Sánchez-Medina v. Unicco Service Co.

265 F.R.D. 24, 2009 U.S. Dist. LEXIS 110850
CourtDistrict Court, D. Puerto Rico
DecidedNovember 30, 2009
DocketCivil No. 07-1880 (DRD)
StatusPublished
Cited by22 cases

This text of 265 F.R.D. 24 (Sánchez-Medina v. Unicco Service Co.) is published on Counsel Stack Legal Research, covering District Court, D. Puerto Rico primary law. Counsel Stack provides free access to over 12 million legal documents including statutes, case law, regulations, and constitutions.

Bluebook
Sánchez-Medina v. Unicco Service Co., 265 F.R.D. 24, 2009 U.S. Dist. LEXIS 110850 (prd 2009).

Opinion

OPINION AND ORDER

JUSTO ARENAS, United States Chief Magistrate Judge.

This matter is before the court? on plaintiffs’ request that defendants be ordered to immediately produce information which had been previously requested by them. For the reasons set forth below plaintiffs’ request is hereby GRANTED.

I. BACKGROUND

Plaintiffs’ causes of action were brought under the Age Discrimination and Employment Act (“ADEA”) and Title VII of the of the Civil Rights Act 42 U.S.C. § 2000e et seq., as well as under various Puerto Rico statutes, seeking redress from the defendants, UNICCO Service Company, (“UN-ICCO”), Unilever de Puerto Rico, Inc., (“Unilever”), William Ocasio, and Juan C. Rodriguez, for conduct in the workplace constituting of sexual harassment, employment discrimination by reason of age, sex and gender, retaliation for engaging in a protected activity, and for slandering Agap-ito Sánchez-Medina (“Mr. Sánchez”) and torts. (Docket No. 16, at 1, ¶ 1.)

On December 21, 2007, pursuant to the provisions of Rules 26, 33, 34 and 36 of the Federal Rules of Civil Procedure, the plaintiffs sent their “First Set of Interrogatories” to the defendants. (See Plaintiffs’ First Set of Interrogatories.) On May 6, 2009, the defendants received notice of “Plaintiffs’ Supplemental Set of Interrogatories”. (See Exhibit No. 1.) Thereafter, on July 21, 2009, the defendants were notified of “Plaintiffs’ First Request to Admit Facts”. (See Exhibit No. 2.) The defendants then notified their “Answer to Plaintiffs’ Supplemental Set of Interrogatories” on August 4, 2009. (See Exhibit No. 4.)

On August 6, 2009, the plaintiffs made objections to some of the defendants’ answers to the supplemental set of interrogatories stating that they were unresponsive and frivolous. The plaintiffs’ interrogatories required, among other things, that the defendants produce information regarding the name, age, position and seniority of the UN-ICCO employees working at Puerto Rico, and/or supervisory positions, as well as those employees that worked at UNICCO, both before and after Mr. Sánchez’ termination. (See Plaintiffs’ First Set of Interrogatories Nos. 24 & 25; and Request for Production of Documents No. 22; and Plaintiffs’ Supplemental Set of Interrogatories.) However, [26]*26according to the plaintiffs the defendants failed to:

(1) Identify the managerial and supervisory positions that were available at Puerto Rico, before and after plaintiffs termination, and the name, age, and seniority of the persons occupying the same.
(2) Provide a list with the names, position, age and seniority of UNICCO’s employees at Puerto Rico, before and after plaintiffs termination.
(3) Provide a list with the names, age, seniority, and position of its employees that worked at UNILEVER, and were reassigned to another facility as an alternative to their termination, after plaintiffs termination.
(4) Provide a list with the name, age, position and seniority of defendant’s employees occupying a supervisory or managerial position, at UNICCO’s operations in the United States.

On August 19, 2009, the plaintiffs were informed by the defendants that they did not have a list of all available positions, and that there were no supervisory positions available at the time Mr. Sánchez was terminated from his employment and at the time the contractual relationship between UNICCO and Unilever had ceased. The defendants only provided a list of new hires from January 1, 2006, to December 31, 2008. The plaintiffs thus argue that the defendants’ answer was not responsive. (See Answers to Objected Interrogatories Nos. 1, 2, and 9 of the letter dated August 19, 2009.) According to the plaintiffs the information they requested is extremely relevant. The plaintiffs claim that after Mr. Sánchez was terminated from his employment he informed UNICCO that he was willing to accept any other position at any other facility in Puerto Rico, or in the United States but was informed that no positions were available for him. The plaintiffs claim that despite of this, after Mr. Sánchez was discharged, UNICCO made various relocation offers to other younger employees who had less experience and seniority. According to the plaintiffs, Mr. Radamés Rivera (“Mr.Rivera”) received an e-mail from a human resources representative of UNICCO asking him for resumes from UNICCO employees. The plaintiffs believe that the information it requests is neither overly broad nor burdensome, since they claim it is information that the defendants must have available in order to be able to run their day to day operations. Furthermore, plaintiffs contend that UNICCO had a practice and policy for relocating employees that were going to be affected due to termination of a contract and/or due to a reduction in force, to any other position occupied by an employee with lesser seniority. It is because of this that the plaintiffs requested the information and documents described.

The defendants in turn argue that in their “Answer to Plaintiffs First Request to Admit Facts”, which was notified to the plaintiffs on August 21, 2009, they denied having a relocation policy applicable to all employees affected in a reduction in force and/or a cancellation of a contract. (See Exhibit No. 7.) The defendants further claim that plaintiffs’ request was overly broad and burdensome. (See Exhibit No. 8, Letter from attorney Escanellas dated September 1, 2009 & Exhibit No. 9, Letter from attorney Ramirez dated September 3, 2009.) Also, the defendants informed plaintiffs that they did not understand the relevance of their request for information related to supervisory positions UNICCO may have had outside of Puerto Rico, since UNICCO did not have a transfer policy for employees that are laid off as a result of the termination of the contractual relations between UNICCO and their clients. (See Exhibit 10, Letter from attorney Ramirez dated October 1, 2009.) As to the email that plaintiffs claim was sent to Mr. Rivera, the defendants claim that despite their requests it was never produced. (See Exhibit No. 5, E-mail from attorney Ramirez dated August 11, 2009 & Exhibit No. 11, Email from attorney Ramirez dated October 13, 2009.)

According to the defendants, the only email that related to resumes of UNICCO employees being sent was an e-mail sent by Mr. Rivera to Mr. Adalberto Charnichart and Mr. Guido Herrera, both employees of Johnson Control. (See Exhibit 5, E-mail from attorney Ramirez dated August 11, 2009.) [27]*27The defendants claim that the information requested by the plaintiffs cannot be produced because all available management positions are reported to UNICCO’s Human Resources (“HR”) headquarters. According to the defendants, all positions, including Mr. Sánchez’, which are not management positions, are not reported to UNICCO’s HR headquarters. The defendants thus claim that no report can be generated by UNICCO that would illustrate available supervisory positions UNICCO may have had outside of Puerto Rico. In sum, the defendants argue that the information sought by plaintiffs is overly broad, burdensome and completely irrelevant.

II. ANALYSIS

Rule 33 (b)(3) of the

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265 F.R.D. 24, 2009 U.S. Dist. LEXIS 110850, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/sanchez-medina-v-unicco-service-co-prd-2009.