Pleasants v. Allbaugh

208 F.R.D. 7, 2002 U.S. Dist. LEXIS 8941, 2002 WL 1034280
District Court, District of Columbia·Decided May 22, 2002·No. Civil Action No. 00-3094(JMF)·Published·Cited by 42 cases

Opinion

MEMORANDUM OPINION

FACCIOLA, United States Magistrate Judge.

This matter is referred to me by Judge Kessler for all purposes. Having denied defendant’s motion to dismiss, I now resolve Plaintiff’s Motion to Compel and to Extend Deadline for Responding to Motion for Summary Judgment [# 18].

BACKGROUND

Plaintiff is an African-American male who was employed by the Federal Emergency Management Agency (“FEMA”) as a GS-13 program specialist. Plaintiff commenced this Title VII action alleging racial discrimination. The acts that underlie plaintiffs claims are FEMA’s pre-retirement failure to upgrade his position (the “upgrade claim”) and his post-retirement nonselection (the “non-selection claim”) for a newly expanded GS-13/14 position.1

On March 7, 2001, plaintiff propounded Interrogatories and Requests for Production of Documents on defendant. Defendant submitted its Answers to Interrogatories, and its Responses to the Request for Production of Documents, on June 1 and June 19, 2001, respectively, objecting to eight (8) of the interrogatories and fifteen (15) of the document requests. Plaintiff allegedly wrote two letters to defendant on June 8 and July 21, 2001, in an effort to resolve these disputes, but defendant failed to respond. Plaintiffs Motion to Compel at 6. On August 15, 2001, plaintiff filed this Motion to Compel.

DISCUSSION

Plaintiff moved to compel responses to interrogatories # 9-12[a], 14-15, 17-18 and production of documents set forth in requests [9] # 6-7, 9, 11-13, 15-16, 19, 21, 23, 25-26, 38, and 41.

Defendant primarily objects to a number of these discovery requests because they purportedly address the upgrade claim and are not calculated to lead to relevant information concerning the non-selection claim that, defendant insists, is the only claim plaintiff can press. Because I ruled plaintiff properly pled a continuing violation with respect to his failure to upgrade claim,2 I will permit discovery on both claims.

I hasten to add, however, that there is sub judice in the Supreme Court a case, to be decided this term, that may radically transform the law pertaining to continuing violations of Title VII of the Civil Rights Act. See Morgan v. Nat’l R.R. Passenger Corp., 232 F.3d 1008, 1015 — 16(9th Cir.2000), cert, granted, 533 U.S. 927,121 S.Ct. 2547, 150 L.Ed.2d 715 (U.S. June 25, 2001). I have, of course, premised this decision and the decision in Pleasants v. Allbaugh, 185 F.Supp.2d at 69, on the law as it presently is. If, as I anticipate, the Supreme Court substantially modifies the law I may be compelled to revisit both decisions.

Discovery Standards

Generally, a party is entitled to discover information “if the information sought appears reasonably calculated to lead to the discovery of admissible evidence.” Fed. R.Civ.P. 26(b)(1). Moreover, a party may only obtain discovery as to a matter that is “relevant to the claim or defense of any party.” Id.; Krieger v. Fadely, 199 F.R.D. 10, 13 (D.D.C.2001)(holding that the nature of the claims asserted defines relevancy).

In Title VII cases, plaintiffs have been permitted a very broad scope of discovery, extending to documents and information pertaining to so-called workforce data, i.e., information regarding non-party employees in plaintiffs workplace. See Minority Employees at NASA (MEAN) v. Beggs, 723 F.2d 958, 962 (D.C.Cir.1983)(“It is well established that statistical data and comparative information concerning an employer’s treatment of minorities is relevant evidence in an individual discrimination claim against that employer.”); see also Forman v. Small, 271 F.3d 285 (D.C.Cir.2001)(citing- MEAN); Miller v. Poretsky, 595 F.2d 780, 790-91 (D.C.Cir.l978)(recognizing that acts of discrimination against non-party tenants may be admissible to show a pattern of discrimination by landlord); White v. U.S. Catholic Conference, 1998 WL 429842 (D.D.C. May 22, 1998); Planells v. Howard Univ., 1983 WL 30372 (D.D.C. Jan. 25, 1983). In fact, some circuits have expressly held that discovery in employment discrimination suits is especially broad.3 Nonetheless, courts remain concerned about “fishing expeditions, discovery abuse, and inordinate expenses involved in overbroad and far-ranging discovery requests” and have therefore limited discovery to the issues involved in the particular case. Hardrick v. Legal Services Corp., 96 F.R.D. 617, 618 (D.D.C.1983). Even in cases involving racial discrimination, where such claims, by necessity, require discovery on how others are treated, discovery “should be reasonably related to the circumstances involved in the alleged discrimination and to a time frame involving the alleged discriminatory conduct and the individuals who are allegedly involved in that conduct.” Id. at 618-619. As in many discovery disputes, I shall seek to find the golden mean between unduly restrictive and overbroad production.

Temporal Scope of Discovery

The problem of setting a time period for the discovery ordered is a perplexing one because it does not admit of a lapidary solution; life is messy and cannot be divided into neat chronological segments. In a case involving class-wide discrimination, responsible statistical analysis has to be based on enough data to make that analysis meaningful. Understandably, in such cases, courts permit discovery of data over an extensive period of time. E.g., Rich v. Martin Marietta Corp., 522 F.2d 333, 342 (10th Cir.1975).

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Pleasants v. Allbaugh, 208 F.R.D. 7, 2002 U.S. Dist. LEXIS 8941, 2002 WL 1034280 (D.D.C. 2002).

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