Appel et al v. Boston National Title Agency, LLC
Filing
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ORDER (1) denying 71 Motion for Review of Magistrate Judge's April 30, 2019 Order and (2) Closing Case No. 18cv2617-BAS-MDD. Signed by Judge Cynthia Bashant on 7/12/2019. (jrm)
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UNITED STATES DISTRICT COURT
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SOUTHERN DISTRICT OF CALIFORNIA
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HOWARD APPEL, et al.,
Plaintiffs,
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Case No. 18-cv-873-BAS-MDD
v.
BOSTON NATIONAL TITLE
AGENCY, LLC,
ORDER (1) DENYING
PLAINTIFFS’ MOTION FOR
REVIEW OF MAGISTRATE
JUDGE’S APRIL 30, 2019 ORDER
AND
(2) CLOSING CASE NO. 18-CV2617-BAS-MDD
Defendant.
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On January 14, 2019, Magistrate Judge Dembin issued an order denying
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Plaintiffs’ motion to compel. (ECF No. 30.) Plaintiffs moved for reconsideration of
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this Order. (ECF No. 57.)
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reconsideration. (ECF No. 68.) Plaintiffs now appeal this denial of reconsideration.
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(ECF No. 71.)
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opposition, (ECF No. 79).
Magistrate Judge Dembin denied the motion for
Defendant opposes (ECF No. 76), and Plaintiffs reply to the
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The Court finds resolution of this matter is suitable without the need for oral
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argument. See Civ. L.R. 7.1(d)(1). For the reasons discussed below, the Court
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DENIES Plaintiffs’ Motion for Review of the Magistrate Judge’s April 30, 2019
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Order.
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I.
STATEMENT OF FACTS AND PROCEDURAL HISTORY
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The premise of this case is simple. During an online auction with Concierge
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Auctions, LLC. (“Concierge”), Plaintiffs had received notice that they had placed
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the winning bid for property in Fiji. Plaintiffs deposited $285,000 into an escrow
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account for the property. When the Fiji property owners refused to sell, Plaintiffs
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demanded return of their money.
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The procedural history of this case is less simple. Plaintiffs filed a lawsuit
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against Concierge, which has been stayed over Plaintiffs’ objection, pending
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arbitration. (17-cv-2263-BAS-MDD.) Three weeks after the Concierge case was
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stayed, Plaintiffs filed this lawsuit against Boston National Title Agency, LLC
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(“Boston National”) for an accounting, negligence and breach of fiduciary duty,
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claiming Boston National failed to timely return their escrow deposit. Soon after the
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lawsuit was filed, Boston National returned the $285,000 escrow amount to
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Plaintiffs.
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On August 14, 2018, Plaintiffs propounded requests for production of
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documents from Boston National, including requests for all documents related to the
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escrow account into which Plaintiffs deposited their $285,000. This escrow account,
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held by Wells Fargo Bank, is a repository of funds from customers of Concierge and
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Boston National. It was not set up exclusively for the Fiji property auction or for
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Plaintiffs’ transactions. It apparently identified dozens of customers and transactions
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unrelated to the Fiji auction or to Plaintiffs’ deposit of the $285,0000. Nonetheless,
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Boston National produced redacted statements from this escrow account, offering to
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assign unique identifiers to the other customers of Concierge and Boston National,
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but without identifying the actual customers. Plaintiffs objected.
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On January 14, 2019, Magistrate Judge Dembin denied Plaintiffs’ motion to
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compel Boston National to produce unredacted escrow statements. (ECF No. 30.)
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On April 8, 2019, Plaintiffs moved to reconsider this order (ECF No. 57), and on
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April 30, 2019, Judge Dembin denied the motion for reconsideration. (ECF No. 68.)
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Plaintiffs appeal that order denying reconsideration.
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In the meantime, while the discovery dispute in this case was pending,
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Plaintiffs propounded subpoenas to both Concierge and Wells Fargo Bank, non-
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parties in this case, in the Central District of California. Both cases were transferred
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to this district. (18-cv-2617-BAS-MDD; 18-cv-2433-BAS-MDD.) On February 6,
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2019, Magistrate Judge Dembin granted Wells Fargo Bank’s motion to quash the
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request for production of the exact same unredacted escrow statements. (18-cv-
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2617-BAS-MDD, ECF No. 22.) On May 1, 2019, Plaintiffs moved to reconsider that
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order. (18-cv-2617-BAS-MDD, ECF No. 34), and on May 22, 2019, Magistrate
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Judge Dembin denied the motion for reconsideration. (18-cv-2617-BAS-MDD, ECF
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No. 36.)
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II.
STANDARD OF REVIEW
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The district court may reconsider any non-dispositive pretrial ruling of the
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magistrate judge “where it has been shown that the magistrate judge’s order is clearly
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erroneous or contrary to law.” 28 U.S.C. §636(b); see also Fed. R. Civ. P., 72; Bhan
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v. NME Hospitals, Inc., 929 F.2d 1404, 1414 (9th Cir. 1991) (holding a magistrate
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judge’s decision on a non-dispositive issue is reviewed by the district court for clear
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error); Brighton Collectibles, Inc. v. Marc Chantal USA, Inc., No. 06-cv-1584
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H(POR), 2008 WL 753956 at *1 (S.D. Cal. Mar. 18, 2008) (“The ‘clearly erroneous’
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standard applies to the magistrate judge’s factual determinations and discretionary
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decisions [citation omitted] including rulings on discovery disputes where the
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magistrate judge is afforded broad discretion. [citation omitted].”) Discovery issues
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are generally non-dispositive. Maisonville v. F2 Am., Inc., 902 F.2d 746, 748 (9th
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Cir. 1996).
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District courts have broad discretion to determine relevancy for discovery
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purposes. Hallett v. Morgan, 296 F.3d 732, 751 (9th Cir. 2002). If the burden or
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expense of the proposed discovery outweighs the likely benefit, a district court may
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set limits on the discovery. Cascade Yarns, Inc. v. Knitting Fever, Inc., 755 F.3d 55,
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59 (1st Cir. 2014). “[A] district court is vested with ‘broad discretion to make
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discovery and evidentiary rulings conducive to the conduct of a fair and orderly
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trial.’” Amarel v. Connell, 102 F.3d 1494, 1515 (9th Cir. 1996) (quoting Campbell
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Indus. v. M/V Gemini, 619 F.2d 24, 27 (9th Cir. 1980)).
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III.
ANALYSIS
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In this case, Defendant has provided Plaintiffs with redacted escrow
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statements showing the amount of money in the account on a daily basis. Defendant
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has also offered to provide statements, redacting out customer information but
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providing unique identifying information for each customer, so that Plaintiffs can
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trace the funds in and out of the escrow account. Plaintiffs argue they need the names
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of the depositors, depositing account information, additional transaction details for
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dozens of customers, and disbursement information unrelated to this action.
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The Magistrate Judge found that “Defendants have provided Plaintiffs with
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redacted statements demonstrating that there were sufficient funds in the escrow
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account every day to cover Plaintiffs’ deposits. Consequently, funds deposited by
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other customers and the disposition of those funds simply is not relevant.” (ECF No.
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30, at 4.) The Magistrate Judge added that “[m]oney in the account was fungible.”
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(Id.) Furthermore, “[t]here is no conceivable connection between identifying other
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customers and their transactions to Plaintiffs’ claims.” (Id.) This Court agrees.
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Plaintiffs argue identification of other customers is needed: (1) to determine
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whether Defendant “breached its duty to hold these funds by either using these funds
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or allowing a third party to use the funds for illicit gains” and (2) to determine the
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amount of damages if Boston National or a third party used these funds for illicit
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gains. (ECF No. 71, at 15.) This Court fails to see how identification of the unrelated
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customers will assist in these issues. Plaintiffs have sufficient information without
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receiving identifying customer information to determine whether Defendant
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maintained sufficient funds in the escrow account to pay Plaintiffs at any given point,
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and Plaintiffs’ damages do not turn on who, other than Plaintiffs, deposited or
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withdrew money from the escrow account.
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As the Magistrate Judge points out, the addition of the expert statements is
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unhelpful to Plaintiffs. “Both experts agree that they require transaction level detail
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about the monies deposited and disbursed from the account. They do not explain or
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claim to need information on the identities of any third parties, which is the
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information at issue in this dispute.” (ECF No. 68, at 5.) Again, this Court agrees.
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Citing Caccamise v. Credit One Bank, N.A., No. 18-cv-971-JLS (BLM), 2019
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U.S. Dist. Lexis 72078 (S.D. Cal. Apr. 26, 2019), Plaintiffs argue that a district court
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must either the find a document to be relevant or irrelevant but may not weigh the
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relevance of the words in the document itself. (ECF No. 79, at 2.) Caccamise is
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easily distinguishable from this case as the Magistrate Judge in that case found that
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the redacted policies and procedures at issue were relevant to the plaintiffs’
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allegations. However, the Court is mindful that other courts have expressed concerns
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about a party producing redacted documents without making it clear what they are
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redacting and why. See e.g., Bartholomew v. Avalon Capital Grp., 278 F.R.D. 441,
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(D. Minn. 2011). That concern is not at issue here where Defendant has made it clear
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what it has redacted and why.
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And the privacy and confidentiality concerns of revealing customer
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information is more than sufficient to justify the redaction of information that does
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not appear to be in the least bit relevant. See Valley Bank of Nev. v. Superior Court,
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15 Cal. 3d 652, 657 (1975) (“[W]e indulge in a careful balancing of the right of civil
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litigants to discover relevant facts, on the one hand, with the right of bank customers
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to maintain reasonable privacy regarding their financial affairs, on the other.”); Hall
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v. Housing Auth. of Co. of Marin, No. 12-4922 RS (JSC), 2013 WL 5695813 (N.D.
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Cal. Oct. 18, 2013) (balancing need for information sought against the privacy
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interest asserted in documents produced under the Privacy Act); Rubin v. Regents of
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Calif., 114 F.R.D. 1 (N.D. Cal. 1986) (balancing need for disclosure against
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institution’s interest in confidentiality of peer evaluators); see also Breed v. U.S. Dist.
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Court for N. Dist. of Calif., 542 F.2d 1114 (9th Cir. 1976) (balancing need for
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disclosure against privacy rights of juveniles in California Youth Authority).
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Because this Court finds there is no relevance to the redacted information, any
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balancing against the privacy of the third party customers naturally weighs against
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disclosure.
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IV.
CONCLUSION
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The Magistrate Judge’s decision that the redacted information was irrelevant
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was not clearly erroneous or contrary to law. This Court, in exercising its “broad
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discretion,” concludes that Plaintiffs have shown insufficient nexus between the
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requested information and the issues in the case. Hence Plaintiffs’ Motion to Review
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the Magistrate Judge’s April 30, 2019 Order is DENIED.
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Furthermore, in light of the fact that this Order resolves all outstanding issues
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in the case of In re Subpoena to Wells Fargo Bank, NA, case no. 18-cv-2617-BAS-
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MDD, the Clerk is directed to close that case.
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IT IS SO ORDERED.
DATED: July 12, 2019
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