Rogers v. Addison-Wesley Publishing Co.

99 F.R.D. 85, 1983 U.S. Dist. LEXIS 14203
CourtDistrict Court, N.D. Georgia
DecidedAugust 30, 1983
DocketCiv. No. C82-2184
StatusPublished
Cited by1 cases

This text of 99 F.R.D. 85 (Rogers v. Addison-Wesley Publishing Co.) is published on Counsel Stack Legal Research, covering District Court, N.D. Georgia primary law. Counsel Stack provides free access to over 12 million legal documents including statutes, case law, regulations, and constitutions.

Bluebook
Rogers v. Addison-Wesley Publishing Co., 99 F.R.D. 85, 1983 U.S. Dist. LEXIS 14203 (N.D. Ga. 1983).

Opinion

ORDER

ORINDA D. EVANS, District Judge.

This employment discrimination case, brought pursuant to Title VII of the Civil Rights Act of 1964, 42 U.S.C. § 2000e et seq., is before the Court on the Defendant’s motion for partial summary judgment and on the Defendant’s motion for reconsideration of an award of attorneys’ fees and expenses to the Plaintiff.

The Plaintiff, Phyllis A. Rogers, worked as a Southeast Region sales representative for the Defendant, Addison-Wesley Publishing Company, Inc. (Addison-Wesley), from 1975 to 1980. When she was discharged in [86]*861980, she filed a charge of sex discrimination with the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission (EEOC) and subsequently filed this complaint. She alleges that Addison-Wesley pays salesmen a larger base salary than saleswomen and computes the severance pay of discharged salesmen at a higher rate than the severance pay of discharged saleswomen; that Addison-Wesley did not promote her and compensate her on the same terms as her male counterparts; or offer her the same employment privileges; and that Addison-Wesley discharged her because of her sex, even though she had a better sales record than some salesmen. She has requested that Addison-Wesley be enjoined to reinstate her and to refrain from discriminating against her and be required to pay her the difference between her salary and that of her male counterparts for the time she was employed, plus the backpay and benefits she would have received from the date of her discharge to the date of her reinstatement, with interest, and her attorneys’ fees, expenses, and costs.

During the discovery period, Ms. Rogers answered Addison-Wesley’s interrogatories and submitted to Addison-Wesley’s deposition. She did not initiate her own discovery, however, until the last two weeks of the discovery period. Addison-Wesley objected to her discovery requests on the ground that it had insufficient time to comply before the discovery period ended. Accordingly, Ms. Rogers filed a motion to extend the time for taking discovery and a motion to compel Addison-Wesley’s compliance with discovery. Addison-Wesley then presented substantive objections to her discovery requests. The Court extended the discovery period to July 27, 1983. After reviewing Addison-Wesley’s objections to discovery, the Court found all but two to be without merit and found that Addison-Wesley’s opposition had not been substantially justified. The Court awarded Ms. Rogers the reasonable expenses, including attorneys’ fees, she had incurred to obtain the order compelling discovery.

Ms. Rogers’s counsel has now submitted an affidavit of fees and expenses. Addison-Wesley moves for reconsideration of the award of attorneys’ fees and expenses and objects to the affidavit’s listing of fees for the preparation of a response to the motion for reconsideration.

1. Motion for Reconsideration

Addison-Wesley contends that Ms. Rogers never attempted to discuss the company’s substantive objections to her discovery requests before she filed a motion to compel discovery. Local Rule 91.62 requires parties to confer on disagreements about discovery in an attempt to reconcile their differences. The affidavits of Addison-Wesley's counsel, Mr. Ross, and Ms. Rogers’s counsel, Mr. Henderson, suggest that this argument carries little substance. Mr. Ross and Mr. Henderson had a telephone conversation before the Court extended the time for discovery and ruled on Ms. Rogers’s motion to compel. Mr. Henderson alleges that, in that conversation “[he] expressly stated that he was calling in order to comply with the Local Rule.” He asked if Addison-Wesley intended to turn over to Ms. Rogers the documents she had requested. Mr. Ross replied that Addison-Wesley took the position that the request was untimely. Mr. Henderson then ended the conversation because he felt “there was no reason to continue [it].” Mr. Henderson’s actions can not be faulted, and the Court finds that he complied with Local Rule 91.62.

Addison-Wesley also argues that its timeliness objections were substantially justified because courts have denied discovery pursuant to requests proffered at the end of the discovery period. Ashland Oil, Inc. v. Delta Oil Products Corp., 29 F.R.Serv.2d 1158 (E.D.Wis.1980); Feir v. Carabetta Enterprises, Inc., 459 F.Supp. 841 (D.Conn.1978). Neither of these cases, though, parallels this case. In Ashland, the party seeking discovery had already accomplished substantial discovery over a four-year period. The Court denied discovery pursuant to interrogatories sent three days before discovery ended and received after discovery ended. In Feir, the party seeking discovery, after securing an extension of the discovery peri[87]*87od and of the time for filing an affidavit based on that discovery, failed to send out interrogatories until two days before the affidavit was due. Here Addison-Wesley received notice that it would be required to produce documents thirteen days before the end of the discovery period and received the requests themselves a week later. Yet it made no effort to accommodate those requests, even though Ms. Rogers had not engaged in any prior discovery. It took the position that, because it doubted it could fully respond before the discovery period ended, it would not attempt to respond at all. This can not be construed as a good-faith effort to cooperate with Ms. Rogers.

Addison-Wesley also expresses a lack of comprehension of how its substantive objections were improper. Like its timeliness objection, those substantive objections evinced an intent to stonewall rather than to cooperate reasonably by making at least a partial effort to honor Ms. Rogers’s discovery requests. If Addison-Wesley felt the parameters of those requests were vague or overbroad, this was no excuse for not trying to clarify with Ms. Rogers the scope of the requests or, alternatively, for not furnishing documents that would reasonably be deemed within the scope of the requests.

Because the Court adheres to its view that Addison-Wesley’s opposition to Ms. Rogers’s discovery requests was not substantially justified, it declines to reverse its award of expenses and attorneys’ fees. The Court finds that the fees and expenses listed in the affidavit of Ms. Rogers’s counsel are reasonable and therefore orders Addison-Wesley to reimburse Ms. Rogers in the amount of $479.54.

2. Partial Opposition to Affidavit

The affidavit of Ms. Rogers’s counsel includes a statement of fees and expenses in the preparation of a response to Addison-Wesley’s motion for reconsideration. Addison-Wesley argues that these expenses are not compensable because they were not incurred in obtaining the order compelling production of requested documents. From Ms. Rogers’s pleadings, the Court assumes that the affidavit presents these expenses to support a new request for an additional award of expenses in responding to Addison-Wesley’s current motion. The Court has discretion to make such an award, but in this case the Court finds that it would not be appropriate to tax Addison-Wesley with Ms. Rogers’s expenses in responding to the motion for reconsideration. The award of expenses and fees incurred in obtaining a discovery order is intended to reimburse a party who seeks to advance the litigation by compelling his opponent to submit to valid discovery.

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Bluebook (online)
99 F.R.D. 85, 1983 U.S. Dist. LEXIS 14203, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/rogers-v-addison-wesley-publishing-co-gand-1983.