Haugton v. District of Columbia

315 F.R.D. 424, 2014 U.S. Dist. LEXIS 186201, 2014 WL 11397862
CourtDistrict Court, District of Columbia
DecidedJuly 15, 2014
DocketCivil Action No. 12-CV-1767 (KBJ-AK)
StatusPublished
Cited by5 cases

This text of 315 F.R.D. 424 (Haugton v. District of Columbia) is published on Counsel Stack Legal Research, covering District Court, District of Columbia primary law. Counsel Stack provides free access to over 12 million legal documents including statutes, case law, regulations, and constitutions.

Bluebook
Haugton v. District of Columbia, 315 F.R.D. 424, 2014 U.S. Dist. LEXIS 186201, 2014 WL 11397862 (D.D.C. 2014).

Opinion

MEMORANDUM ORDER

ALAN KAY, UNITED STATES MAGISTRATE JUDGE

Pending before the Court are Phillip Haughton’s Motion to Compel Discovery and for Sanctions (“Motion”) [23]; District of Columbia’s Opposition to the Motion (“Opposition”) [26]; and Phillip Haughton’s Reply to the Opposition (“Reply”) [29]. Plaintiff Phillip Haughton (“Plaintiff’) moves this Court to compel Defendant District of Columbia (“Defendant”) to produce responses to Interrogatories Nos. 2-5, and 7-17, Requests for Documents Nos. 2-21, and Requests for Admissions Nos. 1, 3-8, and 10-13.

I. Background

The underlying case stems from a complaint filed by Plaintiff alleging disability discrimination, discriminatory termination, and retaliation. Plaintiff was an employee of District of Columbia Public Schools (“DCPS”), an organization operated by Defendant, District of Columbia, a municipal corporation. Plaintiff sent its discovery requests to Defendant on December 23, 2013. (Motion at 1). When Plaintiff was unsatisfied with Defendant’s responses, he requested a conference call with the chambers of United States District Judge Ketanji Jackson and the discovery dispute was subsequently referred to Magistrate Judge Alan Kay. (Id. at 2). The undersigned held a telephone conference on March 21, 2014, and requested that each party submit a memorandum detailing their position. See Plaintiffs Memorandum of Law Concerning the Discovery Dispute [21] and The District’s Position Statement on Discovery [22]. In light of the Court’s review of these memoranda, the Court determined that the discovery disputes needed to be briefed. See April 2, 2014 Minute Order. Plaintiff filed the instant Motion on May 1, 2014.1

Plaintiffs interrogatories asked for various information about the case, including contact information for people with knowledge on the case, the terms of Plaintiffs employment, and statements of potential expert witnesses. While Defendant, in its Opposition, replied to each interrogatory individually, a summary of Defendant’s objections to each of the requests follows:

• Interrogatories Nos. 3, 8, 14, and 15 were alleged to be “overly broad, vexatious, and unduly burdensome.”
• Interrogatories Nos. 9 and 16 were alleged to be “vexatious and unduly burdensome.”
• Interrogatories Nos. 4, 5, 7, 8, 9, and 15 were alleged to violate the attorney-client privilege and the work product doctrine.2
• Interrogatory No. 16 was alleged to violate the attorney-client privilege, the work product doctrine, and the deliberative process privilege.

Further, Defendant claimed that, for each interrogatory, the burden of sorting through the documents for the relevant information was the same for each party. Therefore, under Rule 33(d), providing Plaintiffs with the complete files to search through for the relevant documents constitutes a complete response. The documents produced by Defendant represent the totality of three files: Plaintiffs Personnel File (DCPS 000001-000409), Plaintiffs Equal Employment Opportunity File (“EEO File”) (DCPS 000410-001050), and Plaintiffs Office of Employee [426]*426Appeals File (“OEA File”) (DCPS 001051-001184). Below is a list of Defendant’s responses regarding each interrogatory:

• Interrogatories Nos. 2, 4,11,16: Defendant directed Plaintiff to Plaintiffs complete OEA File which includes 135 pages of documents.
• Interrogatories Nos. 3 and 12-15: Defendant directed Plaintiff to Plaintiffs complete Personnel File and EEO File, totaling 1050 pages of documents.
• Interrogatories Nos. 7-10: Defendant directed Plaintiff to all three files, Plaintiffs Personnel File, EEO File and OEA File, totaling 1184 pages of documents.
• Interrogatory No. 5: Defendant provided no information because it claims it has not yet decided if an expert witness is needed.
• Interrogatory No. 17: Defendant directed Plaintiff to Defendant’s responses to Plaintiffs requests for admissions.

Plaintiffs Document Requests asked for documents including those relating to Plaintiffs job duties and performance and documents regarding his reasonable accommodation complaints. A summary of Defendant’s objections to the requests follows:

• Document Requests 1-3, 7-8,12-13, and 15 were alleged to be ‘Vexatious, overly broad, and unduly burdensome.”
• Document Requests 18-20 were alleged to be “overly broad and unduly burdensome.”
• Document Requests Nos. 1, 3, 7, 16, and 18-20 were alleged to be in violation of attorney-client privilege, work product doctrine, and deliberative process privilege.
• Document Request No. 8 was alleged to be in violation of attorney-client privilege and work product doctrine.
• Document Requests Nos. 4, 5, and 11 were objected to because the relevant documents were alleged to be in Plaintiffs possession already.
• Document Requests Nos. 7, 8, 12, 13, and 15 were alleged to request information that “is not relevant to a claim or defense of any party, not reasonably calculated to lead to the discovery of admissible evidence, and not relevant to any subject matter of this litigation.”
• Document Request No. 7 was alleged to request confidential personnel information protected under the D.C. Code and to constitute an unwarranted invasion into personal privacy.
• Document Request No. 11 was alleged to provide insufficient information for the Defendant to identify any responsive documents.
• Document Requests Nos. 14 and 16 were objected to because they seek information about a request that was made 25 years ago, before the Americans with Disabilities Act Amendments Act of 2008 was passed, and because it is unclear what effects the Americans with Disabilities Act of 1990 would have had on this request.
• Document Request No. 21 was objected to because the Defendant had not yet determined whether it will need an expert witness.

Although Defendant objected to almost all of Plaintiffs Document Requests, it did provide Plaintiff with the same documents that it referred to in its answers to Plaintiffs interrogatories. A summary of the documents that were provided in response to each request follows:

• Document Requests Nos. 2-3, 12, 15, and 19: Defendant directed Plaintiff to all three files, Personnel File, EEO File and OEA File, totaling 1184 pages of documents.
• Document Requests Nos. 4-6, 9-10,14, and 16: Defendant directed Plaintiff to Plaintiffs complete Personnel File and EEO File, totaling 1050 pages of documents.
• Document Requests Nos. 7-8, 18, and 20: Defendant directed Plaintiff to Plaintiffs complete OEA File, which includes 135 pages of documents.
• Document Request No. 11: Plaintiffs initial request was not sufficiently detailed for Defendant to know what to [427]*427provide. Plaintiff has since clarified the request and Defendant intends to provide the documents.

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315 F.R.D. 424, 2014 U.S. Dist. LEXIS 186201, 2014 WL 11397862, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/haugton-v-district-of-columbia-dcd-2014.