Stewart v. Orion Federal Credit Union

285 F.R.D. 395, 2012 WL 3171824
CourtDistrict Court, W.D. Tennessee
DecidedAugust 2, 2012
DocketNo. 12-cv-2111 JPM/tmp
StatusPublished
Cited by6 cases

This text of 285 F.R.D. 395 (Stewart v. Orion Federal Credit Union) is published on Counsel Stack Legal Research, covering District Court, W.D. Tennessee primary law. Counsel Stack provides free access to over 12 million legal documents including statutes, case law, regulations, and constitutions.

Bluebook
Stewart v. Orion Federal Credit Union, 285 F.R.D. 395, 2012 WL 3171824 (W.D. Tenn. 2012).

Opinion

AMENDED ORDER GRANTING IN PART AND DENYING IN PART PLAINTIFFS’ MOTION FOR PROTECTIVE ORDER

TU M. PHAM, United States Magistrate Judge.

Before the court by order of reference is plaintiffs Cherilyn Y. Stewart and Myrna Austin’s Motion for Protective Order, filed on July 5, 2012. (ECF No. 23.) Defendant Orion Federal Credit Union, formerly known as Memphis Area Teachers Credit Union (“Orion”), filed a response in opposition on July 9, 2012. On July 16, 2012, the court held a hearing on the motion. Counsel for all parties were present and heard. For the reasons below, the motion is GRANTED in part and DENIED in part.

On February 10, 2012, Stewart and Austill filed their complaint against Orion alleging retaliation in violation of Title VII of the Civil Rights Act of 1964 and 42 U.S.C. § 1981, stemming from plaintiffs’ complaints of racially discriminatory placement of workers at Orion. Orion filed its answer on March 6, 2012.

On June 27, 2012, Orion served several subpoenas on Stewart’s former employers: (1) Four County Power, (2) Fogelman Properties, LLC, (3) Cadence Bank, N.A., (4) BancorpSouth, Inc., and (5) Regions Bank. Orion also served a subpoena on Stewart’s current employer, Share One, Inc., and subpoenas on two potential employers of Stewart: Memphis Teaching Fellows — Memphis City Schools and Just>-4-U Tax and Financial Services.1 With respect to Austill, Orion served two subpoenas on her former employers: Regions Bank and Hospitality FCU.2 At the hearing, Orion stated that it also wanted to serve a subpoena on Advanced America, a company that Austill worked for after she left Orion. All of these subpoenas seek production of the same types of documents: “All records on [plaintiff] including but not limited to all job applications, person[398]*398nel files, pay records, disciplinary records, and any and all other records relating” to plaintiff. At the hearing, however, Orion narrowed the scope of its requested discovery to four types of documents: performance reviews, reasons for termination, payroll history, and employment applications (including resumes). The court will therefore address only these narrowed requests.

Federal Rule of Civil Procedure 26(c) affords district courts with discretion to issue a protective order “forbidding inquiry into certain matters, or limiting the scope of disclosure or discovery to certain matters” to prevent “annoyance, embarrassment, oppression, or undue burden or expense.” Fed. R.Civ.P. 26(c)(1)(D).3 Determining the scope of discovery is within this court’s discretion. Bush v. Dictaphone Corp., 161 F.3d 363, 367 (6th Cir.1998). As the Sixth Circuit has recognized, “[t]he scope of discovery under the Federal Rules of Civil Procedure is traditionally quite broad.” Lewis v. ACB Bus. Serv., Inc., 135 F.3d 389, 402 (6th Cir.1998). In particular, discovery is more liberal than the trial setting, as Rule 26(b) allows any “line of interrogation [that] is reasonably calculated to lead to the discovery of admissible evidence.” Id. (quoting Mellon v. Cooper-Jarrett, Inc., 424 F.2d 499, 501 (6th Cir.1970)). In other terms, the court construes discovery under Rule 26 “broadly to encompass any matter that bears on, or that reasonably could lead to other matter that could bear on, any issue that is or may be in the case.” Oppenheimer Fund, Inc. v. Sanders, 437 U.S. 340, 351, 98 S.Ct. 2380, 57 L.Ed.2d 253 (1978). With these principals in mind, the court will address each of the types of documents sought by Orion.

I. Plaintiffs’ Employers Prior to Orion

As a preliminary matter, the court finds that a temporal limit is appropriate on subpoenas served by Orion on plaintiffs’ past employers. See Shirazi v. Childtime Learning Ctr., Inc., No. CIV07-1289, 2008 WL 4792694, at *3 (W.D.Okla. Oct. 31, 2008) (limiting discovery to employment within five years of plaintiffs employment by defendant). Orion seeks discovery from former employers of Stewart and Austill that would cover approximately twenty years of employment prior to their employment at Orion. The court finds that this request seeks discovery of documents of questionable relevance, and that the burden on the non-parties substantially outweighs any marginal relevance of these documents. Stewart’s work at her two employers prior to Orion (Four County Power and Cadence Bank, N.A.) lasted for approximately seven years. In regard to Austill, her prior employment at Hospitality FCU lasted for approximately seven years. The court finds that plaintiffs’ employment at these three employers is close enough to plaintiffs’ time at Orion to be discoverable. The court, however, GRANTS plaintiffs’ protective order in regard to all discovery sought from Stewart and Austin’s employers prior to their time at Four County Power/Cadence Bank and Hospitality FCU, respectively.4

A. Performance reviews and evaluations

The court finds that plaintiffs’ performance reviews and evaluations from their prior employers are within the proper scope of discovery. See Harroald v. Triumph Structure-Wichita, Inc., No. 10-1281-JAR-KGG, 2011 WL 2118648, at *3 (D.Kan. May 27, 2011) (denying plaintiffs motion to quash subpoenas to her former employers for personnel records, including evaluations and disciplinary actions, as the documents were relevant and “meet ‘the broad and liberal construction afforded by the federal discovery rules’ ”); Dreier v. Accord Human Resources, No. CIV-08-446-M, 2008 WL 4534215, at *2 (W.D.Okla. Oct. 6, 2008) (finding that plaintiffs performance evaluations, including warnings, reprimands, and incident reports, from his other employers were relevant and denying motion to quash subpoena for personnel records); see also Brady v. Lauderhill Auto Investors I, LLC, No. 10-[399]*39960095, 2010 WL 4135329, at *2 (S.D.Fla. Oct. 19, 2010) (finding that plaintiffs employment records from jobs held both prior to and after his employment with defendant were relevant and discoverable). The court finds that such records could be relevant to plaintiffs’ performance at Orion and the legitimacy of any purported reasons presented by Orion for their termination. Plaintiffs’ motion for a protective order in regard to these records is DENIED.

B. Resume and Application for Employment

The court finds that plaintiffs’ resumes and applications for employment submitted to their prior employers are within the proper scope of discovery. See Harroald, 2011 WL 2118648, at *2. These documents could provide Orion with evidence of plaintiffs’ skill set and professional qualifications, which could be relevant to issues of damages and mitigation.

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285 F.R.D. 395, 2012 WL 3171824, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/stewart-v-orion-federal-credit-union-tnwd-2012.