Independent Petrochemical Corp. v. Aetna Casualty & Surety Co.

117 F.R.D. 283, 1986 U.S. Dist. LEXIS 17407
District Court, District of Columbia·Decided November 20, 1986·No. Civ. A. No. 83-3347·Published·Cited by 28 cases

Opinion

MEMORANDUM OPINION and ORDER

ARTHUR L. BURNETT, Sr., United States Magistrate.

The Court (Flannery, Judge) in a memorandum opinion, filed May 2, 1986 deciding the trigger of coverage issue in this insurance coverage case dealing with allegations in the underlying tort claims of dioxin contamination causing bodily injury and property damage to residents in the State of Missouri, referred the then pending discovery dispute concerning the sufficiency of plaintiffs’ responses to Hartford’s interrogatories and all future discovery disputes to be handled by a United States Magistrate. The Court partially ruled on Hartford’s motion for dismissal for abuse of discovery or, in the alternative, to compel further answers by the plaintiffs to Hartford’s interrogatories and production of documents and for sanctions, denying the motion for dismissal and for sanctions and granting leave to Hartford on April 21, 1986 to supplement its motion to compel and plaintiffs, the right to file a further response thereto.

To keep the discovery moving forward, the Magistrate scheduled prompt hearings to establish a discovery schedule, but due to the complexity of the issues involved and the number of defendants, some 20 separate active insurance carriers, the Magis[284]*284trate decided after a hearing in June, 1986 to allow counsel to proceed with discovery simultaneously on each side within their own discretion and with due regard for their other commitments. Counsel for the plaintiffs were then instructed to file whatever motions they had with reference to alleged deficiencies in the several defendants’ responses to interrogatories and document production, and thereafter an extensive hearing was held on August 6, 1986 on Hartford’s motion to compel, directed against the plaintiffs, and the plaintiffs’ motion to compel directed against 18 of the defendant insurance carriers.

To resolve the issues of what further discovery should be compelled, the Magistrate considered it essential to become immersed in the case and to review all of the pleadings and subsequent memoranda and papers filed since November 9, 1983. When the Court referred the matter of discovery to a Magistrate on May 2, 1986, that filing was Docket No. 406. The filings since, as of this date, has now exceeded Docket No. 700. A detailed review of every pleading in the file has been a mammoth task and has taken longer than originally contemplated, but the Magistrate is of the view that the insights and perspective gained will enable this Magistrate to strike a prudent judicial balance between compelling what is truly relevant or what may lead to admissible evidence now in the case involving the several insurers’ affirmative defenses, e.g., the failure to give notice, alleged non-disclosure, no coverage because of the pollution exclusion provision, no coverage because the contamination was not unexpected or unintended or accidently or sudden, and other related issues, but at the same time preventing burdensome, harassing and unduly expensive irrelevant discovery. In this respect the Magistrate has focused on that provision of Rule 26 added in 1983 providing for such an approach:

The frequency or extent of use of the discovery methods set forth in subdivision (a) shall be limited by the court if it determines that: (i) the discovery sought is unreasonably cumulative or duplicative, or is obtainable from some other source that is more convenient, less burdensome, or less expensive, (ii) the party seeking discovery had had ample opportunity by discovery in the action to obtain the information sought; or (iii) the discovery is unduly burdensome or expensive, taking into account the needs of the case, the amount in controversy, limitations on the parties’ resources, and the importance of the issues at stake in the litigation. (Emphasis added).

The relevancy of the italicized language will become obvious and will be discussed in the context of the specific discovery disputes hereinafter set forth.

The Magistrate has also carefully reviewed the Court’s opinions of February 4, 1986, May 2, 1986 and August 8, 1986 and other relevant judicial precedent such as Abex Corporation v. Maryland Casualty Company, 790 F.2d 119 (D.C.Cir.1986), Eli Lilly & Co. v. Home Insurance Co., 764 F.2d 876 (D.C.Cir.1985) American Home Products Corp. v. Liberty Mutual Insurance Co., 565 F.Supp. 1485 (S.D.N.Y.1983), aff'd as modified, 748 F.2d 760 (2d Cir.1984), and Keene Corp. v. Insurance Company of North America, 667 F.2d 1034 (D.C.Cir.1981), cert. denied 455 U.S. 1007, 102 S.Ct. 1644, 71 L.Ed.2d 875 (1982). The Magistrate has also reviewed, where applicable, the supplemental responses to interrogatories and filings as to supplemental production of documents and records and the factual representations of the parties in their oppositions to the motion to compel. The Magistrate has also carefully studied the several subsequent motions for partial summary judgment, with their statements of material facts not in dispute, affidavits and declarations, which have been filed in the interim between the time the respective motions to compel were filed and this date. It would be an unjustified waste of litigants’ personnel and financial resources and counsels’ time to require supplementation of answers to interrogatories where the factual information sought has been [285]*285disclosed in connection with subsequent motions for partial summary judgment.1

The Magistrate further notes that a substantial number of depositions has been taken since the motions were filed. Where the deponents have furnished the factual information in the course of such depositions it would be an unjustified imposition on the litigant’s time to prepare supplemental answers and an unwarranted expense and use of attorney professional time. Thus, while there has been some delay in resolving the discovery issues pending as to the interrogatories and related document production, the intervening developments moot the need for further responses except as affirmatively and explicitly hereinafter required. With the depth of knowledge the Magistrate has now acquired from a thorough review of the entire court file, it is intended that all further discovery issues will be promptly ruled upon.

We now turn to a discussion of the specific interrogatories and documents request disputes at issue and will ruled upon them in the posture of the case as it exists today in order to prevent needless duplication, the presenting of cumulative factual information which the requesting party already has available to it, and to achieve a resolution which prevents the discovery required from being unduly burdensome or expensive with due regard to the plaintiffs being in Chapter 11 bankruptcy reorganization proceedings in the U.S.

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Independent Petrochemical Corp. v. Aetna Casualty & Surety Co., 117 F.R.D. 283, 1986 U.S. Dist. LEXIS 17407 (D.D.C. 1986).

117 F.R.D. 283 (Independent Petrochemical Corp. v. Aetna Casualty & Surety Co.) — published by Counsel Stack Legal Research, free access to 12M+ legal documents.

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