Hoskins v. Swisher

District Court, S.D. Illinois·Decided October 14, 2021·No. 3:20-cv-00302·Unknown

Opinion

IN THE UNITED STATES DISTRICT COURT FOR THE SOUTHERN DISTRICT OF ILLINOIS

JOSHUA HOSKINS, ) ) Plaintiff, ) ) v. ) Case No. 20-cv-302-RJD ) CHARLES SWISHER, et al., ) ) Defendants. )

ORDER DALY, Magistrate Judge: Plaintiff Joshua Hoskins, an inmate in the custody of the Illinois Department of Corrections (“IDOC”), filed this lawsuit pursuant to 42 U.S.C. § 1983 alleging his constitutional rights were violated while he was incarcerated at Pinckneyville Correctional Center (“Pinckneyville”). In his amended complaint, Plaintiff alleges he was not allowed to attend religious services from June 15, 2019 to March 31, 2020, and certain religious items, including the Quran, were confiscated and/or denied. Plaintiff alleges these actions were taken in retaliation for Plaintiff filing grievances against Pinckneyville staff. Plaintiff’s amended complaint was screened pursuant to 28 U.S.C. § 1915A and he was allowed to proceed on the following claims: Count One: First Amendment retaliation claim against Swisher, Wall, Hale, Harriss, Bailey, Justice, Kulich, Rueter, Williams, Heck, Meracle, Dudek, Hermann, Bell, Tomshack, Shirley, Peek, Mumbower, Grove, Adams, Lively, Baker, Vandekerove, Wangler, Wanak, Jurkowski, Cooley, Johnson, Petitjean, and Olearly for denying Plaintiff access to religious services and religious materials for filing grievances and lawsuits.

Count Two: First Amendment claim against Defendants Swisher, Wall, Hale, Harriss, Bailey, Justice, Kulich, Rueter, Williams, Heck, Meracle, Dudek, Hermann, Bell, Tomshack, Shirley, Peek, Mumbower, Grove, Adams, Lively, Baker, Vandekerove, Wangler, Wanak, Page 1 of 12 Jurkowski, Cooley, Johnson, Petitjean, and Olearly for substantially burdening Plaintiff’s exercise of religion.

Count Three: First Amendment retaliation claim against Justice, Bell, Wangler, Wanak, and Heck for bringing false disciplinary charges against Plaintiff and placing him in segregation for filing grievances and lawsuits.

This matter is now before the Court on a Motion to Compel filed by Plaintiff (Doc. 131), as well as three motions captioned as “Motions for the Court to Consider when Ruling on Plaintiff Motion to Compel Showing Cause,” which the Court construes as Motions to Supplement (Docs. 134, 135, and 136). For the reasons set forth below, the Motion to Compel is GRANTED IN PART AND DENIED IN PART. Plaintiff’s Motions to Supplement are GRANTED and the Court has incorporated Plaintiff’s supplemental arguments in its discussion where relevant, as set forth below. In his motion to compel, Plaintiff sets forth various arguments complaining of Defendants’ responses and objections to his discovery requests. In some instances, Plaintiff identified specific discovery requests and responses associated with the argument. Plaintiff also set forth some general arguments. Attached to his motion to compel are Plaintiff’s interrogatories directed to Defendant Jana Rueter and her answers thereto, interrogatories directed to Defendant Anthony Williams and his objections thereto, and requests for production of documents directed to Rueter and Williams and their responses thereto. Based on the arguments set forth in his motion, the Court finds the following requests at issue and sets forth its ruling as to each request below. As a preliminary matter, the Court notes Defendants’ contention that Plaintiff failed to informally resolve his discovery disputes prior to filing his motion. In his motion, Plaintiff asserts he attempted to communicate with Defendant Rueter’s counsel by attaching and submitting a written letter regarding the discovery requests. Defendants correctly point out that their Page 2 of 12 discovery responses were placed in the mail on July 22, 2021. Less than two weeks later, on August 2, 2021, Plaintiff filed his thirty-seven page motion (the Court also notes the motion was dated July 30, 2021, just eight days after service of Defendants’ responses). Defendants contend, and the Court agrees, that given this timeframe and consideration for time for mailing, there was insufficient time for Plaintiff to genuinely attempt to engage Defendants in any informal resolution

of his discovery disputes. In this instance, for the sake of expediency, the Court will consider Plaintiff’s motion to compel. However, if Plaintiff files any subsequent motions to compel, he must provide documentary evidence establishing his attempts to confer with Defendants prior to filing. With regard to consideration of Plaintiff’s requests and Defendants’ responses thereto, the Court addresses the proper scope of discovery. The scope of discovery is set forth in Rule 26(b)(1) of the Federal Rules of Civil Procedure. The current language of the Rule provides: Unless otherwise limited by court order, the scope of discovery is as follows: Parties may obtain discovery regarding any nonprivileged matter that is relevant 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 controversy, the parties’ relative access to relevant information, the parties’ resources, the importance of the discovery in resolving the issues, and whether 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 be discoverable.

The Supreme Court has cautioned that the requirement under Rule 26(b)(1) that the material sought in discovery be “relevant” should be firmly applied, and the district courts should not neglect their power to restrict discovery where necessary. Herbert v. Lando, 441 U.S. 153, 177 (1979); see also Balderston v. Fairbanks Morse Engine Div. of Coltec Indus., 328 F.3d 309, 320 (7th Cir. 2003). However, “relevancy” for discovery purposes is construed broadly to encompass matters that bear on, or reasonably could lead to other matters that could bear on, any Page 3 of 12 issue in the case. Oppenheimer Fund, Inc. v. Sanders, 437 U.S. 340, 351 (1978) (citing Hickman v. Taylor, 329 U.S. 495, 501 (1947)). “Relevance is not inherent in any item of evidence, but exists only as a relation between an item of evidence and the matter properly provable in the case.” Miller UK Ltd. v. Caterpillar, Inc., 17 F.Supp.3d 711, 722 (N.D. Ill. Jan. 6, 2014) (citation omitted).

Finally, the Court notes that Defendant Williams is currently on military leave and this action is stayed as to him until February 28, 2022 (Doc. 129). It appears Williams was on military leave at the time Plaintiff propounded his discovery requests. As such, Williams provided only objections to Plaintiff’s interrogatories. Insofar as Plaintiff’s arguments can be applied to Williams’ objections to the interrogatories and requests for production of documents, the Court rules on the same. However, Williams need not supplement his responses until March 28, 2022. Interrogatory #4 Plaintiff asks Defendants whether they have ever been sued, suspended, placed on investigative status, or arrested without prosecution. Defendants objected to the request as overly

broad, unduly burdensome, and not proportional to the needs of the case.

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Related

Hickman v. Taylor
329 U.S. 495 (Supreme Court, 1947)
Oppenheimer Fund, Inc. v. Sanders
437 U.S. 340 (Supreme Court, 1978)
Herbert v. Lando
441 U.S. 153 (Supreme Court, 1979)
Miller UK Ltd. v. Caterpillar, Inc.
17 F. Supp. 3d 711 (N.D. Illinois, 2014)
Colbert v. City of Chicago
851 F.3d 649 (Seventh Circuit, 2017)