Louen v. Twedt

236 F.R.D. 502, 2006 U.S. Dist. LEXIS 41116, 2006 WL 1581901
CourtDistrict Court, E.D. California
DecidedJune 6, 2006
DocketNo. 1:04-CV-6556-REC-SMS
StatusPublished
Cited by24 cases

This text of 236 F.R.D. 502 (Louen v. Twedt) is published on Counsel Stack Legal Research, covering District Court, E.D. California primary law. Counsel Stack provides free access to over 12 million legal documents including statutes, case law, regulations, and constitutions.

Bluebook
Louen v. Twedt, 236 F.R.D. 502, 2006 U.S. Dist. LEXIS 41116, 2006 WL 1581901 (E.D. Cal. 2006).

Opinion

SNYDER, United States Magistrate Judge.

Plaintiffs are proceeding with a civil action in this Court. The matter has been referred to the Magistrate Judge pursuant to 28 U.S.C. § 636(b) and Local Rules 72-302(c)(l) and 72-303.

I. Background

The motions of Defendant City of Fresno to compel production of documents regarding expert witnesses and to compel further deposition testimony of third-party witnesses Laura Guzman-Magill and Timothy Magill, and the motion of Defendants City of Fresno and Officer Brian Twedt for enforcement of Judge Robert E. Coyle’s order regarding Plaintiffs submitting to a mental examination came on regularly for hearing on June 2, 2006, at 9:30 a.m. in Courtroom 7 before the Honorable Sandra M. Snyder, United States Magistrate Judge. Erica Camarena and Lara Moriarty appeared on behalf of Defendant City of Fresno; Greg Myers appeared for Defendant Twedt; and Kevin Little ap[504]*504peared on behalf of Plaintiff. The Court had reviewed all the papers submitted in support of the motions, including the moving papers, declarations, and exhibits thereto, as well as the stipulations pursuant to Local Rule 37-251.1 After argument the matter was submitted to the Court.

II. Motion to Compel

A party, upon reasonable notice and after certifying that the parties have met in a good faith effort to resolve the dispute and secure the material without court action, may apply for an order compelling disclosure or discovery, or further disclosure or discovery. Fed. R.Civ.P. 37(a), (d); Local Rule 37-251. An evasive or incomplete disclosure, answer or response is treated as a failure to disclose, answer, or respond. Fed.R.Civ.P. 37(a)(3). A stipulation regarding the discovery disagreement must be filed except in cases involving a complete and total failure to respond to a discovery request or order, and when the only relief sought by the motion is the imposition of sanctions. Local Rule 37-251(e).

Fed.R.Civ.P. 37(d) provides:

(d) Failure of Party to Attend at Own Deposition or Serve Answers to Interrogatories or Respond to Request for Inspection. If a party or an officer, director, or managing agent of a party or a person designated under Rule 30(b)(6) or 31(a) to testify on behalf of a party fails (1) to appear before the officer who is to take the deposition, after being served with a proper notice, or (2) to serve answers or objections to interrogatories submitted under Rule 33, after proper service of the interrogatories, or (3) to serve a written response to a request for inspection submitted under Rule 34, after proper service of the request, the court in which the action is pending on motion may make such orders in regard to the failure as are just, and among others it may take any action authorized under subparagraphs (A), (B), and (C) of subdivision (b)(2) of this rule. Any motion specifying a failure under clause (2) or (3) of this subdivision shall include a certification that the movant has in good faith conferred or attempted to confer with the party failing to answer or respond in an effort to obtain such answer or response without court action. In lieu of any order or in addition thereto, the court shall require the party failing to act or the attorney advising that party or both to pay the reasonable expenses, including attorney’s fees, caused by the failure unless the court finds that the failure was substantially justified or that other circumstances make an award of expenses unjust. The failure to act described in this subdivision may not be excused on the ground that the discovery sought is objectionable unless the party failing to act has a pending motion for a protective order as provided by Rule 26(c).

Further, a failure to comply with a request for production of documents is subject to the procedures set forth in Rule 37 with respect to motions to compel. Fed.R.Civ.P. 34(b).

III. Motion to Compel Responses to Requests for Production of Documents regarding Experts

On March 21, 2006, Defendant City of Fresno served on Plaintiff a request for production of documents (Request for Production, Set Two (Re: Experts)) seeking documents relating to Plaintiffs designated experts, such as e-mails and communications with experts, documents created by experts, notes taken by experts, materials relied on by experts, including articles and research, test results, documents in the experts’ files, etc. Plaintiff failed expressly to respond to each subpart of the request; instead, Plaintiff provided some documents that responded to one of the subparts, and those documents themselves referred to other documents that Plaintiff believed had already been produced to Defendant. This resulted in Defendant’s being unsure that the documents referred to were the precise documents that Defendant already had. Further, because of the form and extent of [505]*505the response, Plaintiff did not expressly indicate when there were no documents responsive to a particular request, or whether a response was partial or complete. Thus, Defendant was uncertain whether or not Plaintiff had submitted all the documents that existed. Indeed, Defendant had to piece the requests and responses together to try to ascertain if the documents adverted to had been produced.

The Court notes that there is no showing that Plaintiff is unable to produce any of the documents requested.

Even if there are no documents responsive to a request for production, the requesting party is entitled to a response pursuant to Fed.R.Civ.P. 34(b). Fishel v. BASF Group, 175 F.R.D. 525, 531 (S.D.Iowa 1997). Defendant is entitled to individualized, complete responses to each of the requests, as numbered and identified in the requests, accompanied by production of each of the documents responsive to the request, regardless of whether the documents have already been produced. Thus, Defendant’s motion will be granted.

Defendant seeks reasonable expenses in making the motion, including attorney’s fees. However, no declaration regarding fees or expenses was submitted. Expenses and fees will not be awarded.

IV. Motion to Compel Further Deposition of Third-Party Attorney Witnesses

Defendants seek an order compelling attorneys Laura Guzman-Magill and Charles Magill to 1) submit to further deposition and answer questions pertaining to exhibits 2, 9, 17, and 19 of Guzman-Magill’s deposition transcript; 2) permit Defendants to explore further information contained in the documents produced by Plaintiff and identified by the Magistrate Judge as Bates stamped numbers 1038, 1064-66, 1121, 1123-26, 1131-32, 1139 — 40 because Plaintiff and her attorneys have waived any claims of privilege regarding this document; 3) or, in the alternative, an order precluding Plaintiff from producing Mr. Magill and Laura Guzman-Magill in her case-in-chief at trial.

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Cite This Page — Counsel Stack

Bluebook (online)
236 F.R.D. 502, 2006 U.S. Dist. LEXIS 41116, 2006 WL 1581901, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/louen-v-twedt-caed-2006.