Bryan Pringle v. William Adams Jr et al
Filing
234
TRANSCRIPT for proceedings held on 1/23/12 9:48 a.m.. Court Reporter/Electronic Court Recorder: Exceptional Reporting Services, Inc., phone number (361) 949-2988. Transcript may be viewed at the court public terminal or purchased through the Court Reporter/Electronic Court Recorder before the deadline for Release of Transcript Restriction. After that date it may be obtained through PACER. Notice of Intent to Redact due within 7 days of this date. Redaction Request due 2/17/2012. Redacted Transcript Deadline set for 2/27/2012. Release of Transcript Restriction set for 4/26/2012. (mo)
UNITED STATES DISTRICT COURT
CENTRAL DISTRICT OF CALIFORNIA
SOUTHERN DIVISION - SANTA ANA
BRYAN PRINGLE,
Plaintiff,
vs.
WILLIAM ADAMS, JR., ET AL,
Defendants.
) CASE NO: SACV 10-01656-JST-RZx
)
)
CIVIL
)
)
Los Angeles, California
)
)
Monday, January 23, 2012
)
( 9:48 a.m. to 9:49 a.m.)
)
(10:28 a.m. to 10:41 a.m.)
DEFENDANTS' MOTION TO COMPEL SUPPLEMENTAL RESPONSES
TO INTERROGATORIES AND FOR SANCTIONS
BEFORE THE HONORABLE RALPH ZAREFSKY,
UNITED STATES MAGISTRATE JUDGE
Appearances:
See next page
Court Reporter:
Recorded; CourtSmart
Courtroom Deputy:
Ilene Bernal
Transcribed by:
Exceptional Reporting Services, Inc.
P.O. Box 18668
Corpus Christi, TX 78480-8668
361 949-2988
Proceedings recorded by electronic sound recording; transcript
produced by transcription service.
EXCEPTIONAL REPORTING SERVICES, INC
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APPEARANCES FOR:
Plaintiff:
GEORGE L. HAMPTON, ESQ.
HamptonHolley, LLP
2101 E. Coast Highway, Suite 260
Corona Del Mar, CA 92625
JOSEPH G. VERNON, ESQ.
Miller Canfield Paddock & Stone, PLC
150 W. Jefferson, Suite 2500
Detroit, MI 48226
Defendants:
JONATHAN S. PINK, ESQ.
Bryan Cave, LLP
3161 Michelson Dr., Suite 1500
Irvine, CA 92612
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Los Angeles, California; Monday, January 23, 2012; 9:48 a.m.
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(Call to Order)
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THE COURT:
All right.
Let's call the calendar.
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THE CLERK:
Calling item number three, Case Number
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SACV 10-01656-JST(RZx), Bryan Pringle versus William Adams,
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Junior, et al.
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Counsel, please make your appearances.
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MR. PINK:
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Good morning, your Honor.
Jonathan Pink
on behalf moving parties.
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THE COURT:
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Plaintiff's counsel?
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MR. PINK:
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THE COURT:
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Good morning.
Have you heard from
I have not, your Honor.
Do you have any reason to believe he is
not going to be here?
MR. PINK:
No, your Honor.
I believe he's coming
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from Orange County, and I suspect that the traffic may be
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holding him up.
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THE COURT:
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MR. PINK:
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THE COURT:
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Next case.
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All right.
Why don't we call this again.
Thank you, your Honor.
Thank you.
(Proceeding was recessed from 9:49 a.m. to 10:28 a.m.;
parties present)
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THE COURT:
Let's call the next case.
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THE CLERK:
Recalling item number three, Case Number
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SACV 10-01656-JST(RZx), Bryan Pringle versus William Adams,
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Junior, et al.
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Counsel, please make your appearances.
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MR. PINK:
Good morning, your Honor.
Jonathan Pink
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on behalf of William Adams, Adam Pineda -- Allen Pineda, Jaime
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Gomez, Stacy Ferguson, the Black Eyed Peas, moving party.
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THE COURT:
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MR. HAMPTON:
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George
Pringle.
THE COURT:
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MR. VERNON:
Good morning.
Good morning, your Honor.
Joseph Vernon
also for the same parties as Mr. Hampton.
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THE COURT:
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MR. HAMPTON:
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Good morning, your Honor.
Hampton of Hampton Holley, local counsel for Plaintiff, Bryan
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Good morning.
Who's going to speak for the Plaintiff?
I believe I am, your Honor, but Mr.
Vernon may have specific knowledge on specific issues.
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THE COURT:
All right.
Well, we have a lot of
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interrogatories.
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them.
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there something that somebody feels compelled to say?
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I'm not sure it makes any sense to argue over
The papers are pretty full.
MR. HAMPTON:
I'm prepared to rule.
Yes, your Honor, I would.
Is
I think --
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George Hampton -- I think the one thing that's missing from the
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context of this argument is the fact that shortly -- I believe
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a couple days before this motion was filed, a Motion for
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Summary Judgment was filed by one of the other group of
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Defendants.
And the issues that are currently before Judge
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Tucker specifically relating to the sample claim as well as
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this spoliation claim, which Mr. Pink talked about in his
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supplemental memorandum, are currently before Judge Tucker.
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So to the extent that this is akin to playing one
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parent off the other, I think it would be improper to do that
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because some of these issues are currently before Judge Tucker
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in connection with a Motion for Summary Judgment that's
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currently set to be heard a week from today.
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THE COURT:
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MR. PINK:
All right.
Mr. Pink?
Well, with respect to that, your Honor, it
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is true that Judge Tucker has a Motion for Summary Judgment
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that's been fully briefed.
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argument date set, which may be moved.
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There is a -- there's an oral
I don't see that it is playing one parent off of the
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other, your Honor.
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spoliation arguments exist here as there.
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asking for a complete dismissal of the case there.
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suspect that your Honor is going to go that far here, although
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--
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The same points remain.
THE COURT:
We -- the same
That's true.
We're
I don't
I don't think I have the authority to
dismiss a case.
MR. PINK:
Fair enough.
I think that the -- there's
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a recent case that we cited in our supplemental reply that may
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give that to you.
But in any event, I don't suspect that we're
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going there today.
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THE COURT:
Where we're going today is ruling on
the specific interrogatory seriatim.
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No.
MR. PINK:
Okay.
Well, I have nothing else to add,
your Honor.
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THE COURT:
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MR. PINK:
Okay.
I would just ask if I could reserve the
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right to comment following the ruling or the -- I don't know if
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it's going to be a tentative or if it's --
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THE COURT:
No, it's not going to be a tentative.
There's nothing tentative.
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MR. PINK:
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Well, then --
THE COURT:
It's going to be a ruling.
So if you
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want to argue, now is the time to do it.
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because you know, when you get these motions where you have 15,
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20, 30, 50 requests to produce or interrogatories, I mean, all
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really one can do is say granted, denied, granted, denied and
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here are some reasons.
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interrogatory or a request that sticks out and deserves special
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attention.
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MR. PINK:
I'm not advising it
Unless every now and then there is an
Your Honor, I mean, absent a question
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about a specific one, which I am more than happy to address, I
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think I would be wasting the Court's time to simply seriatim go
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through and make my arguments for each.
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THE COURT:
All right.
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MR. PINK:
If the other side wishes to argue, I would
just ask to -- the right to reply.
THE COURT:
Well, I just gave them the chance, and I
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think they declined except to tell me about the fact that
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there's a Summary Judgment motion in front of Judge Tucker.
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Right, Mr. Hampton?
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MR. HAMPTON:
Yes, your Honor.
Mr. Vernon, though,
just reminded me of additional small point.
THE COURT:
Go ahead.
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MR. HAMPTON:
Go ahead, Mr. Vernon.
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MR. VERNON:
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Thank you, your Honor.
Thank you.
There was a point raised and
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a line of authority raised in Defendants' Reply in Support of
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the Motion for Summary Judgment that I think is especially
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relevant here, and that's there's no obligation to provide
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supplemental or corrective information that has otherwise been
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made to known to parties in writing or during discovery.
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we set forth in our Joint Stipulation and Supplemental Brief
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why we think the objections are improper here and why we think
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we've answered the precise questions that were posed.
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And
To the extent that the Defendants require additional
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information or more detail, that has been provided in
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declarations and in deposition testimony and, as I know the
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Court is aware, it's kind of set forth at length in our Joint
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Stipulation.
But they have all of this information, your
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Honor, and, your Honor, we feel that it's inappropriate for
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them to continue this motion in light of that fact.
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THE COURT:
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MR. VERNON:
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THE COURT:
All right.
Thank you.
All right.
I'm -- as I said, I'm going
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to go seriatim and in the same order that they're listed in the
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Joint Stipulation, which is not always the order of the
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interrogatories.
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All right.
So Interrogatory Number 1, which asks
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Plaintiff to identify each song of the Black Eyed Peas that
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Plaintiff has sampled, the objections of over breadth and
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burdensomeness are silly, particularly given Plaintiff's
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further response of none.
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cannot be burdensome to say so nor is the question overly
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broad, nor is there any plausible argument as to relevance, nor
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is there any basis for saying that investigation continues.
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Plaintiff knows whether he sampled any songs and he does not
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need any further investigation to answer.
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to Interrogatory Number 1.
If none truly is the answer, it
Motion is granted as
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Number 2, the objections have no merit.
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Plaintiff has answered the interrogatory, except he has left
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himself some wiggle room by saying that investigation
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continues.
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shall serve an amended answer without objection.
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supplemental information to be provided as a result of
Time for investigation has ended.
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But
So Plaintiff
If there is
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investigation that continued, that information shall be
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provided also.
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Number 3, the objections have no merit.
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answer is evasive and not responsive to the interrogatory.
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Responsive answers shall be served.
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Number 4, the answer is sufficient.
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Number 16, the objections have no merit.
Plaintiff's
In his
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argument, but not in his answer to the interrogatory, Plaintiff
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says that the matter he identified is the only document that is
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responsive to the interrogatory, so it should be a simple
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matter to say so in response to the interrogatory.
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shall serve an amended answer.
Plaintiff
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Number 17, the answer is sufficient.
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Number 18, the answer is sufficient.
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Number 19, the objections do not have merit.
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Plaintiff has provided only a partial answer indicating when
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the file was created and when it was last modified but not when
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it was otherwise accessed or modified.
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an amended answer.
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Plaintiff shall serve
Number 21, it is unclear whether Plaintiff is saying
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that in fact he accessed the file only twice in 2010.
If that
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is his answer, then he needs to say so explicitly.
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accessed the file other times in 2010, then he needs to
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identify those as well.
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answer.
If he
Plaintiff shall serve an amended
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Number 22, the answer is sufficient.
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Now, there's a Number 18 that's on Page 37 of the
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Joint Stipulation, which is different from a prior
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Interrogatory 18.
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that's on Page 37 of the Joint Stipulation.
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evasive, even as amended.
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that he knows that any Defendant physically appropriated "Take
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a Dance."
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purpose of discovery is to get the facts.
So what I'm about to say refers to the one
And that answer is
Plaintiff can state all the facts
Plaintiff cannot reserve any rights here.
The
If Plaintiff knows
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no facts that are responsive, then Plaintiff should say that.
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If he knows facts that are responsive, he should identify them.
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So Plaintiff shall serve a further amended response.
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Interrogatory Number 5, the interrogatory would be
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overly broad except that in his argument, Plaintiff states that
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he has provided all the information that he has.
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the interrogatory itself, however, does not say that.
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Plaintiff shall serve an amended response stating that the
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information he has provided is the only information that he
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has.
The answer to
So
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Interrogatory Number 6, Plaintiff shall serve an
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amended response without objections stating what he states
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here, that he had no communications with Defendant Pineda.
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attempt to grasp at some straw by using the word "direct" is
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silly lawyerese.
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7 as to Defendant Gomez and Interrogatory Number 8 as to
The
The same is true as to Interrogatories Number
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Defendant Ferguson.
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Interrogatory Number 12, motion is granted as to this
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interrogatory.
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Defendants have asked a contention interrogatory, which is
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perfectly appropriate, but Plaintiff never answers the
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contention.
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If he answers yes, then there is further information that is
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required.
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an answer.
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Plaintiff's answer is completely evasive.
The
If he answers no, that is the end of the matter.
Reference to answers to other interrogatories is not
Plaintiff shall serve an amended response.
As to Interrogatory Number 13, Plaintiff has answered
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the contention here but the factual basis for his answer.
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He
needs to provide that in an amended response.
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Interrogatory Number 14, if Plaintiff has any further
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support for his answer to the contention in this interrogatory,
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he shall provide it in an amended response.
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Interrogatory Number 15 and Number 25, the answers
are sufficient.
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The request for sanctions, in the discretion of the
Court, is denied.
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Let's get the amended responses served within -- do
you have a discovery cutoff?
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MR. HAMPTON:
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THE COURT:
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I'm sorry.
It is past, your Honor.
It's past.
Let's get those served within
10 days.
MR. PINK:
Your Honor, if I may just ask for
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clarification.
A number of the interrogatories, which you
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instructed that supplemental responses should -- or amended
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responses should be served, the existing responses say
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investigation continues.
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one interrogatory, but can we get a clear ruling that --
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THE COURT:
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You addressed that with respect to
discovery is closed.
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MR. PINK:
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THE COURT:
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MR. PINK:
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THE COURT:
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MR. PINK:
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THE COURT:
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MR. PINK:
That's clear, I mean, especially if
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Okay.
Investigation is over.
Right.
So --
We need answers.
Okay.
Or you need answers.
Okay.
So just so it is clear, they may
not say investigation continues in any amended answer, correct?
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THE COURT:
You know, I've never thought that was
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appropriate even if discovery was beginning.
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interrogatory; you have to give an answer.
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information arises, the rules provide for supplementing
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responses.
MR. PINK:
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THE COURT:
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MR. HAMPTON:
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If supplemental
So I don't think it's a valid response at any time.
21
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You're asked an
Okay.
Thank you, your Honor.
Anything further, Mr. Hampton?
Yes, your Honor.
Would you happen to
have a written ruling about going through each one ad seriatim?
THE COURT:
No, that's it.
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MR. HAMPTON:
Okay.
Then can I ask for clarification
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on Number 13 because I was writing furiously and I skipped over
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Number 13?
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THE COURT:
Number 13, what I said is Plaintiff has
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answered the contention here but not the factual basis for his
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answer.
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gave an answer to what you contend.
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says, "If you contend X, provide the factual basis."
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The interrogatory said, "Do you contend X," and you
MR. HAMPTON:
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THE COURT:
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MR. VERNON:
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MR. PINK:
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Thank you, your Honor.
All right.
Thank you, your Honor.
And you said supplemental responses will
be due when, your Honor?
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THE COURT:
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MR. PINK:
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THE COURT:
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And then the interrogatory
Well, I said 10 days.
Oh, I must have missed that.
All right.
Those are to be served not
filed, obviously.
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MR. HAMPTON:
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THE COURT:
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MR. VERNON:
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THE COURT:
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Any other matters, Ilene?
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THE CLERK:
No, that's the one.
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THE COURT:
All right.
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Thank you, your Honor.
All right.
Thank you.
Thank you, gentlemen.
We'll be in recess.
(This proceeding was adjourned at 10:41 a.m.)
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CERTIFICATION
I certify that the foregoing is a correct transcript from the
electronic sound recording of the proceedings in the aboveentitled matter.
January 27, 2012
Signed
Dated
TONI HUDSON, TRANSCRIBER
EXCEPTIONAL REPORTING SERVICES, INC
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