(PC) Stephen v. Montejo

District Court, E.D. California·Decided June 29, 2022·No. 2:18-cv-01796·Unknown

Opinion

1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 UNITED STATES DISTRICT COURT 9 FOR THE EASTERN DISTRICT OF CALIFORNIA 10 11 JIMMIE EARL STEPHEN, No. 2:18-cv-1796 KJM DB P 12 Plaintiff, 13 v. ORDER AND FINDINGS AND RECOMMENDATIONS 14 E. MONTEJO, 15 Defendant. 16 17 Plaintiff is a state prisoner proceeding pro se with a civil rights action under 42 U.S.C. 18 §1983. Plaintiff alleges defendant was deliberately indifferent to his serious medical needs in 19 violation of the Eighth Amendment. Before the court are: (1) defendant Montejo’s motion to 20 compel; (2) defendant’s motion to modify the Discovery and Scheduling Order (“DSO”); (3) 21 plaintiff’s motion for a copy of the transcript of his deposition; (4) plaintiff’s motion to amend the 22 third amended complaint; and (5) plaintiff’s motion for sanctions. For the reasons set forth 23 below, this court grants defendants’ motions and denies plaintiff’s motions for a copy of the 24 transcript and for sanctions. Further, this court recommends plaintiff’s motion to amend be 25 denied. 26 BACKGROUND 27 This case is proceeding on plaintiff’s third amended complaint. (ECF No. 61.) Plaintiff 28 alleges that when he was incarcerated at the California Medical Facility in 2018, defendant 1 Montejo1 failed to treat his chronic kidney disease and refused to order further testing for prostate 2 cancer after an examination of plaintiff showed an enlarged prostate and a high prostate-specific 3 antigen (“PSA”). In 2022, plaintiff voluntarily dismissed the claim based on the treatment of his 4 kidney disease. The case now proceeds solely on plaintiff’s claim that defendant was deliberately 5 indifferent to his risk of prostate cancer. 6 In 2020, the court granted defendant’s motion to revoke plaintiff’s in forma pauperis 7 status. (ECF No. 93.) After appealing the district court’s order, plaintiff paid the filing fee in 8 2021. 9 This court issued a DSO in January 2022. (ECF No. 104.) It set deadlines of April 29, 10 2022 for discovery and July 22, 2022 for dispositive motions. Prior to issuance of the DSO, 11 plaintiff filed a motion for summary judgment. This court stayed consideration of that motion 12 until the parties could complete discovery and defendant had an opportunity to file a dispositive 13 motion as well. (See ECF No. 110.) 14 On April 29, 2022, defendant moved to compel plaintiff to respond to interrogatories, 15 requests for production of documents, and requests for admissions. (ECF No. 111.) Plaintiff 16 filed an opposition (ECF No. 120) and defendant filed a reply (ECF No. 123). Defendant also 17 seeks to modify the DSO. 18 On May 2, 2022, plaintiff filed a motion for a copy of the transcript of his deposition. 19 (ECF No. 112.) Defendant filed an opposition. (ECF No. 116.) 20 Plaintiff also filed a motion to amend the third amended complaint. (ECF No. 114.) 21 Defendant opposes that motion. (ECF No. 117.) Plaintiff filed a reply. (ECF No. 125.) 22 MOTION TO COMPEL 23 I. Legal Standards for Motions to Compel 24 Under Rule 37 of the Federal Rules of Civil Procedure, “a party seeking discovery may 25 move for an order compelling an answer, designation, production, or inspection.” Fed. R. Civ. P. 26 37(a)(3)(B). The court may order a party to provide further responses to an “evasive or 27 1 All other defendants identified by plaintiff in his various complaints have been dismissed from 28 this action. 1 incomplete disclosure, answer, or response.” Fed. R. Civ. P. 37(a)(4). “District courts have 2 ‘broad discretion to manage discovery and to control the course of litigation under Federal Rule 3 of Civil Procedure 16.’” Hunt v. County of Orange, 672 F.3d 606, 616 (9th Cir. 2012) (quoting 4 Avila v. Willits Envtl. Remediation Trust, 633 F.3d 828, 833 (9th Cir. 2011)). 5 The party moving to compel bears the burden of informing the court (1) which discovery 6 requests are the subject of the motion to compel, (2) which of the responses are disputed, (3) why 7 the party believes the response is deficient, (4) why any objections are not justified, and (5) why 8 the information sought through discovery is relevant to the prosecution of this action. McCoy v. 9 Ramirez, No. 1:13-cv-1808-MJS (PC), 2016 WL 3196738, at *1 (E.D. Cal. June 9, 2016); Ellis v. 10 Cambra, No. 1:02-cv-5646-AWI-SMS PC, 2008 WL 860523, at *4 (E.D. Cal. Mar. 27, 2008). 11 The purpose of discovery is to “remove surprise from trial preparation so the parties can 12 obtain evidence necessary to evaluate and resolve their dispute.” United States v. Chapman 13 Univ., 245 F.R.D. 646, 648 (C.D. Cal. 2007) (quotation and citation omitted). Rule 26(b)(1) of 14 the Federal Rules of Civil Procedure offers guidance on the scope of discovery permitted: 15 Parties may obtain discovery regarding any nonprivileged information that is relevant to any party's claim or defense and 16 proportional to the needs of the case, considering the importance of the issues at stake in the action, the amount in controversy, the 17 parties' relative access to relevant information, the parties’ resources, the importance of the discovery in resolving the issues, and whether 18 the burden or expense of the proposed discovery outweighs its likely benefit. Information within this scope of discovery need not be 19 admissible in evidence to be discoverable. 20 “Relevance for purposes of discovery is defined very broadly.” Garneau v. City of 21 Seattle, 147 F.3d 802, 812 (9th Cir. 1998). “The party seeking to compel discovery has the 22 burden of establishing that its request satisfies the relevancy requirements of Rule 26(b)(1). 23 Thereafter, the party opposing discovery has the burden of showing that the discovery should be 24 prohibited, and the burden of clarifying, explaining or supporting its objections.” Bryant v. 25 Ochoa, No. 07cv200 JM (PCL), 2009 WL 1390794, at *1 (S.D. Cal. May 14, 2009) (internal 26 citation omitted). 27 //// 28 //// 1 II. Defendant Montejo’s Motion 2 A. Interrogatories, Set One2 3 Defendant argues that several of plaintiff’s interrogatory responses are non-responsive. 4 Plaintiff argues that defendant’s motion is frivolous because defendant has access to all the 5 information sought and plaintiff indicates he does not have access to all the information. This 6 court finds that each of the interrogatories seeks information relevant to plaintiff’s allegations 7 against defendant Montejo. Below, this court considers each of plaintiff’s responses. 8 • Interrogatory No. 7 9 “State all facts supporting your contention that Dr. Montejo acted with deliberate 10 indifference in the treatment he provided (including screening or diagnosis) for prostate 11 cancer.” 12 Response to Interrogatory No. 7 13 “1. When Plaintiff has Family History of Prostate Cancer, Blood in Urine, with 14 other Side-Effects, No steady Flow, Hard to Botched Polyp Surgery for Pre- 15 Cancer, of 2010. 16 2. Denial of Vitamins, with Attitude told to purchase at canteen, without regards if 17 had Monies, for Mis-Diagnosed CKD when Prostate Cancer..Which led to 6-22-18 18 Lawsuit filing.” 19 Plaintiff’s response seems to address, to some extent, the question asked.

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