Hoggard v. Page et al

Filing 67

ORDER denying 62 Motion to Compel. Signed by Judge James M. Moody Jr. on 1/25/2017. (jak)

IN THE UNITED STATES DISTRICT COURT
EASTERN DISTRICT OF ARKANSAS
JONESBORO DIVISION
NATHAN HOGGARD and
JERRY WILLIAMS
vs.

PLAINTIFFS
No. 3:15-cv-323 JM

ARABI CATTLE, ET AL.

DEFENDANTS
ORDER

Pending is Plaintiffs’ motion to compel discovery (Docket No. 62). Defendants have
responded, and the motion is ripe for consideration.
Plaintiffs are each seeking damages from personal injuries they sustained when a bale of
hay weighing over 1000 pounds fell on them from the bed of the flatbed trailer owned by
Defendant Roger Page and driven by Defendant Jim Franklin, and employee of Defendant Arabi
Cattle Company and Page. Plaintiffs propounded their first set of discovery requests in January
of 2016. As Defendants point out, this first set of requests contained thirteen numbered
interrogatories that consisted of twenty-seven subparts. Defendants answered these discovery
requests, and Plaintiff subsequently took the deposition of Jim Franklin on April 12, 2016.
On November 18, 2016, Plaintiffs propounded a second set of interrogatories and
requests for production. These discovery requests included an additional five interrogatories
with a total of twenty-two subparts. Defendants objected to answering this second set of
discovery requests, and Plaintiffs filed a motion to compel.
After full consideration of each request contained in Plaintiffs’ second set of
interrogatories and requests for production of documents, the Court agrees with the objections
made by Defendants as articulated in their response to the motion to compel (Document No. 66).

Following the 2015 amendment, Rule 26 of the Federal Rules of Civil Procedure provides as
follows regarding the scope and limitations on discovery:
Parties may obtain discovery regarding any nonprivileged matter that is relevant
to any party's 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.
Information within this scope of discovery need not be admissible in evidence to
be discoverable.
Fed. R. Civ. P. 26. Specifically, the Court finds that the second set of discovery requests are not
proportional to the needs of this negligence case and are not relevant to resolving the issues
before the Court.
In addition, although this was not a central issue to the Court’s decision to deny the
motion to compel, Rule 33 does limit the number of written interrogatories a party may serve to
“no more than 25 written interrogatories, including all discrete subparts.” Fed. R. Civ. P. 33.
Plaintiff has exceeded this number without seeking leave of the Court.
Plaintiffs’ motion to compel (Document No. 62) is denied. IT IS SO ORDERED this
25th day of January, 2017.

______________________________
James M. Moody Jr.
United States District Judge

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