NCMIC Ins. Co. v. Allied Professional Ins. Co. et al.

CourtDistrict Court, D. Minnesota
DecidedMay 11, 2026
Docket0:22-cv-02018
StatusUnknown

This text of NCMIC Ins. Co. v. Allied Professional Ins. Co. et al. (NCMIC Ins. Co. v. Allied Professional Ins. Co. et al.) is published on Counsel Stack Legal Research, covering District Court, D. Minnesota primary law. Counsel Stack provides free access to over 12 million legal documents including statutes, case law, regulations, and constitutions.

Bluebook
NCMIC Ins. Co. v. Allied Professional Ins. Co. et al., (mnd 2026).

Opinion

UNITED STATES DISTRICT COURT DISTRICT OF MINNESOTA

NCMIC Ins. Co., Case No. 22-cv-2018 (JMB/SGE)

Plaintiff,

v. ORDER

Allied Professional Ins. Co. et al.,

Defendants.

This is a declaratory action to resolve an insurance coverage dispute. Plaintiff NCMIC Insurance Company moves to compel responses to interrogatories and deposition answers from Defendant Allied Professional Insurance Company’s 30(b)(6) representative. (Dkt. 107.) Separately, Allied moves to strike an errata sheet NCMIC served after the deposition of its own 30(b)(6) representative. (Dkt. 123.) The court heard argument on the motions on February 6, 2026. (See Dkt. 136.) Based on the arguments of counsel, and all the files, records, and proceedings herein, the court will grant-in-part and deny-in-part both motions. BACKGROUND NCMIC and Allied are competitors in the chiropractic insurance market, both marketing and issuing insurance coverage for acupuncture, chiropractic, massage, and naturopathy. Allied has business relationships with both the Association of Bodywork and Massage Professionals (“ABMP”) and the National Chiropractic Council (“NCC”). NCMIC has its own business relationships with several stakeholder groups, including the American Chiropractic Association, Congress of Chiropractic State Associations, International Chiropractors Association, World Federation of Chiropractic, and the National Business Association for Chiropractors.

Defendant Charlotte Erdmann is a massage therapist and the named insured under a “Massage Professional & General Liability Insurance Policy” issued by Allied. NCMIC insured Erdmann’s employer, Valley Chiropractic Clinic, for claims of chiropractic malpractice. Erdmann and Valley Chiropractic were sued by one of Erdmann’s clients on May 17, 2019, for injuries arising from a therapeutic massage. Allied defended Erdmann

under the “Massage Professionals” policy, and NCMIC defended Valley Chiropractic under its Chiropractic Malpractice policy. NCMIC initiated this action, seeking two declarations: 1) a declaration as to the extent, if any, of NCMIC’s duty to defend or indemnify Erdmann against the claims in the underlying action; and 2) a declaration that Allied is the primary coverage for Erdmann’s

liability and NCMIC is, at most, excess coverage. (Compl., Dkt. 1, ¶¶ 28, 31.) After the underlying action against Erdmann and Valley Chiropractic settled, Allied filed a counterclaim in this action against NCMIC for equitable contribution towards its share of the settlement. (Dkt. 66.) Two motions are currently before the court: NCMIC’s Motion to Compel

Deposition Answers (Dkt. 107) and Allied’s Motion to Strike NCMIC’s Errata Sheet (Dkt. 123). The Court will address each motion in turn. I. NCMIC’s Motion to Compel A. Background 1. Discovery Requests

On May 22, 2025, NCMIC served discovery requests on Allied. Included were the following Interrogatories: 11. Identify all executive officers of Allied who are officers or representatives of [ABMP].

12. Set forth in detail all relationships, contractual or otherwise, between Allied and [ABMP].

. . .

15. Have you ever represented AMBP to the public as your “insurance partner?”

16. Have you or an affiliated entity, including National Chiropractic Council, ever provided liability insurance to chiropractors? If so, state:

a. when the insurance was first offered;

b. the entity marketing the insurance;

c. total number of chiropractors insured; and

d. state where the liability insurance was offered.

17. State fully the legal relationship, past or present, between Allied and the National Chiropractic Council.

18. Describe the role Michael J. Schroeder performs for Allied, ABMP, and National Chiropractic Council.

(Decl. of Robert Kuderer, Dkt. 110, Ex. 1.) Also included in NCMIC’s May 22, 2025 discovery requests were the following Requests for Production of Documents: 7. Copies of all insurance policy forms offering chiropractic professional liability or similar coverage by Allied from 2015- 2021, including any offered through the National Chiropractic Council.

18. All promotional materials provided by Allied or [ABMP] to Charlotte Erdmann or other members from 2016-2020 pertaining to benefits of ABMP membership or insurance coverage through Allied.

19. All documents in your possession relating to or evidencing Charlotte Erdmann’s membership in [ABMP].

20. All promotional materials for chiropractic professional liability coverage offered through you or the National Chiropractic Council from 2015-2021.

(Id., Ex. 2.) Allied served responses to NCMIC’s discovery requests on June 30, 2025. (Id., Exs. 3 & 4.) Its responses included objections on grounds of relevance, undue burden, confidential information and “the right of privacy under the California constitution.” (Id.) 2. 30(b)(6) Deposition of Allied NCMIC served Allied with a Notice of Rule 30(b)(6) Deposition on August 15, 2025, and identified several topics of examination. (Id., Ex. 7.) Michael Schroeder, Allied’s Vice President and designated 30(b)(6) deponent, sat for deposition on September 23, 2025. (Dkt. 110, Ex. 8.) During his deposition, NCMIC asked Mr. Schroeder several questions about Allied’s relationship with AMBP and Mr. Schroeder refused to answer those questions, raising objections on grounds of “privilege,” “relevance,” and the “California State Constitution.” (See, e.g., id., Ex. 8 at 30:20-36:7.) NCMIC moves to compel Allied to produce a properly prepared 30(b)(6) witness and compel answers to the

questions that Mr. Schroeder refused to answer, as well as reasonable follow up. B. Analysis 1. Legal Standard Under the federal rules, 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 the information, the parties’ resources, the importance of the discovery in resolving the dispute, and whether the burden or expense of the proposed discovery outweighs its likely benefit.” Fed. R. Civ. P. 26(b)(1). Also, “[i]nformation within the scope of discovery need not be admissible in evidence to be

discoverable.” Id. The party seeking discovery has the burden of showing relevance before the requested information is produced. See Hofer v. Mack Trucks, Inc., 981 F.2d 377, 380 (8th Cir. 1992). Although discoverability is broader than admissibility, this standard “should not be misapplied so as to allow fishing expeditions in discovery. Some threshold showing

of relevance must be made before parties are required to open wide the doors of discovery and to produce a variety of information which does not reasonably bear upon the issues in the case.” Id. The party resisting production “bears the burden of establishing lack of relevancy or undue burden.” Inline Packaging, LLC v. Graphing Packaging Int’l, Inc., Case no. 15-cv-3183 (ADM/LIB), 2016 WL 6997113 at *7 (D. Minn. Sept. 6, 2016) (quoting Saint Paul Reinsurance Co. v. Com. Cin. Corp., 198 F.R.D. 508, 511 (N.D. Iowa Nov. 22, 2000)).

Courts have broad discretion in handling pretrial procedure and discovery. See, e.g., Rowles v. Curators of Univ. of Mo., 983 F.3d 345, 353 (8th Cir. 2020) (“A district court has very wide discretion in handling pretrial discovery . . . .” (quotation omitted)); Soultran, Inc. v. U.S. Bancorp., Case no. 13-cv-2637 (SRN/BRT), 2016 WL 7177099, at *2 (D. Minn. Dec.

Free access — add to your briefcase to read the full text and ask questions with AI

Related

Charles Andrew Harter v. St. Anthony's Medical Center
384 F. App'x 531 (Eighth Circuit, 2010)
EBC, Inc. v. Clark Building System, Inc.
618 F.3d 253 (Third Circuit, 2010)
Gaylon Hofer v. Mack Trucks, Inc.
981 F.2d 377 (Eighth Circuit, 1993)
Podell v. Citicorp Diners Club
112 F.3d 98 (Second Circuit, 1997)
Arcenio E. Garcia v. Pueblo Country Club
299 F.3d 1233 (Tenth Circuit, 2002)
Hertz Corp. v. State Farm Mutual Insurance Co.
573 N.W.2d 686 (Supreme Court of Minnesota, 1998)
Christensen v. Milbank Insurance Co.
658 N.W.2d 580 (Supreme Court of Minnesota, 2003)
Auto Owners Insurance Co. v. Northstar Mutual Insurance Co.
281 N.W.2d 700 (Supreme Court of Minnesota, 1979)
Sun Yung Lee v. Zom Clarendon, L.P.
689 F. Supp. 2d 814 (E.D. Virginia, 2010)
Teresa Trout v. FirstEnergy Generation Corpora
339 F. App'x 560 (Sixth Circuit, 2009)
Jeremy Rowles v. Curators of the Univ. of MO
983 F.3d 345 (Eighth Circuit, 2020)
Plaisted v. Geisinger Medical Center
210 F.R.D. 527 (M.D. Pennsylvania, 2002)
Reilly v. Txu Corp.
230 F.R.D. 486 (N.D. Texas, 2005)
Xcel Energy, Inc. v. United States
237 F.R.D. 416 (D. Minnesota, 2006)
Wyeth v. Lupin Ltd.
252 F.R.D. 295 (D. Maryland, 2008)
Cultivos Yadran S.A. v. Rodriguez
258 F.R.D. 530 (S.D. Florida, 2009)
Aetna Inc. v. Express Scripts, Inc.
261 F.R.D. 72 (E.D. Pennsylvania, 2009)

Cite This Page — Counsel Stack

Bluebook (online)
NCMIC Ins. Co. v. Allied Professional Ins. Co. et al., Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/ncmic-ins-co-v-allied-professional-ins-co-et-al-mnd-2026.