Robbins v. Camden City Board of Education

105 F.R.D. 49, 40 Fed. R. Serv. 2d 1493, 1985 U.S. Dist. LEXIS 23244
CourtDistrict Court, D. New Jersey
DecidedJanuary 22, 1985
DocketCiv. A. No. 82-2350(c)
StatusPublished
Cited by41 cases

This text of 105 F.R.D. 49 (Robbins v. Camden City Board of Education) is published on Counsel Stack Legal Research, covering District Court, D. New Jersey primary law. Counsel Stack provides free access to over 12 million legal documents including statutes, case law, regulations, and constitutions.

Bluebook
Robbins v. Camden City Board of Education, 105 F.R.D. 49, 40 Fed. R. Serv. 2d 1493, 1985 U.S. Dist. LEXIS 23244 (D.N.J. 1985).

Opinion

OPINION

JEROME B. SIMANDLE, United States Magistrate:

This opinion will dispose of defendant’s pending motion for an order limiting the plaintiff’s interrogatories in the above action which alleges age and race discrimination in employment.

When the motion was initially filed, defendant’s objections were directed to the interrogatories as a whole and based upon claims that the interrogatories are excessive, unduly burdensome, designed to harass, and go beyond the scope of proper discovery. The court has received supplemental submissions on behalf of both parties which address more specifically some of the 259 interrogatories propounded by plaintiff. As a result, the focus of defend[54]*54ant’s motion has shifted somewhat and the court must consider the propriety of the individual interrogatories, to the extent possible, rather than treating them as a whole. Furthermore, defendant has raised the additional issue in his supplemental submissions of whether the interrogatories are unnecessarily repetitive and duplica-tive. Because plaintiff has had an opportunity to respond, the court will consider this additional allegation in disposing of defendant’s motion.

Before proceeding to a determination on each of plaintiff’s interrogatories, a brief review of the allegations of the pleadings is necessary to place the court’s rulings in their proper context.

PART I

I. Factual Contentions

The complaint in this action asserts claims under the Civil Rights Act of 1964, 42 U.S.C. §§ 1981 and 2000e et seq., and under the Age Discrimination in Employment Act of 1967, 29 U.S.C. § 621, et seq. According to the complaint, plaintiff was employed by defendant as a school teacher from September, 1974 through June, 1977. When plaintiff was not offered a contract for the 1977-1978 school year, she filed a charge against defendant with the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission [hereinafter EEOC]. Plaintiff received a Notice of Right to Sue from the EEOC on April 30, 1982, and subsequently commenced this litigation by filing a complaint on July 22, 1982 alleging discrimination on the basis of race and age.

The allegations of the complaint are as follows:

(1) Plaintiff claims that she was discriminated against by defendant with respect to the terms and conditions of her employment and tenure rights based upon her race;
(2) Plaintiff contends that she was discriminated against with respect to hiring, discharge, and other terms, conditions, and privileges of employment based upon her age;
(3) Plaintiff claims that she was discriminated against, particularly in her last year of employment because defendant knew that it was her tenure year. This discrimination allegedly was in the form of harassment, criticism, and reprimands because of her race and age; and
(4) Plaintiff contends that defendant unlawfully refused to offer plaintiff a contract for the 1977-1978 school year.

Plaintiff seeks injunctive relief prohibiting defendant from continuing its discriminatory practices, reinstatement to her former position with back pay and tenure, compensatory and punitive damages, and costs and attorneys’ fees of this litigation. In addition, plaintiff asks that the court retain jurisdiction over this matter to assure defendant’s compliance if the litigation is decided favorably to plaintiff.

Defendant’s answer, in addition to denying any discrimination against plaintiff, claims that plaintiff was evaluated by defendant’s agents, servants, or employees, and that it was on the basis of these evaluations that plaintiff was not rehired. Defendant also alleges that all administrative procedures were observed and that the decision not to rehire plaintiff was a reasonable exercise of defendant’s discretion.

II. Scope of Discovery

The benchmark in determining whether matters are discoverable is Fed.R.Civ.P. 26(b)(1). Rule 26(b)(1) provides in relevant part:

Parties may obtain discovery regarding any matter, not privileged, which is relevant to the subject matter involved in the pending action, whether it relates to the claim or defense of the party seeking discovery or to the claim or defense of any other party, including the existence, description, nature, custody, condition and location of any books, documents, or other tangible things and the identity and location of persons having knowledge of any discoverable matter. It is not ground for objection that the information sought will be inadmissible at the trial if the information sought appears [55]*55reasonably calculated to lead to the discovery of admissible evidence.

Although the scope of discovery prescribed by Fed.R.Civ.P. 26(b)(1) is a broad one, the rule has recently been amended to address perceived problems of over-discovery and abuses of the discovery process. As amended, the rule authorizes greater judicial involvement in setting discovery limits to, inter alia, reduce repetitious or burdensome discovery. Courts are cautioned, however, “not to deprive a party of discovery that is reasonably necessary to afford a fair opportunity to develop and prepare the case” (Advisory Committee Notes to the 1983 Amendments, Rule 26). The imposition of unnecessary limitations on discovery is especially to be avoided in Title VII cases. Trevino v. Celanese Corp., 701 F.2d 397, 405 (5th Cir.1983).

Despite the generally held view that liberal discovery should be permitted in actions alleging unlawful discrimination, the scope of discovery is not without limits. The responses sought must comport with the traditional notions of relevancy and must not impose an undue burden on the responding party. Rich v. Martin Marietta Corp., 522 F.2d 333, 343 (10th Cir.1975); Haykel v. G.F.L. Furniture Leasing Co., 76 F.R.D. 386, 391 (N.D.Ga.1976). Discovery should be tailored to the issues involved in the particular case. Hardrick v. Legal Services Corp., 96 F.R.D. 617, 618 (D.D.C.1983). Also, in the present action, plaintiff does not purport to represent a class of persons similarly discriminated against on the basis of race and age, nor has she alleged that defendant has engaged in a widespread pattern or practice of discrimination on the basis of race and age. Rather, she has presented a fairly individualized claim of discrimination based upon race and age. Nonetheless, the applicable discovery parameters must be broader than the specific, individualized facts upon which her claims are based because of the nature of the proofs required to demonstrate unlawful discrimination, which may often be indirect or circumstantial.

The methods of proving a prima facie case of race or age discrimination are similar. Claims of race-based employment discrimination under Title VII may be pressed in two ways.

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Cite This Page — Counsel Stack

Bluebook (online)
105 F.R.D. 49, 40 Fed. R. Serv. 2d 1493, 1985 U.S. Dist. LEXIS 23244, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/robbins-v-camden-city-board-of-education-njd-1985.