Willingham v. Ashcroft

226 F.R.D. 57, 2005 U.S. Dist. LEXIS 922, 2005 WL 159454
CourtDistrict Court, District of Columbia
DecidedJanuary 25, 2005
DocketNo. CIV.A. 021972 (ESH/JMF)
StatusPublished
Cited by16 cases

This text of 226 F.R.D. 57 (Willingham v. Ashcroft) is published on Counsel Stack Legal Research, covering District Court, District of Columbia primary law. Counsel Stack provides free access to over 12 million legal documents including statutes, case law, regulations, and constitutions.

Bluebook
Willingham v. Ashcroft, 226 F.R.D. 57, 2005 U.S. Dist. LEXIS 922, 2005 WL 159454 (D.D.C. 2005).

Opinion

MEMORANDUM OPINION

FACCIOLA, United States Magistrate Judge.

This case was referred to me for the resolution of discovery disputes by Judge Huvelle. Currently ripe and ready for resolution are several discovery motions. For the reasons stated herein, Plaintiffs Motion to Expand Scope of Discovery Order Dated July 20, 2001 and to Compel Answers to Interrogatories and Responses to Request for Production of Documents [# 43] is denied in part and granted in part, Plaintiffs Supplement to Motion to Expand Scope of Discovery Order Dated July 20, 2001 and to Compel Answers to Interrogatories and Responses to Request for Production of Documents [# 44] is denied in part and granted in part, Defendant’s Motion to Quash Subpoena and to Enter a Protective Order Vacating Plaintiffs Notice of Deposition to Former Drug Enforcement Administrator Donnie Marshall [# 51] is denied in part and granted in part, Defendant’s Motion to Strike Plaintiffs Reply Memorandum to Plaintiffs Motion to Expand Scope of Discovery Dated July 20, 2001 and to Compel Answers to Interrogatories and Responses to Request for Production of Documents [# 55] is denied, and Plaintiffs Motion to Late File Plaintiffs Second Motion to Compel Documents [# 58] is granted.

I. INTRODUCTION

Plaintiff, an attorney who was an Attorney-Advisor in the Drug Enforcement Ad[59]*59ministration (“DEA”), an agency within the Department of Justice (“DOJ”), claims that her termination from that position was motivated by a retaliatory and discriminatory animus. The defendant, the Attorney General (“AG”), will defend on the grounds that an investigation of plaintiffs behavior on the night she was arrested in Fairfax County for assault and statements she made thereafter justified her removal from federal service, even though she was acquitted of the charges that led to her arrest.

II. DISCUSSION

A. The Number of Interrogatories Plaintiff Was Permitted to Propound and the Number of Interrogatories She Has Already Propounded

At a conference held on December 15, 2003, the presiding judge, Judge Huvelle, rejected plaintiffs request that she be permitted to propound 50 interrogatories. Initial Sehed. Conf. Tr., Dec. 15, 2003, at 5. While the judge did not memorialize any precise limitation, the pertinent Federal Rule of Civil Procedure permits only 25,1 and plaintiff did not seek leave of court to propound more than 25 before she served her interrogatories. While she propounded interrogatories numbered from 1 to 25, the AG protests that when one counts separately “all discrete subparts” as the Rule requires,2 plaintiff has in fact propounded 43 interrogatories.

The AG’s complaint invokes the analysis I engaged in Banks v. Office of Senate Sergeant-at-Arms, 222 F.R.D. 7, 10 (D.D.C. 2004). I stated that ascertaining whether an interrogatory counted as one question or more than one question required a pragmatic approach:

Perhaps a more pragmatic approach, reminiscent of Justice Stewart’s memorable “definition” of pornography, would be to look at the way lawyers draft interrogatories and see if their typical approaches threaten the purpose of the rule by putting together in a single question distinct areas of inquiry that should be kept separate.

Id. (footnote omitted). Thus, once a subpart of an interrogatory introduces a line of inquiry that is separate and distinct from the inquiry made by the portion of the interrogatory that precedes it, the subpart must be considered a separate interrogatory no matter how it is designated. Id. Using this analysis, I will now determine which of plaintiffs interrogatories, no matter how they are numbered or otherwise propounded, must be considered more than one interrogatory.

Interrogatory Number 3. In this interrogatory, plaintiff begins by asking when Catherine Reeves (“Reeves”) started working for the Office of Attorney Personnel Management and the number of disciplinary actions she decided since she came to that office. She then proceeds to inquire about every particular of each disciplinary action Reeves decided. Finally, she shifts once again to whether the disciplined employee thereafter filed a discrimination complaint and seeks all the particulars of the complaint, including its disposition.

In my view, this interrogatory raises two distinct areas of inquiry: (1) Reeves’ service, the record of what she did in the cases before her, and the particulars of those cases; and (2) whether the persons disciplined filed discrimination complaints and the particulars of those complaints. Hence, this interrogatory should be counted as two interrogatories.

Interrogatory Number 9. In a similar fashion, this interrogatory seeks the identity of any DOJ employee who has been charged with a criminal offense and demands to know the particulars of the crime charged. It then asks whether the DOJ investigated the commission of the offense and proffered disciplinary charges against the employee who committed it and, if so, the name, race, and title of the official who proffered the disciplinary charges and the subsequent history of the charges proffered, if any. Finally, it asks whether the employee had been previously disciplined.

In my view, this interrogatory raises at least three distinct areas of inquiry: (1) the identity and particulars of the cases of any [60]*60DOJ employee charged with a criminal offense; (2) the investigation of those charges by the DOJ, any resulting disciplinary charges, and how those charges were resolved; and (3) the prior disciplinary records of the employees disciplined.

Interrogatory Number 10. This interrogatory seeks the particulars pertaining to any employee who had been disciplined by the DEA for making a false statement and any punishment that was imposed if the charge was sustained. It then asks whether any such employee was ever removed and, if not, why he was not removed. Again, the interrogatory asks whether the employee had been previously disciplined.

In my view, this interrogatory raises two distinct areas of inquiry: (1) the disciplining of any DEA employee for making a false statement and the removal or non-removal of any such employee; and (2) the prior disciplinary history of the employee.

Interrogatory Number lb. This interrogatory seeks information about the filing of complaints of discrimination against 12 persons. Specifically, it requests the particulars of each complaint and then asks if a lawsuit was filed and, if so, the particulars of the lawsuit. While I do not accept the AG’s view that this constitutes 12 separate interrogatories, I do believe that it raises two distinct areas of inquiry: (1) the particulars of the complaints filed against these individuals; and (2) the particulars of the lawsuits filed.

Interrogatory Number 15. This interrogatory seeks information about a white female DEA employee who was accused of shoplifting. It asks for the particulars of any criminal charge brought against her and whether the DEA investigated the charges, whether disciplinary charges were brought against her, the disposition of those charges, and finally whether she was employed by the DEA after the date of the criminal offense.

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Cite This Page — Counsel Stack

Bluebook (online)
226 F.R.D. 57, 2005 U.S. Dist. LEXIS 922, 2005 WL 159454, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/willingham-v-ashcroft-dcd-2005.