Keith H. v. Long Beach Unified School District

228 F.R.D. 652, 62 Fed. R. Serv. 3d 186, 2005 U.S. Dist. LEXIS 15421, 2005 WL 1388022
CourtDistrict Court, C.D. California
DecidedMay 18, 2005
DocketNo. CV 049273SJO
StatusPublished
Cited by24 cases

This text of 228 F.R.D. 652 (Keith H. v. Long Beach Unified School District) is published on Counsel Stack Legal Research, covering District Court, C.D. California primary law. Counsel Stack provides free access to over 12 million legal documents including statutes, case law, regulations, and constitutions.

Bluebook
Keith H. v. Long Beach Unified School District, 228 F.R.D. 652, 62 Fed. R. Serv. 3d 186, 2005 U.S. Dist. LEXIS 15421, 2005 WL 1388022 (C.D. Cal. 2005).

Opinion

CHAPMAN, United States Magistrate Judge.

PROCEEDINGS: PLAINTIFF’S MOTIONS: (1) TO COMPEL DEFENDANT LONG BEACH YOUTH HOME’S PRODUCTION OF DOCUMENTS; (2) TO COMPEL DEFENDANT LONG BEACH YOUTH HOME’S SITE INSPECTION; (3) TO COMPEL DEFENDANT ZINSMEYER ACADEMY’S PRODUCTION OF DOCUMENTS; (4) TO COMPEL DEFENDANT ZINSMEYER ACADEMY’S SITE INSPECTION; AND (5) FOR A PROTECTIVE ORDER

On April 20, 2005, plaintiff filed a notice of motions and motions to compel defendants [654]*654Long Beach Youth Home (“LBYH”) and Zinsmeyer Academy (“Zinsmeyer”) to produce documents and permit site inspections, a joint stipulation, and the supporting declaration of Shawna L. Parks, with exhibits, and on April 20, 2005, defendants LBYH and Zinsmeyer filed, in opposition to the motions, the declaration of Robert J. Lynch, with exhibits, and the purported declaration of Robert Reilly.1 On April 27, 2005, plaintiff filed its supplemental brief and the supplemental declaration of Shawna L. Parks, and on April 29, 2005, defendants LBYH and Zinsmeyer filed a supplemental brief.

On April 27, 2005, plaintiff filed a notice of motion and motion for a protective order, a joint stipulation2 and the supporting declaration of Barbara A. Krieg, with exhibits, and on the same date, defendant Los Angeles County Department of Children and Family Services (“County”) filed the declaration of Gabriella E. Zielinski in opposition to plaintiffs motion, with exhibits.3 On May 4, 2005, plaintiff filed his supplemental brief, and on May 10, 2005, defendants LBYH and Zinsmeyer filed a reply.

Oral argument was held on May 18, 2005, before Magistrate Judge Rosalyn M. Chapman. Plaintiff was represented by Barbara A. Krieg, attorney-at-law with the firm Bryan Cave, and Shawna L. Parks, attorney-at-law with the Western Law Center for Disability Rights. Defendants LBYH and Zinsmeyer were represented by Philip Treacy and Robert J. Lynch, attorneys-at-law with the firm McMahon Treacy, defendant County was represented by Gabriella E. Zielinski, attorney-at-law with the firm Kessel & Associates, and Long Beach Unified School District was represented by Allen L. Thomas, attorney-at-law.

BACKGROUND

On November 10, 2004, plaintiff filed his initial complaint against defendants Long Beach Unified School District (“School District”), County, LBYH, Zinsmeyer and others. On January 4, 2005, plaintiff filed his First Amended Complaint (“FAC”) against these same defendants, setting forth causes of action arising under: the Americans With Disabilities Act, 42 U.S.C. § 12101 et seq.; Section 504 of the Rehabilitation Act of 1973, 29 U.S.C. § 794; Title VI of the Civil Rights Act of 1964, 42 U.S.C. § 2000d, 42 U.S.C. §§ 1983 and 1985(3); and under state law. The plaintiff is an African-American who the Los Angeles County Juvenile Court found was a “dependent child.” The gravamen of plaintiffs claims is that on July 17, 2003, defendant County illegally, based on racial stereotyping, placed plaintiff in LBYH, a residential facility, which, in turn, required him to attend Zinsmeyer, a non-public high school, where he was placed in a highly restrictive setting, treated as a disabled student with severe emotional disturbances, and denied all access to a public school education, despite the fact that he was not disabled and that the Juvenile Court had ordered, on at least two occasions, that he receive public [655]*655school education. More specifically, plaintiff alleges that he was schooled at Zinsmeyer despite not having an Individualized Education Plan (“IEP”), as required under the Individuals with Disabilities Education Act, 20 U.S.C. § 1400 et seq., and despite never having been properly designated for nonpublic school placement. In orders entered March 28, April 12, and April 21, 2005, District Judge S. James Otero granted, in part, motions to dismiss filed by various defendants. Defendants have now answered plaintiffs First Amended Complaint.

DISCUSSION

I

As an initial matter, the Court is extremely dismayed by the lack of cooperation between the parties, as shown by the parties’ failure to agree on a protective order, despite the fact that plaintiff filed a motion for a protective order and defendants LBYH and Zinsmeyer, without filing their own motion for a protective order, have asked the Court to issue one.4 Thus, the Court is mystified as to why the parties have been unable to amicably resolve this simple matter.

As Judge Wayne Brazil has explained:

[t]he discovery system depends absolutely on good faith and common sense from counsel. The courts, sorely pressed by demands to try cases promptly and to rule thoughtfully on potentially case dispositive motions, simply do not have the resources to police closely the operation of the discovery process. The whole system of [c]ivil adjudication would be ground to a virtual halt if the courts were forced to intervene in even a modest percentage of discovery transactions. That fact should impose on counsel an acute sense of responsibility about how they handle discovery matters. They should strive to be cooperative, practical and sensible, and should turn to the courts (or take positions that force others to turn to the courts) only in extraordinary situations that implicate truly significant interests.

In re Convergent Technologies Sec. Litigation, 108 F.R.D. 328, 331 (N.D.Cal.1985). The parties must understand that it is for the Court’s and their own benefit that they cooperate in presenting to the Court only real discovery disputes for resolution.

Further, the Court notes that in some of defendant County’s documents there are inferentially disparaging references to plaintiffs counsel. The parties are admonished that in the future this Court will strike sua sponte any document that refers in an offensive manner to the opposing counsel (or party), including documents containing abusive correspondence as exhibits. Moreover, the parties must become familiar with the Court’s Civility and Professionalism Guidelines, which are available under the Attorney Admissions section of the Court’s website at htfcp://www.caed.uscourts.gov/.

II

Rule 1 of the Federal Rules of Civil Procedure directs that the rules “shall be construed and administered to secure the just, speedy, and inexpensive determination of every action.” As the Fifth Circuit has noted, “ftjhere probably is no provision in the federal rules that is more important than this mandate. It reflects the spirit in which the rules were conceived and written, and in which they should be, and by and large have been, interpreted.... ” Trevino v. Celanese Corp.,

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228 F.R.D. 652, 62 Fed. R. Serv. 3d 186, 2005 U.S. Dist. LEXIS 15421, 2005 WL 1388022, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/keith-h-v-long-beach-unified-school-district-cacd-2005.