it was evident during Great American’s senior claims adjuster

(Bloxsom), senior underwriter (Barcus), and claims supervisor’s (Moore) depositions that none had seen the Privilege Log prior to the deposition, had been asked to review any document for privilege, had knowledge as to why their documents have been withheld or redacted. (Docket No. 48-1 at ECF pp. 35–36; Docket No. 48-2 at ECF p. 21; Docket No. 48-3 at ECF p. 24). Ms. Greenbank takes issue with this testimony because the majority of documents on the

1 In Great American’s counsel’s letter that accompanied the Supplemental Privilege Log, he explained that the longer original Privilege Log had repeated descriptions because the attachments to emails had been listed separately from the emails to which they were attached. (Docket No. 57-9 at ECF pp. 1–2). Counsel also explained that, with few exceptions, the attachments themselves had been produced and only the underlying communications and “obviously privileged documents” were withheld. (Docket No. 57 at ECF p. 8, citing Docket No. 57-9 at ECF p. 2). Supplemental Log were sent or received by these individuals. Moreover, Ms. Greenbank argues, these deponents also refused to answer questions regarding factual matters occurring after the filing of the Complaint and regarding Great American’s reliance on the advice of counsel for its good faith defense.

Thus, Ms. Greenbank seeks an order compelling Defendant to produce documents and answer deposition questions. Specifically, Ms. Greenbank seeks an Order that Defendant: (1) produce all documents identified in the Supplemental Privilege Log in their narrative form2, without redaction; (2) produce all internal documents and communications, which originated after the filing of the Complaint and are responsive to Plaintiff’s Requests for Production in their native form, without redaction, including the Claim Note File and the Underwriting File; (3) produce Charlotte Bloxsom, Meriwether Moore, and Marlena Barcus for a second deposition in Evansville, Indiana; and (4) be sanctioned in the amount of Ms. Greenbank’s attorneys’ fees and costs incurred relating to the Motion to Compel and the taking of the second depositions of Bloxsom, Moore, and Marcus. (Docket No. 49).

The parties were unable to resolve the dispute informally. The Court has held at least seven telephonic discovery conferences in this litigation (see, e.g., Docket No. 34, Docket No. 40, Docket No. 43, Docket No. 46, Docket No. 70, Docket No. 72, and Docket No. 75), both on matters addressed in this briefing and a host of other issues. The issues in this motion remain contested for the Court’s review.

2 The Supplemental Privilege Log references 125 documents that total more than 400 pages. (Docket No. 57-8). It also references the original 79-page privilege log, but it is unclear if this reference means that Ms. Greenbank’s prayer for relief encapsulates the 79-page privilege log as well. I. ANALYSIS a. Standard If parties cannot informally resolve a discovery dispute, Federal Rule of Civil Procedure 37 provides a vehicle for the aggrieved party to request an order from the court compelling

discovery.

Free access — add to your briefcase to read the full text and ask questions with AI

GREENBANK v. GREAT AMERICAN ASSURANCE COMPANY, (S.D. Ind. 2019).

GREENBANK v. GREAT AMERICAN ASSURANCE COMPANY (GREENBANK v. GREAT AMERICAN ASSURANCE COMPANY) — published by Counsel Stack Legal Research, free access to 12M+ legal documents.

Related

Hickman v. Taylor
329 U.S. 495 (Supreme Court, 1947)
Swidler & Berlin v. United States
524 U.S. 399 (Supreme Court, 1998)
Clifford v. Crop Production Services, Inc.
627 F.3d 268 (Seventh Circuit, 2010)
United States v. Richard L. White
950 F.2d 426 (Seventh Circuit, 1991)
United States v. William F. Farley
11 F.3d 1385 (Seventh Circuit, 1993)
Leo Logan v. Commercial Union Insurance Company
96 F.3d 971 (Seventh Circuit, 1996)
Kim Patterson v. Avery Dennison Corporation
281 F.3d 676 (Seventh Circuit, 2002)
Owens v. Best Beers of Bloomington, Inc.
648 N.E.2d 699 (Indiana Court of Appeals, 1995)
Canfield v. Sandock
563 N.E.2d 526 (Indiana Supreme Court, 1990)
In Re the Commitment of J.B.
766 N.E.2d 795 (Indiana Court of Appeals, 2002)
Lahr v. State
731 N.E.2d 479 (Indiana Court of Appeals, 2000)
Harter v. University of Indianapolis
5 F. Supp. 2d 657 (S.D. Indiana, 1998)
In Re Bridgestone/Firestone, Inc., ATX, ATX II
129 F. Supp. 2d 1207 (S.D. Indiana, 2001)
Caremark, Inc. v. Affiliated Computer Services, Inc.
195 F.R.D. 610 (N.D. Illinois, 2000)
Urban Outfitters, Inc. v. DPIC Companies, Inc.
203 F.R.D. 376 (N.D. Illinois, 2001)
Long v. Anderson University
204 F.R.D. 129 (S.D. Indiana, 2001)
Chavez v. Daimlerchrysler Corp.
206 F.R.D. 615 (S.D. Indiana, 2002)