Horace Mann Insurance v. Nationwide Mutual Insurance

238 F.R.D. 536, 2006 U.S. Dist. LEXIS 58052, 2006 WL 2401513
CourtDistrict Court, D. Connecticut
DecidedAugust 18, 2006
DocketCivil No. 3:05-CV-664(CFD)(TPS)
StatusPublished
Cited by14 cases

This text of 238 F.R.D. 536 (Horace Mann Insurance v. Nationwide Mutual Insurance) is published on Counsel Stack Legal Research, covering District Court, D. Connecticut primary law. Counsel Stack provides free access to over 12 million legal documents including statutes, case law, regulations, and constitutions.

Bluebook
Horace Mann Insurance v. Nationwide Mutual Insurance, 238 F.R.D. 536, 2006 U.S. Dist. LEXIS 58052, 2006 WL 2401513 (D. Conn. 2006).

Opinion

Ruling on Defendant’s Motion to Compel

SMITH, United States Magistrate Judge.

This action is primarily an indemnification/subrogation dispute between two insurance companies. On October 23,1994 a vehicle driven by John Pruden (“Pruden”) and [537]*537owned by Bruce Power (“Power”) was involved in a one-car accident wherein Vicki Benton (“Benton”), a passenger in the car, was injured. Pruden was insured by Horace Mann Insurance Company (“Horace Mann”), Power was insured by Nationwide Mutual Insurance Company (“Nationwide”). Benton subsequently sued Pruden and Power. The suit settled but, for whatever reason, Pru-den’s name was not included in a the final release. Benton subsequently obtained a $450,000 default judgment against Pruden. Pruden, apparently believing he was indemnified by either Horace Mann and/or Nationwide, assigned his rights against the two companies to Benton. Benton brought a bad faith action against both companies in this court. Each insurance company settled with Benton. Horace Mann now seeks indemnification/subrogation from Nationwide.

On January 2, 2006 the defendant, Horace Mann, served on the plaintiff, Nationwide, requests for production, interrogatories and requests for admission. By joint stipulation, see Fed.R.Civ.P. 29, the deadline for plaintiffs response was extended to February 20, 2006. The plaintiff did not respond until March 17, 2006. Although tardy, Nationwide appears satisfied with all of the responses received save for those to production requests 9 and 18 and interrogatory 18. As to these disputed discovery requests Horace Mann levied a number of objections which, inter alia, asserted attorney-client privilege and/or work-product protection. Nationwide argues that all of Horace Mann’s asserted objections were waived when it failed to respond within the time allotted and has thus moved for an order compelling Horace Mann to respond fully to the disputed discovery requests. Defendant’s motion [Dkt.#74] is GRANTED.

A. Discussion

The disputed production requests and interrogatory are as follows:

[Production Request 9]
Produce all of your files, documents, communications, correspondence, and the like concerning the Bad Faith Action, including, but not limited to:
• all documents that concern your settlement of the Bad Faith Action with Vicki Benton;
• all internal memoranda, communications, and assessments concerning the Bad Faith Action;
• all privileged memoranda with your counsel, Mulvey, Oliver & Gould, concerning the Bad Faith Action.
Answer: Plaintiff objects to this request as it is vague, overbroad and unduly burdensome. Plaintiff further objects to this request as it requires disclos[ure] of documents that are protected from disclosure by the attorney-client privilege and work product doctrine.
[Production Request 18]
Produce all communications and correspondence between you and any attorney at Mulvey, Oliver & Gould concerning the Vicki Benton Action or the Bad Faith Action.
Answer: Plaintiff objects to this request as it is vague, overbroad and unduly burdensome. Plaintiff further objects to this request, as it requires Plaintiff to produce documents that are protected from disclosure by the attorney-client privilege and work product doctrine.
[Interrogatory 18]
State the legal and factual basis for your payment of $700,000 to Vicki Benton to settle the claims asserted against you in the Bad Faith Action.
Answer: Plaintiff objects to this interrogatory, as it seeks the mental impressions, conclusions, opinions and legal theories of Plaintiff and its counsel concerning the litigation in the Bad Faith Action. As such, the information sought is protected by the attorney-client privilege.

(Def.’s Mem. Supp. Ex 7.)

“The party upon whom the interrogatories have been served shall serve a copy of the answers and objections if any within 30 days after the service of the interrogatories. A shorter or longer time period may be ... agreed to in writing by the parties subject to Rule 29.” Fed.R.Civ.P. 33(b)(3). In this [538]*538case the parties agreed to a longer deadline which concluded on February 20, 2006. “All grounds for an objection to an interrogatory shall be stated with specificity. Any ground not stated in a timely objection is waived unless the party’s failure to object is excused by the court for good cause shown.” Fed. R.Civ.P. 33(b)(4). “A party who fails to file timely objections waives all objections, including those based on privilege or work product.” Ramirez v. County of Los Ange-les, 231 F.R.D. 407, 409 (C.D.Cal.2005); see also Pham v. Hartford, Fire Ins. Co., 193 F.R.D. 659 (D.Colo.2000) (finding claim of privilege waived where the defendant failed to file objections to interrogatories until 71 days after the interrogatories were served); Smith v. Conway Org., Inc., 154 F.R.D. 73, 76 (S.D.N.Y. Apr.l, 1994) (deeming waived a work-product objection asserted nearly four months after the document request was served).

Rule 34, which addresses requests for the production of documents, does not contain an automatic waiver provision for untimely objections as found in Rule 33(b)(4). Despite the absence of such a provision, courts have reasoned that a Rule 33(b)(4) type waiver should be implied into all rules involving the use of the various discovery mechanisms. Byrd v. Reno, No. 96-2375(CKK)(JMF), 1998 WL 429676, at *6, 1998 U.S. Dist. LEXIS 11855, at *16 (D.D.C. Feb. 12,1998) (holding that an argument that an untimely objection is waived should be analyzed the same under Rule 34 as it is under Rule 33); Pham, 193 F.R.D. at 661 (following Byrd); Deal v. Lutheran Hosp. & Homes, 127 F.R.D. 166, 168 (D.Alaska 1989) (holding that the waiver analysis should be “similar if not identical” under Rules 33, 34, 36 and 45(d)(1)). Thus, the undersigned will treat the disputed production requests and interrogatory identically for the purposes of the present motion.

In the instant ease the plaintiff filed objections twenty-two days late. While the tardiness itself would be sufficient grounds to deem plaintiffs objections waived, the court may have been inclined to give the plaintiff the benefit of the doubt in light of the fact that the delay was not egregious and that a court’s decision to consider a claim of attorney-client privilege waived should be done only after careful thought. See First Sav. Bank F.S.B. v. First Bank Sys. Inc. 902 F.Supp. 1356, 1362-63 (D.Kan.1995); Jayne H. Lee, Inc. v. Flagstaff Indus., 173 F.R.D. 651, 657 n. 16 (D.Md.l997)(calling the rule that failure to timely respond to interrogatories operates as a waiver of a subsequent privilege objection “draconian”). However, aside from being late, plaintiffs response also failed to adequately perfect its claim of privilege. Plaintiff never provided a privilege log as required by D. Conn. L. Civ.

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Bluebook (online)
238 F.R.D. 536, 2006 U.S. Dist. LEXIS 58052, 2006 WL 2401513, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/horace-mann-insurance-v-nationwide-mutual-insurance-ctd-2006.