Hill v. Walmart Inc.

Filing 42

ORDER RE: DISCOVERY DISPUTE 36 . Signed by Magistrate Judge Jacqueline Scott Corley on November 16, 2020. (ahm, COURT STAFF) (Filed on 11/16/2020)

Case 4:19-cv-05436-JST Document 42 Filed 11/16/20 Page 1 of 2

1
2
3
4

UNITED STATES DISTRICT COURT

5

NORTHERN DISTRICT OF CALIFORNIA

6
7

BIJON HILL,
Plaintiff,

8

Re: Dkt. No. 36
WALMART INC.,
Defendant.

11
United States District Court
Northern District of California

ORDER RE: DISCOVERY DISPUTE

v.

9
10

Case No. 19-cv-05436-JST (JSC)

12
13

Plaintiff contends that Defendant employed her on 10 occasions as a model for

14

Defendant’s marketing material and did not pay her in the time required under California law to

15

pay employees. Defendant contends that Plaintiff was an independent contractor and Plaintiff’s

16

talent agency Scout Talent Management, LLC (“Scout”), not Defendant, was required to make

17

payments to Plaintiff. Discovery has been referred to the undersigned magistrate judge. Now

18

pending before the Court is a discovery dispute joint letter regarding Defendant’s motion to

19

compel documents and interrogatory responses from Plaintiff. (Dkt. No. 36.) After carefully

20

considering the docket and the parties’ written submission, the Court concludes that oral argument

21

is unnecessary, see N.D. Cal. Civ. L.R. 7-1(b), and rules as set forth below.

22

1.

Document Requests. Plaintiff shall produce documents reflecting payments from

23

Scout to Plaintiff during the relevant time period. Plaintiff does not get to unilaterally decide

24

which payments are relevant; Defendant is entitled to verify which payments were for Plaintiff’s

25

work for Defendant and when those payments were made.

26

Plaintiff represents that she does not have any copies of her representation agreement with

27

Scout, whether in electronic form or otherwise. Defendant has not established that any

28

representation agreements in Scout’s possession are currently within Scout’s possession, custody

Case 4:19-cv-05436-JST Document 42 Filed 11/16/20 Page 2 of 2

1

or control. However, as offered in the joint letter, Plaintiff shall ask Scout to provide her with a

2

copy of all representation agreements that Scout had with Plaintiff and then promptly produce

3

those to Defendant.
With respect to the tax forms, Plaintiff’s insistence that such records are absolutely

5

privileged is wrong. See Lawson v. GrubHub, Inc., No. 15-CV-05128-JSC, 2017 WL 1684964, at

6

*1-2 (N.D. Cal. May 3, 2017). Defendant, however, does not address any of the caselaw

7

governing production of tax records under California law. Further, there may be ways for

8

Defendant to obtain the information it seeks—for example, a stipulation that Scout provided

9

Plaintiff with a Form 1099—without actual production of the tax forms. Indeed, Defendant has

10

propounded Requests For Admissions that may obviate the need for production of the actual tax

11
United States District Court
Northern District of California

4

forms. Accordingly, Defendant’s motion to compel tax documents is denied without prejudice.

12

2.

Interrogatory Requests. Plaintiff shall respond to Interrogatories 5-7. The

13

information is relevant to an issue in the case. Plaintiff put her other sources of income during the

14

relevant time frame at issue by bringing this lawsuit. To the extent the responses contain private

15

financial information, they can be provided subject to a protective order.

16

3.

Requests for Admission. Plaintiff’s refusal to answer Requests for Admissions 4-

17

7 is unsupported; she cites no case which provides a privilege to a plaintiff merely admitting that

18

she received a Form 1099. Plaintiff shall answer those requests.

19

This Order disposes of Docket No. 36.

20

IT IS SO ORDERED.

21

Dated: November 16, 2020

22
23
J Q
JACQUELINE
JACQUELINE SCOTT CORLEY
CORLEY
L
United St t M i t t J d
U it d States Magistrate Judge

24
25
26
27
28
2