McBride v. Medicalodges, Inc.

250 F.R.D. 581, 2008 U.S. Dist. LEXIS 30212, 2008 WL 1744772
CourtDistrict Court, D. Kansas
DecidedApril 11, 2008
DocketNos. 06-2535-JWL-GLR, 06-2536-JWL-GLR, 06-2538-JWL-GLR
StatusPublished
Cited by18 cases

This text of 250 F.R.D. 581 (McBride v. Medicalodges, Inc.) is published on Counsel Stack Legal Research, covering District Court, D. Kansas primary law. Counsel Stack provides free access to over 12 million legal documents including statutes, case law, regulations, and constitutions.

Bluebook
McBride v. Medicalodges, Inc., 250 F.R.D. 581, 2008 U.S. Dist. LEXIS 30212, 2008 WL 1744772 (D. Kan. 2008).

Opinion

MEMORANDUM AND ORDER

GERALD L. RUSHFELT, United States Magistrate Judge.

Pending before the Court is Defendant’s Motion for Protective Order Regarding Plaintiffs’ “Notice of Videotape Deposition Pursuant to Fed.R.Civ.P. 30(b)(6)” (doc. 104). Defendant moves the Court, pursuant to Fed.R.Civ.P. 26(c), for a protective order limiting the scope of Plaintiffs’ Rule 30(b)(6) notice to relevant, non-privileged topics within reasonable geographic and temporal parameters. As set forth below, the motion is sustained in part and denied in part.

I. Background

On January 4, 2007, Plaintiffs filed their amended Notice of Videotape Deposition Pursuant to Fed.R.Civ.P. 30(b)(6). It asks Defendant to designate corporate representatives to testify about fifty-two topics. It set the deposition for January 10 and 11, 2008. Defendant filed the instant motion for protective order and certificate of compliance of its attempts to confer (doc. 106) on January 8, 2008. Defendant requests that the Court limit the matters about which Plaintiffs seek to depose Defendant’s corporate representative. More specifically, it contends that several of the deposition topics are overly broad, in that they contain no geographic or temporal limitation. Defendant further objects that much of the testimony sought by Plaintiffs is irrelevant and will require Defendant to disclose information protected by the attorney-client privilege or work product doctrine.

II. Legal Standard for Protective Order

Defendant seeks a protective order, pursuant to Federal Rule of Civil Procedure 26(c). That rule provides, in pertinent part, that:

A party or any person from whom discovery is sought may move for a protective order in the court where the action is pending____ The motion must include a certification that the movant has in good faith conferred or attempted to confer with other affected parties in an effort to resolve the dispute without court action. The court may, for good cause, issue an order to protect a party or person from annoyance, embarrassment, oppression, or undue burden or expense, including one or more of the following:

:¡í * *

(D) forbidding inquiry into certain matters, or limiting the scope of disclosure or discovery to certain matters;....1

The party seeking the protective order has the burden of demonstrating good cause for it.2 To establish good cause, the moving party must offer “a particular and specific demonstration of fact, as distinguished from stereotyped and conclusory statements.”3 Whether to enter a protective order lies within the court’s discretion.4

III. Defendant’s Objections to the Rule 30(b)(6) Deposition Notice

A. Overly Broad in Geographic Scope

Defendant seeks a protective order as to twenty-seven of Plaintiffs’ Rule 30(b)(6) de[584]*584position topics, because they contain no geographic limitation and thus require a company with over thirty-seven facilities in four different states to provide company-wide discovery for each topic. Specifically it requests protection against producing a corporate representative to testify to Topic Nos. 3, 5-9,12-13,17-19, 22-23, 29, 31-35, 37-39, 42, and 44-47. It argues that the lack of a geographic limitation for these topics makes them overly broad because the claims of the Plaintiffs arise out of a single facility, i.e., Medicalodges East (“MLE”).

In their response brief, Plaintiffs argue that the policy decisions crucial to this ease had corporate involvement and control and were not made simply at MLE. Plaintiffs have agreed, however, to limit some of their topics. Specifically they agree to limit Topic No. 5, which seeks “the facts and circumstances surrounding the payment by Defendant of any fine for any purpose or reason to any federal or state government or agency,” to the regional level where Cindy Frakes served as vice-president and to fines based upon patient care or employee health and welfare issues. Plaintiffs further agree to limit Topic No. 18 (identities of individuals who signed settlement agreements that required individuals not to talk with lawyers who were investigation sexual harassment claims against Defendant) and Topic No. 19 (all audits by any state or federal agency) to the region administered by regional vice-president Cindy Frakes. The Court finds the additional limitation on Topic Nos. 5, and 18-19 as proposed by Plaintiffs to be reasonable. Defendant shall produce a corporate representative to testify to these topics, narrowed by the limits suggested by Plaintiffs.

Federal Rule of Civil Procedure 30(b)(6) sets forth the procedure for deposing an organization:

In its notice or subpoena, a party may name as the deponent a public or private corporation, ... and must describe with reasonable particularity the matters for examination. The named organization must then designate one or more officers, directors, or managing agents, or designate other persons who consent to testify on its behalf; and it may set out the matters on which each person designated will testi-fy____The persons designated must testify about information known or reasonably available to the organization.

An overly broad Rule 30(b)(6) notice may subject the noticed party to an impossible task.5 To avoid liability, the noticed party must designate persons knowledgeable in the areas of inquiry listed in the notice.6 If the defendant cannot identify the outer limits of the areas of inquiry noticed, compliant designation is not feasible.7

To allow Rule 30(b)(6) to effectively function, the requesting party must take care to designate, with painstaking specificity, the particular subject areas that are intended to be questioned, and that are relevant to the issues in dispute.8 The responding party must make a conscientious, good-faith endeavor to designate the persons having knowledge of the matters sought and to prepare those persons in order that they can answer fully, completely, and in a non-evasive manner, the questions as to the relevant subject matters.9 Once notified as to the reasonably particularized areas of inquiry, the corporation then “must not only produce such number of persons as will satisfy the request, but more importantly, prepare them so that they may give complete, knowledgeable and binding answers on behalf of the corporation.”10

[585]*585When addressing overly broad objections to discovery requests, courts have limited the geographic scope of discovery.11

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Bluebook (online)
250 F.R.D. 581, 2008 U.S. Dist. LEXIS 30212, 2008 WL 1744772, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/mcbride-v-medicalodges-inc-ksd-2008.