BAXLEY v. GEICO GENERAL INSURANCE COMPANY

Filing 70

ORDER - - Granted, 30 Motion to Compel. Within five (5) days defendant will produce to plaintiff the documents filed with its amended notice 65 . The clerk will unseal the documents filed with doc 65. The documents filed with 58 will remain sealed. - - Signed by MAGISTRATE JUDGE MILES DAVIS on May 25, 2010. (cbj)

IN THE UNITED STATES DISTRICT COURT FOR THE NORTHERN DISTRICT OF FLORIDA PANAMA CITY DIVISION

ROBIN BAXLEY, as Personal Representative Plaintiff, vs. GEICO General Insurance Company, Defendant. ______________________________________________________________________ ORDER Before the court is plaintiff's motion to compel documents responsive to plaintiff's first and second request to produce (doc. 30) to which defendant has responded (docs. 58, 65). In response to the court's order, defendant has provided copies of the subject documents for in camera review (doc.65).1 In this third party bad faith litigation plaintiff seeks personnel files of the three individuals who handled the underlying liability claim, including documents relating to training, education, experience, licensure, pay level, job positions and responsibilities, duties, complaints, commendations, performance reviews and the like. Defendant argues in opposition that the matters requested are confidential, sensitive, not likely to lead to admissible evidence and irrelevant. Except for the matter of the employees' pay rates, the undersigned disagrees. The documents provided to the court have been reviewed. The three individuals
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No. 5:09cv343/RS/MD

Defendant previously provided the documents, but then correctly pointed out that the original The documents now being

production contained documents outside the plaintiff's requests. considered w ere provided w ith defendant's amended response.

whose records are sought were intimately involved in the handling of the underlying liability claim. Since the gist of this action is that defendant's employees

mishandled the underlying claim, documents concerning their training, experience and related matters dealing with overall competence may lead to discoverable evidence. See Simon v. Pronational Insurance Company, 2007 WL 4893477 (S.D. Fla. Nov. 1, 2007; Nowak v. Lexington Insurance Company, 2006 WL 3613766 (S.D. Fla. June 9, 2006). Accordingly, it is ORDERED that the motion under consideration (doc. 30) is GRANTED. Within five (5) days defendant will produce to plaintiff the documents filed with its amended notice (doc. 65).2 The clerk will unseal the documents filed with doc. 65. The documents filed with doc. 58 will remain sealed. DONE AND ORDERED at Pensacola, Florida this 25th day of May, 2010.

/s/

Miles Davis
MILES DAVIS UNITED STATES MAGISTRATE JUDGE

As ordered by the court, the pay grades, social security numbers, addresses and other personal identifiers w ere redacted before production.

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