Henderson v. Holiday CVS, L.L.C.

269 F.R.D. 682, 2010 U.S. Dist. LEXIS 80660, 2010 WL 3153979
CourtDistrict Court, S.D. Florida
DecidedAugust 9, 2010
DocketNo. 09-80909-CIV
StatusPublished
Cited by8 cases

This text of 269 F.R.D. 682 (Henderson v. Holiday CVS, L.L.C.) is published on Counsel Stack Legal Research, covering District Court, S.D. Florida primary law. Counsel Stack provides free access to over 12 million legal documents including statutes, case law, regulations, and constitutions.

Bluebook
Henderson v. Holiday CVS, L.L.C., 269 F.R.D. 682, 2010 U.S. Dist. LEXIS 80660, 2010 WL 3153979 (S.D. Fla. 2010).

Opinion

ORDER

LINNEA R. JOHNSON, United States Magistrate Judge.

THIS CAUSE is before the Court on Plaintiffs Motion to Compel Better Responses to Plaintiffs’ Fourth Request for Production (D.E.# 59). For the following reasons said Motion is granted in part and denied in part in accordance with the terms hereof.

This is a class-action lawsuit brought by Plaintiff, Kristy Henderson, on behalf of herself and others similarly situated, against Defendants, Holiday CVS L.L.C., CVS Care-mark Corporation, and CVS Pharmacy, Inc., and their respective divisions, subsidiaries, and affiliates, under the Fair Labor Standards Act, 29 U.S.C. § 201 et seq. (“FLSA”). Plaintiff was an employee of Defendants who worked as a salaried assistant manager for approximately eight months. Plaintiff alleges that she was mis-elassified by Defendants as being exempt from the overtime protections of the FLSA because her primary duties as an assistant manager were of a non-exempt nature. Accordingly, Plaintiff alleges that Defendants intentionally and willfully failed to properly pay Plaintiff and similarly situated persons throughout the United States for all overtime hours worked in excess of forty (40) hours within a workweek, in violation of the FLSA.

At issue is the validity of certain objections raised by Defendant, Holiday CVS, to Plaintiffs August 5, 2009 Production Requests. Rule 34 of the Federal Rules of Civil Procedure allows any party to serve on any other party requests to produce, inspect and copy, test or sample any documents or tangible things which constitute or contain matters within the scope of Rule 26(b) of the Federal Rules of Civil Procedure. The scope of discovery under Rule 26(b) is broad: “[pjarties may obtain discovery regarding any matter, not privileged, which is relevant to the claim or defense of any party involved in the pending action. Relevant information need not be admissible at trial if the discovery appears reasonably calculated to lead to the discovery of admissible evidence.” Id.; see also Hickman v. Taylor, 329 U.S. 495, 507-508, 67 S.Ct. 385, 91 L.Ed. 451 (1947); Farnsworth v. Procter and Gamble Co., 758 F.2d 1545, 1547 (11th Cir.1985) (the Federal Rules of Civil Procedure “strongly favor full discovery whenever possible”); Canal Authority v. Froehlke, 81 F.R.D. 609, 611 (M.D.Fla.1979). Thus, under Rule 26, relevancy is “construed broadly to encompass any matter that bears on, or that reasonably could lead to another matter that could bear on any issue that is or may be in the case.” Oppenheimer Fund, Inc. v. Sanders, 437 U.S. 340, 352, 98 S.Ct. 2380, 57 L.Ed.2d 253 (1978). Discovery is not limited to the issues raised by the pleadings because “discovery itself is designed to help define and clarify the issues.” Id. at 352, 98 S.Ct. 2380. In short, information can be relevant and therefore discoverable, even if not admissible at trial, so long as the information is reasonably calculated to lead to the discovery of admissible evidence. Dunbar v. United States, 502 F.2d 506 (5th Cir.1974).

While the scope of discovery is broad, it is not without limits. Washington v. Brown & Williamson Tobacco, 959 F.2d 1566, 1570 (11th Cir.1992). Indeed the 2000 Amendment to Rule 26 has effectively limited the scope of discoverable information to those matters which are relevant to a claim or defense in the lawsuit. Dellacasa, LLC v. [686]*686John Moriarty & Ass. of Florida, Inc., 2007 WL 4117261 at *3 (S.D.Fla.2007). Courts have long held that “[wjhile the standard of relevancy [in discovery] is a liberal one, it is not so liberal as to allow a party to ‘roam in the shadow zones of relevancy and to explore matter which does not presently appear germane on the theory that it might conceivably become so.’” Food Lion, Inc. v. United Food & Commercial Workers Intern. Union, 103 F.3d 1007, 1012-13 (C.A.D.C.1997)(quoting Broadway and Ninety-Sixth Street Realty Co. v. Loew’s Inc., 21 F.R.D. 347, 352 (S.D.N.Y.1958)); Donahay v. Palm Beach Tours & Transp., Inc., 2007 WL 1119206 at *1 (S.D.Fla.2007).

Under Fed.R.Civ.P. 26(b)(1) a court may limit discovery of relevant material if it determines that the discovery sought is unreasonably cumulative or duplicative, or obtainable from some other source that is more convenient, less burdensome, or less expensive, or the burden or expense of the proposed discovery outweighs the likely benefit. Id. The party resisting discovery has a heavy burden of showing why the requested discovery should not be permitted. Rossbach v. Rundle, 128 F.Supp.2d 1348, 1354 (S.D.Fla. 2000) (“The onus is on the party resisting discovery to demonstrate specifically how the objected-to information is unnecessary, unreasonable or otherwise unduly burdensome.”); Dunkin’ Donuts, Inc. v. Mary’s Donuts, Inc., 2001 WL 34079319 (S.D.Fla.2001) (“the burden of showing that the requested information is not relevant to the issues in the case is on the party resisting discovery”) (citation omitted); Gober v. City of Leesburg, 197 F.R.D. 519, 521 (M.D.Fla.2000) (“The party resisting production of information bears the burden of establishing lack of relevancy or undue burden in supplying the requested information”). To meet this burden, the party resisting discovery must demonstrate specifically how the objected-to request is unreasonable or otherwise unduly burdensome. See Fed.R.Civ.P. 33(b)(4); Panola Land Buyers Ass’n v. Shuman, 762 F.2d 1550, 1559 (11th Cir.1985); Rossbach, 128 F.Supp.2d at 1353. Thus, to even merit consideration, “an objection must show specifically how a discovery request is overly broad, burdensome or oppressive, by submitting evidence or offering evidence which reveals the nature of the burden.” Coker v. Duke & Co., 177 F.R.D. 682, 686 (M.D.Ala. 1998). Once the resisting party meets its burden, the burden shifts to the moving party to show the information is relevant and necessary. Gober, 197 F.R.D. at 521; see also Hunter’s Ridge Golf Co. Inc. v. GeorgiaPacific Corp., 233 F.R.D. 678, 680 (M.D.Fla. 2006).

As a preliminary matter and before undertaking an analysis of the particular requests and responses/objections thereto, the Court shall address Defendant’s privilege objections.

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269 F.R.D. 682, 2010 U.S. Dist. LEXIS 80660, 2010 WL 3153979, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/henderson-v-holiday-cvs-llc-flsd-2010.