National Union Fire Insurance Company of Pittsburgh, PA et al v. Resource Development Services, Inc. et al

Filing 363

ORDER GRANTING-IN-PART PLAINTIFF NATIONAL UNION FIRE INSURANCE COMPANY OF PITTSBURGH, PA'S MOTION TO CONFIRM COMPLIANCE WITH DECEMBER 12, 2011 ORDER. Signed by Judge Paul S. Grewal on February 29, 2012. (psglc1, COURT STAFF) (Filed on 2/29/2012)

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UNITED STATES DISTRICT COURT

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NORTHERN DISTRICT OF CALIFORNIA

United States District Court
For the Northern District of California

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SAN JOSE DIVISION

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NATIONAL UNION FIRE INSURANCE
COMPANY OF PITTSBURGH, PA,

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Plaintiff,
v.

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RESOURCE DEVELOPMENT SERVICES,
INC., ET AL.,

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Defendants.

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Case No.: 10-CV-1324-PSG
ORDER GRANTING-IN-PART
PLAINTIFF NATIONAL UNION FIRE
INSURANCE COMPANY OF
PITTSBURGH, PA’S MOTION TO
CONFIRM COMPLIANCE WITH
DECEMBER 12, 2011 ORDER
(Re: Docket No. 325)

In a letter dated February 14, 2012, Defendant Dominguez & Sons Trucking, Inc. (“DS

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Trucking”) identifies a number of purported deficiencies by Plaintiff National Union Fire Insurance

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Company of Pittsburgh, PA’s (“National Union”) in complying with this court’s order dated

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December 12, 2011. 1 National Union filed a response. On February 28, 2012, the parties appeared

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for hearing. Having reviewed the papers and considered the arguments of counsel,

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IT IS HEREBY ORDERED that National Union’s motion to confirm compliance is

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GRANTED-IN-PART.

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National Union previously moved to extend time to confirm that it had complied with the order
dated December 12, 2011. See Docket No. 326. DS Trucking did not oppose the motion and
National Union’s request to extend the compliance deadline was granted. On January 31, 2012, DS
Trucking advised the court that compliance issues still remained with the December 12 order. The
court therefore permitted DS Trucking to file a letter brief outlining any outstanding compliance
issues and National Union to file a response.
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Case No.: C 10-1324 RS (PSG)
ORDER

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Despite raising a litany of deficiencies by National Union in complying with the December

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12 order, at the hearing, DS Trucking narrowed this list to two – National Union’s failure to

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provide documents in their native format and National Union’s failure to provide all of the

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insurance policies covering Waste Management. 2

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The issue regarding National Union’s failure to produce insurance policies was raised by
DS Trucking the day before the hearing. 3 As a result, the parties did not meet and confer on the

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issue in advance of the hearing and National Union did not have an opportunity to respond in

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writing. Because DS Trucking did not timely raise the issue regarding National Union’s insurance

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policies covering Waste Management and the parties did not meet and confer in advance of the

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United States District Court
For the Northern District of California

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hearing, this request is denied. The parties shall meet and confer before DS Trucking seeks any

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further relief on this issue.

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As to the second issue, National Union acknowledges that it converted certain Excel

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spreadsheets into .TIFF format and produced them to DS Trucking with a load file. All other

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documents that National Union produced to DS Trucking, however, were produced as Waste

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Management produced them to National Union as they were kept in the usual course of business.

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Fed. R. Civ. P. 34 (b)(2)(E)(i) requires that documents must be produced as they are kept in the

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usual course of business or must be organized and labeled to correspond to the categories in the

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request. Subsection (ii) of the same rule requires that if a document request does not specify a

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format to produce electronically stored information, it must be produced in a form as it is ordinarily

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maintained or in a reasonably usable form. National Union’s conversion of the Excel spreadsheets

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into .TIFF format violates this requirement by limiting DS Trucking’s ability to review the Excel

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spreadsheets in their entirety. As anyone with even modest experience with spreadsheet

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applications can appreciate, an image of a multi-field table is all but useless when compared to a

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native table that can be sorted, pivoted and otherwise manipulated by the user. National Union

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either must produce all the disputed spreadsheets in their native format or in an otherwise

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Based on DS Trucking’s representation at the hearing that there are only two remaining issues,
all other relief is denied as moot.

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See Docket No. 360.
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Case No.: C 10-1324 RS (PSG)
ORDER

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reasonably usable form so that DS Trucking can access the spreadsheets in their entirety. This

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production shall be completed no later than March 9, 2012.

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By producing Waste Management’s other documents as they are kept in the usual course of

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business and in the forms that they were ordinarily maintained, National Union has otherwise

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complied both with Fed. R. Civ. P. 34 and the December 12 order.

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IT IS FURTHER ORDERED that DS Trucking’s request for sanctions is DENIED.
IT IS SO ORDERED.

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Dated:

_________________________________
PAUL S. GREWAL
United States Magistrate Judge

2/29/2012

United States District Court
For the Northern District of California

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Case No.: C 10-1324 RS (PSG)
ORDER