(PC) Garcia v. Chandra

District Court, E.D. California·Decided June 3, 2025·No. 2:22-cv-01221·Unknown

Opinion

1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 UNITED STATES DISTRICT COURT 9 FOR THE EASTERN DISTRICT OF CALIFORNIA 10 11 RUBEN DARIO GARCIA, JR., No. 2:22-cv-1221 TLN CSK P 12 Plaintiff, 13 v. ORDER AND REVISED SCHEDULING ORDER 14 A. CHANDRA, et al., 15 Defendants. 16 17 Plaintiff is a state prisoner proceeding pro se with a civil rights complaint. Multiple 18 motions are pending. 19 I. PLAINTIFF’S ALLEGATIONS 20 In his first amended complaint, plaintiff alleges that while he was housed at Mule Creek 21 State Prison (“MCSP”), defendants A. Chandra, K. Mohr, J. Quiring, J. Charon, and J. Weiss: 22 (a) retaliated against plaintiff in violation of the First Amendment by verbally threatening 23 plaintiff, and issuing a rules violation report (“RVR”) asserting false allegations in retaliation for 24 plaintiff filing a grievance against defendant A. Chandra; (b) violated plaintiff’s Eighth 25 Amendment rights by housing him in segregated housing and detention, resulting in a long term 26 deprivation of outdoor exercise, despite plaintiff’s chronic depressive disorder and serious 27 medical and mental health needs; and (c) conspired to violate plaintiff’s constitutional rights. 28 (ECF No. 14.) In addition, plaintiff alleges that defendants J. Quiring and J. Weiss violated 1 plaintiff’s due process rights in connection with the hearing on the rules violation report asserting 2 false allegations. (Id.) 3 II. BACKGROUND 4 On May 14, 2024, the Court issued its Discovery and Scheduling Order, setting the 5 discovery deadline for September 13, 2024, and the pretrial motions deadline for December 6, 6 2024. (ECF No. 26.) The order provided that responses to written discovery requests shall be 7 due 45 days after the request is served. (Id. at 5.) 8 On September 6, 2024, the Court granted plaintiff’s motion to modify the scheduling 9 order and extended the discovery deadline to October 13, 2024. (ECF No. 29.) 10 On November 22, 2024, plaintiff’s motion to compel discovery (ECF No. 30) was denied, 11 and plaintiff was granted 21 days to propound limited requests for production of documents, and 12 defendants J. Weiss and J. Quiring were ordered to respond to the requests within 45 days. (ECF 13 No. 39.) On November 25, 2025, the scheduling order was revised, and the pretrial motions 14 deadline was extended to March 10, 2025, in light of the pending discovery. (ECF No. 40.) 15 On March 3, 2025, plaintiff filed a motion to compel discovery responses to requests for 16 production of documents propounded to defendant J. Weiss. (ECF No. 53.) On March 17, 2025, 17 defendants filed an opposition. (ECF No. 55.) On April 10, 2025, plaintiff filed a reply. (ECF 18 No. 57.) 19 On March 7, 2025, defendants filed a motion for summary judgment. (ECF No. 54.) On 20 April 16, 2025, defendants filed a notice that plaintiff failed to file an opposition to the motion for 21 summary judgment. (ECF No. 58.) 22 On April 17, 2025, plaintiff filed a motion to compel further discovery responses from 23 defendant J. Weiss. (ECF No. 59.) 24 On April 25, 2025, plaintiff filed a motion for sixty day extension of time to file an 25 opposition to defendants’ motion for summary judgment. (ECF No. 60.) On May 6, 2025, 26 defendants filed an opposition to plaintiff’s motion for extension of time on the grounds that the 27 motion was untimely filed. (ECF No. 61.) Plaintiff did not file a reply to the opposition. 28 /// 1 III. MOTION TO COMPEL 2 A. The Parties’ Positions 3 Plaintiff states that he timely propounded limited requests for production of documents to 4 defendant J. Weiss, but defendant J. Weiss failed to respond. (ECF No. 53.) Plaintiff challenges 5 the responses to request for production of documents Nos. 4, 5 and 7, propounded to defendant J. 6 Quiring. 7 Defendants do not contest the timeliness of plaintiff’s motion. (ECF No. 55, passim.) 8 Defendants admit that they failed to timely respond to plaintiff’s request for production, set two, 9 propounded to defendant J. Weiss, but upon receipt of plaintiff’s motion to compel, they served 10 responses by defendant J. Weiss the same day. (ECF No. 55 at 1-2.) 11 In his reply, plaintiff acknowledges receipt of defendant J. Weiss’s late responses to the 12 second request for production of documents, and seeks leave of Court to file a second motion to 13 compel further discovery responses as to J. Weiss’s responses. On April 17, 2025, plaintiff filed 14 the second motion to compel. (ECF No. 59.) 15 As to defendant J. Quiring, plaintiff argues that the Court should require defendant J. 16 Quiring to provide further responses to request for production of documents Nos. 4, 5 and 7. 17 (ECF No. 57 at 2-5.) 18 B. Standards Governing Discovery Disputes 19 “Parties may obtain discovery regarding any nonprivileged matter that is relevant to any 20 party’s claim or defense and proportional to the needs of the case[.]” Fed. R. Civ. P. 26(b)(1). 21 Proportionality turns on “the importance of the issues at stake in the action, the amount in 22 controversy, the parties’ relative access to relevant information, the parties’ resources, the 23 importance of the discovery in resolving the issues, and whether the burden or expense of the 24 proposed discovery outweighs its likely benefit.” Id. 25 A party may serve on another party requests to produce and permit the requesting party or 26 its representative to inspect, copy, test, or sample items in the responding party’s possession, 27 custody, or control, including designated documents, electronically stored information, or other 28 writings. Fed. R. Civ. P. 34(a)(1). The responding party then must respond in writing within 1 thirty days, unless otherwise agreed upon, after being served. Fed. R. Civ. P. 34(b)(2). If a 2 responding party objects, the objection “must state whether any responsive materials are being 3 withheld on the basis of that objection[, and] an objection to part of a request must specify the 4 part and permit inspection of the rest.” Fed. R. Civ. P. 34(b)(2)(C). A requesting party is entitled 5 to production of documents within a responding party’s possession, custody, or control, 6 regardless of whether the requesting party possesses the same documents. Fed. R. Civ. P. 34(a). 7 No waiver is provided with regard to requests for production; rather, Rule 34(b)(2)(A) simply 8 requires a response, including objections, be served “within 30 days after being served.” Id. 9 Under Rule 37 of the Federal Rules of Civil Procedure, “a party seeking discovery may 10 move for an order compelling an answer, designation, production, or inspection.” Fed. R. Civ. P. 11 37(a)(3)(B). The court may order a party to provide further responses to an “evasive or 12 incomplete disclosure, answer, or response.” Fed. R. Civ. P. 37(a)(4). “District courts have 13 ‘broad discretion to manage discovery and to control the course of litigation under Federal Rule 14 of Civil Procedure 16.’” Hunt v. County of Orange, 672 F.3d 606, 616 (9th Cir. 2012) (quoting 15 Avila v. Willits Envtl.

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