In re: Subpoena of ANA v. n

Filing

UNPUBLISHED PER CURIAM OPINION filed. Originating case number: 8:11-cv-02836-RWT Copies to all parties and the district court/agency. [999790588].. [15-1481, 15-1803]

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UNPUBLISHED
UNITED STATES COURT OF APPEALS
FOR THE FOURTH CIRCUIT

No. 15-1481

In Re: SUBPOENA OF AMERICAN NURSES ASSOCIATION,
Movant.
---------------------GAIL HINTERBERGER,
Plaintiff - Appellant,
and
CATHOLIC HEALTH SYSTEM,
Defendant,
v.
AMERICAN NURSES ASSOCIATION,
Movant - Appellee.

No. 15-1803

In Re: SUBPOENA OF AMERICAN NURSES ASSOCIATION,
Movant.
---------------------CATHERINE GORDON,
Plaintiff - Appellant,
and

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KALEIDA HEALTH,
Defendant,
v.
AMERICAN NURSES ASSOCIATION,
Movant - Appellee.

Appeals from the United States District Court for the District
of Maryland, at Greenbelt.
Roger W. Titus, Senior District
Judge. (8:11-cv-02836-RWT; 8:11-cv-02837-RWT)

Submitted:

March 31, 2016

Before DUNCAN
Circuit Judge.

and

AGEE,

Decided:

Circuit

Judges,

and

April 7, 2016

DAVIS,

Senior

Affirmed in part, vacated in part, and remanded by unpublished
per curiam opinion.

J. Nelson Thomas, Jared K. Cook, THOMAS & SOLOMON, LLP,
Rochester, New York, for Appellants. Maureen E. Cones, Bruke H.
Sullivan, AMERICAN NURSES ASSOCIATION, Silver Spring, Maryland,
for Appellee.

Unpublished opinions are not binding precedent in this circuit.

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PER CURIAM:
Gail Hinterberger and Catherine Gordon (Appellants) appeal
the district court’s orders overruling their objections to the
magistrate judge’s opinions and orders relying on Fed. R. Civ.
P. 45(d)(2)(B)(ii) to shift expenses incurred by the American
Nurses Association (ANA) during a proceeding in which ANA was
required to produce certain discoverable materials related to an
action initiated by Appellants against Catholic Health System
and Kaleida Health.

Expenses incurred by ANA and shifted to

Appellants included attorney’s fees incurred in relation to the
production of discovery materials, attorney’s fees incurred in
relation

to

ANA’s

motion

to

shift

expenses billed by BIA to ANA.
magistrate

judge

improperly

expenses,

and

e-discovery

Appellants argue that (1) the

considered

ANA’s

motion

to

shift

expenses because the motion was untimely; (2) attorney’s fees
are

not

expenses

subject

to

shifting

under

Fed.

R.

Civ.

P.

45(d)(2)(B)(ii); * and (3) the magistrate judge improperly shifted
expenses

for

BIA’s

e-discovery

disclose

the

expenses

prior

to

services

where

incurring

the

ANA

failed

expenses.

to
We

affirm the district court’s judgments in part, vacate in part,
and remand.

*

At the time ANA incurred the expenses at issue, the Rule
permitting shifting of expenses was located at Fed. R. Civ. P.
45(c)(2)(B)(ii).

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I
We

review

a

district

court’s

decision

to

extend

the

timeframe a party has to file a pleading or motion for an abuse
of discretion.
2006).
an

See Lovelace v. Lee, 472 F.3d 174, 203 (4th Cir.

“A district court abuses its discretion when it acts in

arbitrary

manner,

when

it

fails

to

consider

judicially-

recognized factors limiting its discretion, or when it relies on
erroneous factual or legal premises.”

United States v. Henry,

673 F.3d 285, 291 (4th Cir. 2012).
Rule 6(b) of the Federal Rules of Civil Procedure grants a
district court the power to extend the time for a party to file
a motion.
motion

Fed. R. Civ. P. 6(b)(1).

has

deadline

if

elapsed,
the

a

district

time-delinquent

Where a deadline to file a
court
party

may

only

files

demonstrates excusable neglect for the delay.

extend
motion

a

the
and

Fed. R. Civ. P.

6(b)(1)(B).
Here, the magistrate judge determined that ANA’s motion to
shift
filing

expenses

was

untimely,

motion

for

attorney

but

construed

fees

and

ANA’s

costs

“notice

or,

in

of
the

alternative, motion for leave to file instanter” as a motion to
extend under Fed. R. Civ. P. 6(b)(1)(B).

We conclude that the

magistrate judge’s construction does not constitute an abuse of
discretion.

ANA’s notice filing cited Fed. R. Civ. P. 6(b),

argued that excusable neglect supported extending the deadline,
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and requested that the court “grant leave to file its Motion for
Attorneys’ Fees and Costs instanter.”

Further supporting the

magistrate judge’s construction, ANA attached an affidavit from
its lead attorney identifying the cause of ANA’s delay in filing
its motion.
Turning to whether ANA satisfied the standard for obtaining
an

extension

to

file

its

motion

for

expenses,

“‘excusable

neglect’ under Rule 6(b) is a somewhat ‘elastic concept’ and is
not limited strictly to omissions caused by circumstances beyond
the control of the movant.”

Pioneer Inv. Serv. Co. v. Brunswick

Assoc. Ltd. P’ship, 507 U.S. 380, 392 (1993).
typically
neglect

satisfies
by

the

standard

demonstrating

that

for

the

Although a party

demonstrating

delay

is

the

excusable
result

of

circumstances beyond the party’s control, courts have recognized
that

“‘excusable

neglect’

may

extend

to

inadvertent

delays.”

Id.

Factors for a court to consider when evaluating whether a

party has demonstrated excusable neglect for a delay include (1)
“the danger of prejudice to the [other party]”; (2) “the length
of the delay and its potential impact on judicial proceedings”;
(3) “the reason for the delay, including whether it was within
the

reasonable

control

of

the

movant acted in good faith.”
Neither

the

magistrate

movant”;

and

(4)

“whether

the

Id. at 395.
judge

nor

the

district

court

articulated an analysis of the factors governing an excusable
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Nonetheless,

we

conclude

that

the

sufficiently supports a finding of excusable neglect.
the

first

factor,

Appellants

present

no

arguments

record

Regarding
suggesting

that they were prejudiced by the delay and nothing in the record
suggests that they suffered prejudice.

On the second factor, a

delay of, at most, 100 days is not lengthy in the context of
litigation

that

lasted

3.5

years,

and

the

delay

had

no

discernable impact on the judicial proceedings where it occurred
after the discovery matter was resolved and after the district
court had already determined what types of expenses would be
shifted to Appellants.

Regarding the third factor, the record

suggests that the delay was due to medical issues suffered by
the lead attorney for ANA and confusion regarding when ANA’s
motion was due.

Finally, nothing in the record suggests that

ANA acted in anything but good faith.

Accordingly, we conclude

that the extension of the deadline for ANA to file its motion to
shift expenses did not constitute an abuse of discretion.
II
We

review

de

novo

any

underlying

legal

interpretation

regarding the scope of a Federal Rule of Civil Procedure.

Payne

ex rel. Estate of Calzada v. Brake, 439 F.3d 198, 203 (4th Cir.
2006).

However,

we

review

“decisions

scope for an abuse of discretion.”

that

fall

within

that

Id.; see also Carefirst of

Md., Inc. v. Carefirst Pregnancy Ctr., Inc., 334 F.3d 390, 396
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(4th

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Cir.

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2003)

(reviewing

abuse of discretion).

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order

in

course

of

discovery

for

A district court abuses its discretion if

its conclusion is guided by erroneous legal principles or rests
upon a clearly erroneous factual finding.

Westberry v. Gislaved

Gummi AB, 178 F.3d 257, 261 (4th Cir. 1999) (citation omitted).
Under Fed. R. Civ. P. 45, a party to litigation may serve a
subpoena for the production of discoverable material on a nonparty to the litigation.

In turn, the non-party may contest the

subpoena, and if a court orders production on the subpoena, “the
order must protect a person who is neither a party nor a party’s
officer

from

significant

expense

resulting

from

Fed. R. Civ. P. 45(d)(2)(B)(ii (emphasis added).

compliance.”
Although Fed.

R. Civ. P. 45 does not explicitly define what constitutes an
“expense resulting from compliance,” we conclude that attorney’s
fees incurred by the non-party that are necessary to a discovery
proceeding under Rule 45 are expenses that may be shifted to the
discovery-seeking

party.

First,

applying

the

cannon

of

construction of in pari materia and looking toward Fed. R. Civ.
P. 45(d)(1), which governs shifting expenses in situations where
a discovering party places an undue burden on the non-party,
attorney’s

fees

can

constitute

discovering

party.

See

appropriate

sanction

.

.

Fed.
.

an
R.

may

reasonable attorney’s fees.”).

expense
Civ.

include

P.

shifted
45(d)(1)

lost

to

the

(“[A]n

earnings

and

Second, the 1991 amendments to
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Fed. R. Civ. P. 45 were adopted in an effort “to enlarge the
protections
court.”

afforded

persons

who

are

required

to

assist

the

Legal Voice v. Stormans Inc., 738 F.3d 1178, 1184 (9th

Cir. 2013).

Shifting attorney’s fees necessary to discovery is

consistent with this purpose, as well as the amendment’s purpose
of encouraging discovering parties to keep discovery requests
narrow and specific to the issues at hand in the underlying
litigation.
Although we conclude that attorney fees incurred by nonparties may be shifted under Fed. R. Civ. P. 45(d)(2)(B)(ii),
the shifting of attorney’s fees is only appropriate where the
attorney’s fees are actually necessary to a non-party complying
with a discovery order.

Here, the magistrate judge specifically

concluded that attorney’s fees stemming from the preparation of
discovery

status

reports,

attendance

at

discovery

hearings,

privilege review of discovery materials, and HIPPA review of
discovery materials were all necessary to ANA’s compliance with
the discovery order, and nothing in the record overcomes this
conclusion.

However, ANA was also permitted to recover attorney

fees for time spent “outlin[ing] and draft[ing] the motion for
attorney fees.”

Legal fees of this variety were plainly not

necessary to ANA’s compliance with the discovery order as they
were incurred after discovery was completed and as a result of
ANA’s

effort

to

recover

fees,
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material.

Accordingly,

ANA’s

attorney’s

fees incurred in pursuit of attorney’s fees were not subject to
shifting under Fed. R. Civ. P. 45(d)(2)(B)(ii), and it was error
to shift these fees to Appellants.

Therefore, while we affirm

the shifting of attorney’s fees necessary to the production of
discovery materials, we vacate those portions of the magistrate
judge’s

opinions

and

district

court’s

opinions

that

assigned

attorney’s fees incurred by ANA in pursuit of their motion to
shift expenses and remand for correction of the fee shifting
amount.

Similarly, miscellaneous expenses incurred after the

completion of discovery in an effort to recover fees are not
subject

to

shifting

under

Fed.

R.

Civ.

P.

45(d)(2)(B)(ii).

Thus, we also vacate the portion of the order that shifted FedEx
and PACER expenses associated with the motion to shift fees.
Finally, the magistrate judge shifted expenses for BIA’s ediscovery services.

In shifting these expenses, the magistrate

judge found that (1) ANA advised Appellants that producing the
requested

discovery

would

entail

significant

expense;

(2)

Appellants were dilatory in communicating with ANA after the
district court ordered discovery; and (3) Appellants changed the
scope

of

the

requested

discovery,

increasing

BIA’s

charges.

Although Appellants dispute these findings on appeal, nothing in
the

record

demonstrates

clear

error

below.

Accordingly,

affirm the shifting of expenses for BIA’s e-discovery services.
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Consistent with the aforementioned reasoning, we affirm the
extension of the deadline for ANA to file its motion to shift
expenses,

the

shifting

of

attorney’s

fees

necessary

to

the

production of discovery materials, and the shifting of expenses
for BIA’s e-discovery services.

We vacate those portions of the

magistrate judge’s and district court’s opinions that shifted
attorney’s

fees

and

expenses

shift expenses to Appellants.
district
exclude

court

to

attorney’s

compliance

with

the

stemming

and

discovery

ANA’s

efforts

to

We remand this case to permit the

recalculate
fees

from

the

shifting

expenses

not

order.

We

of

expenses

to

necessary

to

ANA’s

dispense

with

oral

argument because the facts and legal contentions are adequately
expressed in the materials before this court and argument would
not aid the decisional process.
AFFIRMED IN PART,
VACATED IN PART,
AND REMANDED

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