Oleson v. Kmart Corp.

175 F.R.D. 560, 1997 WL 536081
CourtDistrict Court, D. Kansas
DecidedJune 11, 1997
DocketNo. 96-4066-SAC
StatusPublished
Cited by15 cases

This text of 175 F.R.D. 560 (Oleson v. Kmart Corp.) 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
Oleson v. Kmart Corp., 175 F.R.D. 560, 1997 WL 536081 (D. Kan. 1997).

Opinion

MEMORANDUM AND ORDER

NEWMAN, United States Magistrate Judge.

This matter is before the court on Plaintiffs First Motion to Compel, for Protective Order and for Sanctions. (Doc. 75.) Defendant has filed a responsive memorandum and the plaintiff has filed a reply.

This case represents one of the most adversarial, abusive, and unprofessional approaches to discovery witnessed by the court. The court presently has approximately one foot of discovery disputes to be resolved. The court has previously urged counsel to attempt to resolve their discovery disputes, focus their efforts and devote their time and energy to preparing this case for final resolution on the merits, to no avail. Consequent[563]*563ly, the parties have usurped the court’s time and resources for petty discovery disputes, most of which do not involve issues which should have required the court’s intervention. Counsel have often ignored the Federal Rules of Civil Procedure and the Rules of Practice of the United States District Court for the District of Kansas. For the court to address each and every issue raised by the parties, weeks of the court’s time would be devoted solely to this case of unseemly bickering and unprofessional conduct. The case has been unnecessarily delayed and the expense unreasonably increased as counsel for the parties have engaged in behavior which has been calculated to be dilatory, obstructive, adversarial, and unproductive.

Plaintiffs complaint was filed on April 26, 1996, alleging causes of action for retaliatory discharge in violation of public policy (worker’s compensation), the Americans with Disabilities Act and the Family and Medical Leave Act, as well as a common law cause of action for intentional infliction of emotional distress. Plaintiff served his first interrogatories and requests for production of documents on June 19, 1996. The parties held their planning meeting under Fed.R.Civ.P. 26(f) on August 12, 1996. The court held a scheduling conference pursuant to Fed. R.Civ.P. 16(b), on August 21, 1996, with a formal order being entered on August 22, 1996. Defendant originally served its responses to plaintiffs discovery requests on August 20, 1996, with defendant’s counsel verifying the interrogatory answers. Thereafter, on or about September 26, 1996, plaintiffs counsel, Scott C. Bloch, wrote a letter to defendant’s counsel, William G. Haynes, addressing various objections to the responses served. After an exchange of correspondence, an amended response by defendant to plaintiffs discovery was served on November 11, 1996, with the same responses but with verification by a corporate officer or agent. This motion was filed on December 10, 1996. At a pretrial conference before the court on January 23, 1997, the court urged counsel to reconsider positions previously taken in their discovery disputes, but the issues in the pending motion were not resolved.

The court first notes violation by plaintiff of Fed.R.Civ.P. 26(d) which prohibits the parties from seeking discovery until after the parties have held a planning meeting under Fed.R.Civ.P. 26(f). Plaintiff served his initial discovery on June 19, 1996, almost two months prior to the planning meeting.

Next, the court notes plaintiffs failure to comply with Paragraph “1” of the Scheduling Order which provides:

Motions to compel discovery with accompanying memoranda and in compliance with D. Kan. Rules 7.1 and 37.1 shall be filed and served within 30 days of the default or the service of the response, answer, or objection which is the subject of the motion, unless the time for the filing of such motion is extended for good cause shown, or the objection to the default, response, answer, or objection shall be waived.

Plaintiff did not even attempt to address the objections set forth by the defendant in its responses to the interrogatories and requests for production for more than 30 days following the service of the responses. Notwithstanding, the court determines to rule on the merits of the discovery disputes in this case because failure to do so would unfairly encourage the type of discovery abuse exhibited in this case.

Interrogatories

Interrogatory No. 2 requests basic, standard, factual information concerning the plaintiffs employment history with the defendant, related to job positions, job duties, hourly compensation, average hours worked per week and fringe benefits available to plaintiff, with the value of such benefits. Defendant’s answer was as follows:

Objection as irrelevant and immaterial and will not lead to any relevant evidence bearing on the issues in this case.
The title of each position held by plaintiff and the dates he held each position are included within his personnel file (Bates 200001-307), attached hereto. His hourly rate of compensation from the date of his employment to the present date will be furnished at a mutually agreeable date and time.

[564]*564The objection as to the relevance of the requested information is frivolous and without any merit whatsoever. Defendant, apparently in an effort to utilize the provisions of Fed.R.Civ.P. 33(d), referred plaintiff to approximately 307 pages from plaintiffs personnel file to identify the title of positions held by plaintiff along with the dates the positions were held. Defendant also suggested that the plaintiffs hourly rates of compensation from the date of his employment would be furnished- at a mutually agreed date and time. “Under the guise of Fed.R.Civ.P. 33(d) [a party] may not simply refer generically to past or future production of documents.” Pulsecard, Inc. v. Discover Card Services, Inc. et al., 1996 WL 397567 (D.Kan.l996)(quoting Audiotext Communications Network, Inc. v. U.S. Telecom, Inc., 1995 WL 625953, at *6 [D. Kan.1995]). “The responding party may not avoid answers by imposing on the interrogating party a mass of business records from which the answers cannot be ascertained by a person unfamiliar with them.” Id. (quoting R.W. Thomas Constr. Mgmt. Co. v. Corrugated Servs., Inc., 1995 WL 592539 (E.D.Pa.1995)). The responding party may not simply refer to a mass of records. Id. (citing Thompson v. Glenmede Trust Co., 1995 WL 752443 [E.D.Pa.1995]). To rely on Fed.R.Civ.P. 33(d), the responding party must specifically identify which documents contain the requested information in its answer to the interrogatory. If the party cannot comply with these requirements, it must otherwise answer the interrogatory fully and completely. Id.

Defendant’s answer does not comply with the requirements of Fed.R.Civ.P. 33(d).

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Bluebook (online)
175 F.R.D. 560, 1997 WL 536081, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/oleson-v-kmart-corp-ksd-1997.