Ogden v. Bumble Bee Foods, LLC

292 F.R.D. 620, 85 Fed. R. Serv. 3d 775, 2013 WL 1636032, 2013 U.S. Dist. LEXIS 55443
CourtDistrict Court, N.D. California
DecidedApril 16, 2013
DocketNo. C 12-1828 LHK
StatusPublished
Cited by6 cases

This text of 292 F.R.D. 620 (Ogden v. Bumble Bee Foods, LLC) is published on Counsel Stack Legal Research, covering District Court, N.D. California primary law. Counsel Stack provides free access to over 12 million legal documents including statutes, case law, regulations, and constitutions.

Bluebook
Ogden v. Bumble Bee Foods, LLC, 292 F.R.D. 620, 85 Fed. R. Serv. 3d 775, 2013 WL 1636032, 2013 U.S. Dist. LEXIS 55443 (N.D. Cal. 2013).

Opinion

ORDER GRANTING-IN-PART PLAINTIFF’S MOTION TO COMPEL (Re: Docket No. 33)

PAUL S. GREWAL, United States Magistrate Judge.

Plaintiff Tricia Ogden (“Ogden”) moves to compel Defendant Bumble Bee Foods, LLC (“Bumble Bee”) to provide more complete responses to her interrogatories, requests for admissions, and requests for production. Having considered the parties’ papers and arguments, the court GRANTS-IN-PART Ogden’s motion.

The parties are familiar with the facts of the ease and of this particular dispute, and so the court provides only a brief summary of the background before setting forth its reasoning. Ogden is pm-suing a putative class action against Bumble Bee and seeks to represent a nationwide class of purchasers of Bumble Bee products falling within one of four categories:

(1) labeled or advertised as “Rich in Natural Omega-3” or “Excellent Source Omega-3”;
(2) labeled or advertised with a nutrient content claim for a nutrient lacking a Daily Value or lacking the minimum Daily Value (“DV”) specified for the type of claim made;
(3) labeled or advertised with a nutrient or health claim despite containing a disqualifying nutrient level precluding the claim; or
[622]*622(4) labeled or advertised with an unauthorized health or drug claim.1

Ogden limits the class to members who purchased the various products within the last four years.2 Ogden alleges she herself purchased only King Oscar’s Sardines Mediterranean Style (“Sardines”) and Tuna Salad with Crackers (“Tuna Salad”).3 Bumble Bee distributes King Oscar’s products in the United States, but the companies purportedly are separate entities.4

Ogden served Bumble Bee with numerous requests for production, requests for admission, and interrogatories. Bumble Bee objected to the requests on several grounds, but the parties agree that this dispute centers around three issues: (1) whether Bumble Bee must produce discovery on all of its products; (2) whether it must produce discovery from eight years prior to the initiation of this lawsuit; and (3) whether it must respond to discovery regarding King Oscar.5

I. LEGAL STANDARDS

“Prior to class certification under Rule 23, discovery lies entirely within the discretion of the [cjourt.”6 In its exercise of that discretion, the court may require the plaintiff “to either make a prima facie showing that the Rule 23 class action requirements are satisfied, or to show ‘that discovery is likely to produce substantiation of the class allegations.’ ” 7 “Class certification often requires discovery “where it will resolve factual issues necessary for the determination of whether the action may be maintained as a class action,”8 and so courts should allow “enough discovery to obtain the material, especially when the information is within the sole possession of the defendant.”9 “[T]he need for discovery, the time required, and the probability of discovery providing necessary factual information” are also relevant to the exercise of the court’s discretion in allowing or prohibiting discovery.10

To make a prima facie showing for class certification, plaintiffs first must show that they have met the four factors of Fed. R.Civ.P. 23(a): (1) that “the class is so numerous that joinder of all members is impracticable”; (2) that “there ai’e questions of law or fact common to the class”; (3) that “the claims or defenses of the representative parties are typical of the claims or defenses of the class”; and (4) that “the representative parties will fairly and adequately protect the interests of the class.” 11 Plaintiffs must also show that they have made a prima facie showing for one of the Rule 23(b) categories.12

Fed.R.Civ.P. 26(b) provides that parties “may obtain discovery regarding any non-privileged matter that is relevant to any party’s claim or defense.” The relevant information “need not be admissible at trial if the discovery appears reasonably calculated to lead to the discovery of admissible evidence.” Relevance under Rule 26(b) is broadly defined, “although it is not without ultimate and necessary boundaries.”13

[623]*623II. DISCUSSION

A. Discovery of All of Bumble Bee’s Products

The parties frame their dispute around whether Ogden has standing to pursue claims for Bumble Bee products that she did not purchase. Bumble Bee argues that because Ogden purchased only the Sardines and the Tuna Salad, she has no standing for claims regarding its other products, and so information about those other products is irrelevant to her claims. In response, Ogden points to the “sufficient similarity” test that several courts in this district recently have employed to determine whether named plaintiffs have standing to pursue claims for items they did not purchase.

Courts grapple with whether this type of dispute is really one of standing or more properly one of typicality and adequacy of representation in the class certification phase with some court precedents lending support to both views.14 On the one hand, courts have held that named plaintiffs must have standing for each of the claims that they bring on behalf of the class, which would suggest that Ogden must have purchased each of the products she here alleges violate California law.15 On the other hand, other courts have observed that standing is merely the key that opens the door to litigation and class certification serves as the gatekeeper to determine which claims may cross the threshold.16 Under this latter interpretation, Ogden’s standing to bring claims for the products she purchased is sufficient to establish standing as a class representative, and an evaluation of whether she also may represent purchasers of,products she did not buy should be left to the class certification determination. A virtue of this latter interpretation is that it avoids unnecessary constitutional interpretation as is required by constant consideration of the standing doctrine.17

Having reviewed the ease law on standing generally in the class action context and in this particular type of labeling-based claim setting,18 the court is persuaded that the question the parties raise is more properly [624]*624analyzed in the context of class certification. Extending “standing” to “sufficiently similar” injuries seems to undermine the constitutional requirement that plaintiffs suffer an “injury-in-fact.”19 If plaintiffs have standing to bring claims for “sufficiently similar” injuries, it would seem that they would not be precluded from continuing an action on those “sufficiently similar” claims even if claims based on their own injuries were mooted.

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292 F.R.D. 620, 85 Fed. R. Serv. 3d 775, 2013 WL 1636032, 2013 U.S. Dist. LEXIS 55443, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/ogden-v-bumble-bee-foods-llc-cand-2013.