Simon v. Ford Motor Co.

165 F.R.D. 650, 1995 U.S. Dist. LEXIS 20680, 1995 WL 853093
CourtDistrict Court, N.D. Oklahoma
DecidedNovember 22, 1995
DocketNo. 92-CV-465-H
StatusPublished
Cited by3 cases

This text of 165 F.R.D. 650 (Simon v. Ford Motor Co.) is published on Counsel Stack Legal Research, covering District Court, N.D. Oklahoma primary law. Counsel Stack provides free access to over 12 million legal documents including statutes, case law, regulations, and constitutions.

Bluebook
Simon v. Ford Motor Co., 165 F.R.D. 650, 1995 U.S. Dist. LEXIS 20680, 1995 WL 853093 (N.D. Okla. 1995).

Opinion

ORDER

HOLMES, District Judge.

This matter comes before the Court on the Motion of Plaintiff Craig Simon to Reconsider the October 5, 1995 Ruling on Plaintiff’s Motion for Default Judgment.

. On November 20, 1995, the Court held a hearing on the instant motion made pursuant to Rule 37 of the Federal Rules of Civil Procedure with respect to a certain two volume index, which index was the subject of proceedings in the case of Nora Williams v. Ford Motor Co. (No. 81-3476-CV-S-2 Consolidated) filed in the United States District Court for the Western District of Missouri.

During the course of discovery in this case, Plaintiff requested certain documents from Defendant. Because Defendant claimed that it was not obligated to produce certain documents on the grounds that various legal privileges attached thereto, the issue of a privilege list was discussed. At a discovery hearing held on March 16, 1993 before United States Magistrate Judge Wolfe, the following exchange took place:

Mr. Cameron [lawyer representing Ford]: Okay. Judge, the one thing that I can see to bring up for now is we did get discovery requests from the plaintiff late Friday. And in looking at them, I found three things that I need to comment on currently because one of my obligations from the last phone conference was to advise you, far in advance of the thirty day time limitation, of any potential problem with responding to these discovery requests, primarily geared to the production and preparation of a privilege log.

The Court: All right.

Mr. Cameron: Privileged and confidential documents. And you will recall at the last phone conference hearing I told you that if I did get my eight categories of documents read back to me in the requests, I could promise you it would take longer than thirty days to respond. And I think you inquired of Mr. Carson and the quote was, you’re not planning on asking for these eight categories of documents and the word was no.

The Court: But he did.

Mr. Cameron: Request thirty seven is produce these eight categories of documents. The Court: Okay.

Mr. Cameron: As I explained before, we’re talking about a family of documents that approaches the number of ten thousand documents and it will be a substantial project to go through the list that you’ve ordered us before. But I think—

The Court: I guess part of my problem is if this were the first lawsuit that you all have ever dealt with, I would have some sympathy. But since it’s not and since it’s not the first of this kind of lawsuit, I have some difficulty believing you haven’t done this before.

Mr. Cameron: Judge, the only other time that was ordered was in the Nora Williams [652]*652case and I think in my response, the fifty one page response that I prepared, I showed you the pleadings for that was, that procedure was suspended by agreement of the parties and agreement of the court and that list was never prepared. The second thing I wanted to discuss’ was one of the requests and interrogatories.

The Court: Well, let me see if I can make my comment a little bit more specific. When I say you, I don’t mean Mr. Cameron. I mean Ford.

Mr. Cameron: And I’m telling you, Judge, that Ford has never prepared the list that you ordered.

Clearly, Magistrate Wolfe was attempting to ascertain the amount of work and expense involved in the preparation of a privilege log. If Ford had prepared, or had even begun to prepare, such a list in an earlier litigation, then less work and expense would be involved in preparing a privilege log in the instant case. The Court concludes that, based upon a review of the facts and the context in which the question was posed, that Ford’s response to the Magistrate, through its counsel, Dennis Cameron, “that Ford has never prepared the list that you ordered”, does not forthrightly answer the Magistrate’s question.1

Although Magistrate Wolfe had ordered Ford to prepare a privilege list which included a category that was not contained in the index prepared in the Williams case, it is clear from the context of the above-described exchange between Mr. Cameron and the court that a truthful response to the Magistrate’s question would have referred to the two notebooks containing the index that is the subject of the instant motion. The Court does not credit Defendant’s explanation that the answer is technically correct because the addition of one category transformed Magistrate Wolfe’s request into an entirely different document than the index prepared in Williams.2

The Tenth Circuit has stated that a district court should consider three factors in making findings under Rule 37:

(1) the degree of actual prejudice to the [Plaintiff] ...;
(2) the amount of interference with the judicial process ...; and (3) the culpability of the litigant.

Ocelot Oil Corp. v. Sparrow Indus., 847 F.2d 1458, 1465 (10th Cir.1988). However, the Court is unable to make a finding on the issue of actual prejudice to the Plaintiff until the index and the documents listed therein have been reviewed. Therefore, the Court orders Defendant Ford Motor Company to [653]*653produce to the Plaintiff all documents listed in the above-referenced two volume index no later than December 22, 1995. Counsel of record for Plaintiff shall receive the two volume index from the Office of the Court Clerk.

By February 20, 1996, Plaintiff must review the documents and make a submission to the Court which specifies the degree of actual prejudice, if any, suffered by Plaintiff resulting from Defendant’s failure to disclose to Plaintiff the existence of the above-referenced two volume index. Plaintiffs submission must identify any documents that demonstrate prejudice and that would have been discoverable during the course of this litigation, and those documents should be attached thereto as exhibits.

Plaintiffs lawyers may not disclose or transmit any of the documents produced by Ford or the information contained in the documents to any person or entity other than Plaintiffs retained expert witness who testified -at trial in this litigation, Mr. Stilson. Mr. Stilson must abide by the same restrictions. If Plaintiff’s lawyers or Mr. Stilson violate this confidentiality provision, then they will be found in contempt of court and will be sanctioned accordingly. If documents are attached to the court submission, then Plaintiff shall file those documents under seal.

Finally, pursuant to Rule 37, the Court orders Ford to pay Plaintiffs reasonable attorneys’ fees and costs in connection with the making of the original motion for default judgment, the motion for reconsideration, and the document review directed by this Order. By March 1, 1996, Plaintiff shall submit to the Court an accounting of the above-referenced reasonable attorneys’ fees and costs.

The Court holds in abeyance any further imposition of sanctions against Ford and/or Ford’s lawyers until the document review has been completed.

IT IS SO ORDERED.

Free access — add to your briefcase to read the full text and ask questions with AI

Related

In Re West
338 B.R. 906 (N.D. Oklahoma, 2006)
Thompson v. Haynes
36 F. Supp. 2d 936 (N.D. Oklahoma, 1999)

Cite This Page — Counsel Stack

Bluebook (online)
165 F.R.D. 650, 1995 U.S. Dist. LEXIS 20680, 1995 WL 853093, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/simon-v-ford-motor-co-oknd-1995.