Travelers Property Casualty Company of America et al v. Centex Homes
Filing
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Order by Magistrate Judge Donna M. Ryu re 164 Discovery Letter Brief.(dmrlc1, COURT STAFF) (Filed on 4/1/2013)
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UNITED STATES DISTRICT COURT
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NORTHERN DISTRICT OF CALIFORNIA
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For the Northern District of California
United States District Court
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TRAVELERS PROPERTY CASUALTY,
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No. C 11-03638 DMR
ORDER REGARDING FEBRUARY 26,
2013 JOINT DISCOVERY LETTER
Plaintiff,
v.
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CENTEX HOMES,
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Defendant.
___________________________________/
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Before the court is the parties’ February 26, 2013 joint discovery letter regarding Defendant
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Centex Homes’s (“Centex”) motion to compel. [Docket No. 164 (Joint Letter).] The court finds that
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the matter is appropriate for resolution without oral argument pursuant to Civil Local Rule 7-1(b).
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For the reasons below, Defendant’s motion to compel is GRANTED.
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I. Background
On December 11, 2012, Centex and Plaintiff Travelers Property Casualty Co. (“Travelers”)
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submitted a joint discovery letter regarding Centex’s request for an order compelling production of a
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document for which Travelers had asserted claims of attorney-client privilege and work product
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protection and protection as a trade secret. [Docket No. 115 (Dec. 11, 2012 Joint Letter).] Centex
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first learned of the existence of the document at the deposition of a Travelers’ claims adjuster. The
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adjuster testified that she received a written guideline from her manager regarding the timing of
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certain claims handling actions. (Dec. 11, 2012 Joint Letter 2, Ex. A.) Following the deposition,
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Centex asked Travelers to produce the document. Travelers responded by producing a version of
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the document, the “Construction Defect File Review Guidelines 2008,” (the “2008 Guidelines”), that
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it had redacted in its entirety. Travelers produced an accompanying privilege log. (Dec. 11, 2012
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Joint Letter 2, Ex. B.) Following the court’s in camera review of the document and a hearing on the
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matter, the court ordered Travelers to produce the document. [Docket No. 127 (Jan. 10, 2013
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Minute Order).] At the hearing, the court noted that the document appeared to be “guidelines that
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supervisors are supposed to use in evaluating supervisees across different aspects of their work,” and
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did not contain any privileged information. (Hr’g Tr. Jan. 10, 2013, 13:17-19.) Further, the court
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noted that any concerns that the document contained proprietary business information would be
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For the Northern District of California
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addressed by the protective order in place in this case. (Hr’g Tr. 13:23-14:1.)
Following the court’s order, Travelers produced an unredacted version of the 2008
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Guidelines to Centex. Travelers subsequently filed objections to the court’s January 10, 2013 order
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with the Honorable Samuel Conti.1 [Docket No. 138 (Travelers’ Objections).] In its objections,
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Travelers indicated that the 2008 Guidelines “[were] outdated and had been replaced” two years
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before the deponent became a claims adjuster. (Travelers’ Objections 1.) Shortly thereafter,
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Travelers’ submitted a declaration in which a Travelers’ employee stated that the 2008 Guidelines
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“[have] subsequently been replaced.” (Decl. of Wolcott, Feb. 1, 2013, ¶ 7.) Centex asserts that
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Travelers did not disclose the existence of “updates” to the 2008 Guidelines until February 1, 2013,
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well after the December 2012 close of discovery.
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Centex now moves to compel production of all versions of Travelers’ Construction Defect
File Review Guidelines.
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II. Discussion
In this action, Centex alleges that Travelers failed to respond to Centex’s tenders in a timely
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fashion and that it violated California’s insurance regulations by failing to respond to Centex’s
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claims within a certain amount of time. To that end, Centex propounded document requests seeking
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Judge Conti did not issue an order denying the motion or setting a briefing schedule within
14 days of Travelers’ objections. Travelers’ motion was therefore deemed denied. See N.D. Cal. Civ.
L.R. 72-2.
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“all claims-handling guidelines, manuals, policies, procedures and other documents . . . which
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discuss [Travelers’] practice for responding to tenders in a timely fashion.” (Joint Letter 2.)
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According to Centex, the 2008 Guidelines specifically address the amount of time an adjuster may
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take to respond to tenders. Centex argues that all versions of the 2008 Guidelines are responsive to
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its discovery requests, and not just the version that happened to be identified by a deponent.
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Although discovery closed in December 2012, Centex argues that the court should not deny this
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motion as untimely because Centex only recently learned that Travelers had replaced its 2008
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Guidelines. Specifically, while Travelers had previously argued that the 2008 Guidelines were
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“outdated,” it was not until February 2013 that Travelers produced evidence that it had “replaced”
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For the Northern District of California
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the 2008 Guidelines.
Travelers argues that Centex is not entitled to the production of any additional documents for
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two reasons. First, Travelers argues that the 2008 Guidelines are not responsive to any of Centex’s
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discovery requests. Second, Travelers argues that Centex’s “failure to address this issue earlier
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constitutes waiver,” arguing that Centex has known that there were other versions of the document
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well before the discovery cutoff. (Joint Letter 6.)
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Travelers’ arguments are unavailing. First, the court concludes that the 2008 Guidelines are
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responsive to Centex’s request seeking “all claims-handling guidelines, manuals, policies,
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procedures and other documents” which discuss Travelers’ “practice for responding to tenders in a
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timely fashion.” While Travelers describes the document as “a quality control document” and
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insists that it is not a “claims handling guideline,” (Joint Letter 6), the document provides standards
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by which supervisors evaluate the performance of claims adjusters and unquestionably reflects
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claims handling practices, including when certain claims-handling acts are considered “timely.”
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(See Notice of Lodging in Supp. of Centex’s Consolidated Mot. for Partial Summary J., Ex. A.)
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Travelers conceded the responsiveness of this document by listing it on a privilege log as a
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document withheld from production on the basis of privilege.
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The court also concludes that Centex’s motion is not untimely. Travelers had an obligation
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to produce all updated versions of the 2008 Guidelines as documents that are responsive to Centex’s
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discovery requests. Travelers is not excused from this duty simply because Centex did not
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specifically ask for the updates. Furthermore, Travelers repeatedly described the 2008 Guidelines as
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“outdated.” However, Travelers did not inform Centex that the document had been “replaced” until
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after the discovery cutoff. There is a difference between describing a document as “outdated,” as
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opposed to “replaced.” The latter implies the existence of an updated version; the former is
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ambiguous. There is no indication that Centex knew about the existence of subsequent versions of
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the 2008 Guidelines prior to the discovery cutoff. Under these circumstances, Centex did not waive
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the right to move to compel the production of the additional versions of the document. Accordingly,
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Centex’s request for an order compelling the production of all versions of the Construction Defect
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File Review Guidelines which replaced the 2008 version is GRANTED. Travelers is ordered to
produce documents in conformance with this order by no later than April 12, 2013.
Dated: April 1, 2013
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DONNA M. RYU
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United States Magistratea M. R
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Judge
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DERED
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IT IS SO ORDERED.
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