Shaw v. Unim Life Insurance Company of America, et al.,

Filing 41

ORDER GRANTING in Part Plaintiff's Motion to Compel #26 , signed by Judge Sandra M. Snyder on 1/29/2009. (Herman, H)

1 Lisa S. Kantor - State Bar No. 110678 Email: [e-mail] 2 Corinne Chandler - State Bar No. 111423 Email: [e-mail] 3 KANTOR & KANTOR, LLP 19839 Nordhoff Street 4 Northridge, CA 91324 Telephone: [phone] Facsimile: [phone] 6 Attorneys for Plaintiff, MARLENE SHAW 7 8 9 10 11 12 MARLENE SHAW, 13 14 15 16 17 18 19 ) ) Plaintiff, ) ) VS. ) ) UNUM LIFE INSURANCE ) COMPANY OF AMERICA; ) WALLACE THOMPSON HOSPITAL ) LONG TERM DISABILITY PLAN, ) ) Defendants. ) ______________________________ ) CASE NO: 1:07-CV-01026-AWI-SMS Discovery Matter ORDER GRANTING IN PART PLAINTIFF'S MOTION TO COMPEL [26] UNITED STATES DISTRICT COURT EASTERN DISTRICT OF CALIFORNIA - FRESNO

This matter came on for hearing upon the Motion of Plaintiff, Marlene Shaw to

20 compel further discovery in the above entitled matter. The hearing was conducted 21 telephonically on January 16, 2009 and resumed on January 21, 2009. At said hearings, 22 plaintiff was represented by Corinne Chandler, Esq. and defendant Unum Life Insurance 23 Company of America ("Unum") was represented by Francis Torrence, Esq. The Court 24 having read and considered all of the papers and pleadings submitted in support of and 25 in opposition to said Motion and after hearing argument of the parties, hereby rules as 26 follows: 27 28 14. 1 1. Plaintiff's Motion is granted with respect to Interrogatories Nos. 5, 7, 9 and

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2.

Plaintiff's Motion as to Interrogatories Nos. 6, 8 and 15 is denied, without

2 prejudice. Plaintiff may renew her request for the information requested in said 3 Interrogatories, depending upon the information provided by defendant in response to 4 Interrogatories Nos. 5, 7, 9 and 14. 5 3. Plaintiff's Motion as to Requests for Production Nos. 6, 44, 46, 47 and 50 6 is granted with the following modifications. Defendant is to produce its Claim Manual. 7 To the extent plaintiff's counsel identifies places in the Claims Manual which contain 8 hyperlinks to materials that refer to Fibromyaglia or the Self Reported Symptoms 9 Limitation, plaintiff's counsel is to identify such hyperlinks to defense counsel. 10 Defendant will produce the materials connected by hyperlink to the extent they connect 11 to defendant's documents, but reserves the right to object if any such hyperlink is to 12 public or subscription service resources. 13 Defendant is to produce its Underwriting File (called a Contract file), including 14 the application for the Policy. However, defendant need not produce those pages which 15 refer exclusively to other insureds or contain individuals' confidential information. 16 If, after diligent search and inquiry, defendant does not otherwise have responsive 17 documents within its possession, custody and control, it is to provide a supplemental 18 response to plaintiff, within ten (10) days of the date of this Order, stating that it has 19 conducted such a search and inquiry and has not located responsive documents. 20 4. Plaintiff's Motion with respect to Request for Production No. 38 is denied 21 in part. In lieu of requiring production of documents "available for use" by Unum 22 personnel, plaintiff may submit additional Interrogatories directed to Unum medical 23 personnel involved in Ms. Shaw's claim, inquiring about medical resources which they 24 consulted during the administration of the claim. 25 5. Plaintiff has also sought to compel production of training materials received 26 by Kenneth Maxwell and Dr. Greenhood (Requests for Production Nos. 51 to 56, 27 inclusive). At hearing on said Motion, defendant represented that following an initial 28 investigation, it is his understanding that the training materials as testified to by Mr. 2

1 Maxwell as being stored on his computer, were in fact only access to the Claim Manual. 2 Plaintiff is permitted to re-depose Mr. Maxwell on this subject to ascertain whether the 3 requested documents exist. Defendant is ordered to produce any training documents 4 received by Dr. Greenhood from Unum which are actually stored on the hard drive of his 5 computer. 6 8 9 Approved as to form. 10 11 /s/ Francis J. Torrence __________________ 12 Francis J. Torrence 13 14 16 17 18 19 20 21 22 23 24 25 26 27 28 3 IT IS SO ORDERED. January 29, 2009 /s/ Sandra M. Snyder UNITED STATES MAGISTRATE JUDGE Defendant is ordered to serve supplemental discovery responses and produce the 7 documents as outlined above within ten (10) days from entry of this Order.

Dated: 15 icido3