Allen v. Allen et al

Filing 108

MINUTE ORDER denying 98 Motion to Compel Discovery, by Magistrate Judge Michael J. Watanabe on 12/21/11.(jjpsl, )

IN THE UNITED STATES DISTRICT COURT
FOR THE DISTRICT OF COLORADO
Civil Action No. 10-cv-02207-CMA-MJW
SHAWN D. ALLEN,
Plaintiff,
v.
N.
C.
A.
K.
A.
K.
C.

ALLEN,
FLORY,
COSNER,
NORDELL,
MEDINA,
SOKOL, and
TUTTLE,

Defendants.
MINUTE ORDER
Entered by Magistrate Judge Michael J. Watanabe
It is hereby ORDERED that the Plaintiff’s Motion to Compel Discovery (Docket
No. 98) is denied.
Plaintiff complains that “Defendants responded to the vast majority of productions
request by simply objecting.” (Docket No. 98 at 1). A review of the defendants’
discovery responses, however, shows that while objections were stated regarding each
discovery demand, for many of the demands, answers and documents were, in fact,
provided without waiving such objections.
Furthermore, Plaintiff makes blanket arguments regarding all of the discovery
sought and not obtained and does not specify how each response is insufficient. For
this reason alone, the motion should be denied. “[W]hen the request is overly broad on
its face or when relevancy is not readily apparent, the party seeking the discovery has
the burden to show the relevancy of the request.” Abiakam v. Qwest Corp., 2011 WL
4916304, at *2 (D. Colo. Oct. 17, 2011) (quoting Owens v. Sprint/United Management
Co., 221 F.R.D. 649, 652 (D. Kan. 2004)). Here, plaintiff does not discuss the relevance
of the requested information to his claim here other than saying “the requested
information is relevant to the subject matter of this case. In this action I raised claims
that go to the defendants state of mind.” In addition, he makes a further conclusory
statement that his litigation will be severely prejudiced without the requested documents
and responses. Without any specificity, he has not met his burden.

2
Finally, defendants need not produce documents that plaintiff can obtain himself
from his own inmate file in accordance with the Administrative Regulations.
Date: December 21, 2011