Wright v. Old Gringo, Inc.

District Court, S.D. California·Decided November 1, 2019·No. 3:17-cv-01996·Unknown

Opinion

MARSHA WRIGHT, an individual, Case No.: 17cv1996-BAS(MSB)

Plaintiff, ORDER REGARDING PLAINTIFF’S v. MOTION TO ENFORCE COMPLIANCE WITH THE COURT’S ORDERS OLD GRINGO, INC., et al., CONCERNING AND/OR TO COMPEL Defendants. FURTHER ANSWERS TO REQUESTS FOR VARIOUS FINANCIAL INFORMATION RELATING TO OLD GRINGO, S.A. DE C.V. [ECF NO. 180] Presently before the Court is Plaintiff’s “Motion to Enforce Compliance with the Court’s Orders Concerning and/or to Compel Further Answers to Requests for Various Information Relating to Old Gringo, S.A. de C.V,” filed by Plaintiff on September 20, 2019. (See ECF No. 180.) Defendants filed their opposition to the motion on September 24, 2019. (ECF No. 185.) Plaintiff, a former designer for Defendants Old Gringo, Inc. (“OGI”) and Old Gringo, S.A. de C.V. (“OGS”) (a Western wear manufacturer and distributor and its and Yan Ferry (“Ferry”), told her in January 2013 that they were giving her a 5% ownership interest in the Old Gringo Companies. (See Compl. at 5, ECF No. 1.) The alleged promise was never reduced to writing, and the ownership interest was distinct from her salary and bonus compensation. (Id. at 6.) Plaintiff alleges that over the years, Tarut and Ferry made statements to Plaintiff that affirmed her part ownership and encouraged her to work hard on behalf of the Old Gringo Companies. (Id. at 7-8.) By October 2015, when Plaintiff stopped working with the Old Gringo Companies, Plaintiff had still not received the alleged ownership interest and concluded that contrary to her previous belief, it did not exist. (Id. at 13.) Plaintiff maintains causes of action against OGI, OGS, Yan, and Ferry for (1) fraud and fraudulent misrepresentation, (2) specific performance (to the extent this claim is not based upon contract), (3) promissory fraud, (4) concealment, (5) negligent misrepresentation, (6) promissory estoppel, and (7) unjust enrichment. (Id.; see also ECF No. 62 at 32 (granting in part Defendants’ motion for summary judgment and dismissing contract claim and specific performance claim solely to the extent it is premised on breach of contract, and denying all other grounds for summary judgment); ECF No. 163 at 16 (denying Defendants’ subsequent motion for summary judgment).) On December 6, 2018, the parties filed “Joint Motion for Determination of Discovery Dispute No. 3.” (ECF No. 58.) On January 14, 2019, the parties filed “Amended Joint Motion for Determination of Discovery Dispute No. 2.” (ECF No. 73.) In relevant part, both discovery motions included Plaintiff’s requests that the Court compel further responses to her requests for production of documents (“RFPs”) from OGI regarding the ownership, finances, and valuation of OGI’s commonly owned sister company and Co-Defendant: OGS. (See ECF No. 58 at 44-101; ECF No. 73 at 3-7; 13-15; 66-92.) After reviewing the parties’ detailed pleadings and holding two discovery on Plaintiff’s motions to compel further responses to her RFPs: granted as to RFP Nos. 4, 13, 21, 39, 45, 86, 87, and 95 and granted in part (only for the test year of 2014) as to RFP Nos. 88, 90, 91, 92, 97, 98, and 100. (Id. at 4-5.) The Court ordered that OGI produce its supplemental responses to these OGS-related RFPs within one week after Judge Bashant’s denial of OGS’ jurisdictional motion [ECF No. 61]. (ECF No. 85 at 4-5.) OGI produced responsive documents on June 18, 2019, exactly one week after Judge Bashant’s order denying OGS’ jurisdictional motion was denied, and additional documents on June 25, 2019. (ECF No. 180-3 at 2-3; see also ECF No. 115 (denying jurisdictional motion on June 11, 2019).) OGI’s production included nearly 1,500 pages of documents and the declaration of Pablo Pinochet, stating that he was an officer with pertinent knowledge, and that OGS did not have documents responsive to RFP Nos. 95 and 98. (ECF No. 180-3 at 2, 5-8.) On July 23, 2019, after a discovery hearing on July 19, 2019, this Court stayed Plaintiff’s deadline to file a joint motion for determination of discovery dispute regarding Defendants’ production of documents as required by the Court’s February 6, 2019 order, to be reset at a case management conference after Judge Bashant’s ruling on the pending motion for summary judgment. (ECF No. 159 at 3.) The Court held telephonic case management conferences on September 11 and September 17, 2019, (ECF Nos. 174, 177), and recognizing that roughly three months had passed for Plaintiff to review OGI’s document production, the Court ordered Plaintiff to file her motion2 by 1 At the time they were issued, the Court’s order granting OGI’s supplemental responses to certain RFPs requesting OGS-related documents were contingent on Judge Bashant’s denial of OGS’ jurisdictional motion. (See ECF No. 85 at 4-5.) Since Judge Bashant has since denied the motion in question, (ECF No. 115) this order will disregard the conditional aspect to streamline the discussion. 2 The Court permitted Plaintiff to file a motion on her own behalf, without using the motion, claiming that the documents OGI provided “do not comply with the Court’s orders and are not responsive to Plaintiff’s discovery requests.” (ECF No. 180-1 at 2.) She asks the Court to order Defendants to “provide English translations of any documents provided to Plaintiff by [OGI] on June 18, 2019 and June 25, 2019 to the extent that English translations have ever been made of the documents,” (id. at 6), “to organize and label their document production to correspond to the categories in Plaintiff’s requests,” (id. at 7-8), “to comply with [the Court’s order RFPs 39, 45, 86, 87, 88, 89, 90, 91, 92, 97, and 100,” (id. at 10), and “to provide its electronic accounting records,” (id. at 11). Plaintiff also asks the Court to acknowledge Plaintiff’s claim that she “has not waived any of her rights to take discovery on any appropriate subject.” (Id. at 8.) The Federal Rules of Civil Procedure authorize parties to obtain discovery regarding any nonprivileged matter that is relevant to any claim or defense and proportional to the needs of the case, “considering the importance of the issues at stake in the action, the amount in controversy, the parties’ relative access to relevant information, the parties’ resources, the importance of the discovery in resolving the issues, and whether the burden or expense of the proposed discovery outweighs its likely benefit.” Fed. R. Civ. P. 26(b)(1). Relevant information need not be admissible at trial to be discoverable. Id. District courts have broad discretion to determine relevancy for discovery purposes. See Hallett v. Morgan, 296 F.3d 732, 751 (9th Cir. 2002). Similarly, district courts have broad discretion to limit discovery where the discovery sought is “unreasonably cumulative or duplicative, or can be obtained from some other source that is more convenient, less burdensome, or less expensive”; the requesting party has had ample opportunity to obtain discovery; or the discovery sought is beyond the scope of Federal Rule of Civil Procedure 26(b)(1). Fed. R. Civ. P. 26(b)(2)(C). Rule of Civil Procedure 26(b). Fed. R. Civ. P. 34(a). “For each item or category, the response must either state that inspection and related activities will be permitted as requested or state an objection to the request, including the reasons.” Fed. R. Civ. P. 34

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Wright v. Old Gringo, Inc., (S.D. Cal. 2019).

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