Bell v Hercules Liftboat, LLC

Filing 141

SUPPLEMENTAL RULING regarding 127 MOTION to Quash Subpoena filed by Sue Bell. Pursuant to Rule 45(c)(1) the pltf is awarded reasonable expenses in the amount of $250.00, to be paid by deft within 14 days. Signed by Magistrate Judge Stephen C. Riedlinger on 4/9/2012. (JDL)

UNITED STATES DISTRICT COURT
MIDDLE DISTRICT OF LOUISIANA

SUE BELL
CIVIL ACTION
VERSUS
NUMBER 11-332–JJB-SCR
HERCULES LIFTBOAT COMPANY, L.L.C.
SUPPLEMENTAL RULING ON MOTION TO QUASH SUBPOENA
Again before the court is the Plaintiff’s Motion to Quash
Subpoena.

Record document number 127.

A Partial Ruling on Motion

to Quash Subpoena was issued quashing the defendants’s subpoena
insofar

as

the

subpoena

commanded

documents at her deposition.1

the

plaintiff

to

produce

Still before the court is the

plaintiff’s request for the imposition of sanctions pursuant to
Rule 45(c)(1), Fed.R.Civ.P., and 28 U.S.C. § 1927.

Defendant

Hercules Liftboat Company, LLC filed a opposition.2
Rule 45(c)(1), provides as follows:
(1) Avoiding Undue Burden or Expense; Sanctions. A
party or attorney responsible for issuing and
serving a subpoena mut take reasonable steps to
avoid imposing undue burden or expense on a person
subject to the subpoena. The issuing court must
enforce this duty and impose an appropriate
sanction—which may include lost earnings and
reasonable attorney’s fees—on a party or attorney
who fails to comply.
Defendant argued that the documents described in its subpoena

1

Record document number 128.

2

Record document number 135.

were described with particularity and imposed no burden on the
plaintiff to produce them. Moreover, defendant argued, because the
plaintiff’s

document

production

was

deficient

(she

failed

to

specifically identify which documents she produced are responsive
to which discovery requests), requiring the plaintiff to produce
the documents at her deposition was intended to avoid further
motions and delays and to avoid extending the discovery deadline.3
Although having a party produce documents at a deposition in
an organized manner is not unreasonable, the defendant failed to
address in any way the fact that the subpoena issued to the
plaintiff did not comply with Rule 34, Fed.R.Civ.P.
Rule 45(c)(1) requires the court to enforce the duty imposed
by the rule.

A appropriate sanction is the imposition of the

reasonable cost incurred by the plaintiff in filing the motion to
quash.

Plaintiff did not seek an award of any particular amount.

A review of the plaintiff’s motion papers supports finding that an
award of attorney’s fees in the amount of $250.00 is reasonable.4
Accordingly,

pursuant

to

Rule

45(c)(1)

the

plaintiff

is

awarded reasonable expenses in the amount of $250.00, to be paid by

3

As noted in the Ruling on Motion to Compel issued this date,
record document number 140, the plaintiff did not produce an index
identifying which specific documents are responsive to which
discovery request(s) until March 27, 2012, eleven days after her
deposition. That ruling also required the plaintiff to supplement
other discovery responses.
4

It is not necessary to address the plaintiff’s request for
sanctions under § 1927.
2

the defendant within 14 days.5
Baton Rouge, Louisiana, April 9, 2012.

STEPHEN C. RIEDLINGER
UNITED STATES MAGISTRATE JUDGE

5

At its option, the defendant may apply this sanction against
the amount owed to it by the plaintiff pursuant to the Ruling on
Motion to Compel.
3