Fullman v. TC Electric Co.

Filing 51

MEMORANDUM ORDER: The motion to compel (D.I. 33 ) is GRANTED. Plaintiff shall answer all interrogatories and requests for production on or before September 4, 2019. The requests for admission served upon Plaintiff on November 26, 2019, are deemed ADMITTED (see order for further details). Signed by Judge Richard G. Andrews on 8/6/2019. (nms)

IN THE UNITED STATES DISTRICT COURT
FOR THE DISTRICT OF DELAWARE
DARNELL H. FULLMAN , SR. ,
Plaintiff,

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) Civil Action . No. 17-1870-RGA
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V.

TC ELECTRIC CO .,
Defendant.

At Wilmington this

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MEMORANDUM ORDER
day of August, 2019 , having considered Defendant's

motion to compel (D .I. 33) ,
IT IS HEREBY ORDERED that the motion (D .I. 33) is GRANTED , for the
reasons that follow:
1.

On January 4, 2019 , Defendant filed a motion to compel Plaintiff to answer

and respond to outstanding discovery and for an order for the Court to deem the
requests for admission to be admitted . (D .I. 33). The backdrop to the motion to compel
was that on August 31 , 2018 , Defendant served Plaintiff with interrogatories and
requests for production. (D .I. 16). Plaintiff sought an extension of time to respond to
the discovery and it was granted . (D .I. 17, 21) . Plaintiff was given until on or before
November 2, 2018 to respond to the discovery requests . (D .I. 21) . When he failed to
do so, and Defendant raised the issue , Plaintiff was given until December 5, 2018 , to
respond . (D .I. 26 , 27) . He did not. (D.I. 31) .
2.

On January 4, 2019 , Defendant filed a motion to compel pursuant to Fed .

R. Civ. P. 37 after Plaintiff's failure to respond to the discovery requests. Under Rule

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37 , a party is entitled to seek an order compelling discovery if the party has properly
served interrogatories and/or requests for production and the party upon whom served
has failed to provide full , complete and timely responses . Thereafter, Plaintiff
responded to the discovery. (See D.I. 35 , 36-1 , 36-2) . The Court has reviewed his
responses. In some instances , he did not answer interrogatories ; in others, the
responses are incomplete. While Plaintiff provided documents responsive to the
request for production of documents, he did not provide any answers or exhibits in
response to several requests . Therefore, the Court will grant Defendant's motion to
compel.
3.

Defendant also seeks an order that its requests for admissions served

upon Plaintiff are deemed admitted . Plaintiff was served with requests for admissions
on November 26 , 2018 . (D .I. 33-3). The requests for admission served on Plaintiff
placed him on notice that his "failure to timely provide answers to the below will
constitute an admission ." (D .I. 28 at 1). Plaintiff did not file responses to the requests
for admissions until January 14, 2019 , ten days after Defendant filed its motion to
compel. (See D.I. 35) .
4.

Under Fed . R. Civ. P. 36 "[a] matter is admitted unless , within 30 days

after being served , the party to whom the request is directed serves on the requesting
party a written answer or objection addressed to the matter and signed by the party or
its attorney. " Id. The Court has reviewed Plaintiff's untimely responses to the requests
for admissions. Many of the responses clearly contradict information Plaintiff has
provided the Court and discoverable documents he provided to Defendant. For
example, Request .No. 2 asks Plaintiff to admit the address listed on the Court docket.
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Plaintiff denied the request despite the fact that the address in the request is the
address Plaintiff provided in the Complaint and is the current address listed on the Court
docket. Another example is Request No. 3 that asked Plaintiff to admit that he received
an employee warning report. Plaintiff denied the request but then in Request No. 13
admitted that he signed the warning report. In light of the foregoing , and the fact that
the responses were untimely despite a warning of the consequences for failing to timely
respond to the requests , the Court will grant Defendant's request for an order that the
November 26 , 2018 requests are deemed admitted .
5.

Plaintiff shall answer all interrogatories and requests for production on or

before September 4, 2019 .
6.

The requests for admission served upon Plaintiff on November 26 , 2018 ,

are deemed ADMITTED .
7.

The Court notes that Defendant has filed a motion for summary judgment.

(0.1. 45). Therein , Defendant states that "discovery in this matter has concluded ." (D.I.
46 at 1). Recently, Plaintiff was given an extension of time until August 22 , 2019 , to file
an answering brief. (D.I. 45) . In light of the instant Order, Defendant shall advise the
Court if it finds it necessary to supplement its motion for summary judgment, and
Plaintiff shall advise the Court if he will require additional time to file a response to the
motion for summary judgment.

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