Williams v. Southern University and Agricultural & Mechanical College et al

Filing 17

RULING granting 13 Motion to Compel. Defendants shall serve their initial disclosures, answers to interrogatories, and produce for inspection and copying all documents responsive to the plaintiffs requests for production, without objections, within 14 days. Pursuant to Rule 37(d)(3), the defendants are also ordered to pay to the plaintiff, within 14 days, her reasonable expenses in the amount of $250.00. Signed by Magistrate Judge Stephen C. Riedlinger on 10/10/12. (DCB)

UNITED STATES DISTRICT COURT
MIDDLE DISTRICT OF LOUISIANA

KAYLA WILLIAMS
CIVIL ACTION
VERSUS
NUMBER 11-739-JJB-SCR
SOUTHERN UNIVERSITY AND
AGRICULTURAL AND MECHANICAL
COLLEGE, ET AL
RULING ON MOTION TO COMPEL
Before

the

court

is

the

Plaintiff’s

Motion

to

Compel

Defendants to Make Initial Disclosures and Respond to Discovery
filed by the plaintiff Kayla Williams.

Record document number 13.

No opposition has been filed.
Plaintiff’s motion shows that despite a deadline of April 26,
2012, the defendants failed to make their initial disclosures.1
Plaintiff

served

the

defendants

with

the

First

Set

of

Interrogatories and Requests for Production on May 25, 2012.2
Defendants also failed to provide any answers or documents in
response to these discovery requests.

Despite assurances by

counsel for the defendants on both July 27 and August 27, 2012 that
the

outstanding

discovery

would

be

provided

shortly,3

1

Record document number 10, Scheduling Order, item B.

2

the

Record document number 13-1, Attachments A and B.

3

Record document number 13-1, Attachment C; record document
number 16, Plaintiff’s Second Motion to Continue Pretrial
Deadlines, ¶ 5.

defendants still have not fulfilled their discovery obligations.
Nor have the defendants responded to this motion or otherwise
furnished any information indicating when they will provide their
discovery

responses.

In

these

circumstances,

under

Rule

37(d)(1)(A), Fed.R.Civ.P., the plaintiff is entitled to an order
compelling the defendants to respond to her discovery requests and
imposing sanctions.
initial

Defendants will be required to provide their

disclosures,

answer

the

interrogatories,

and

produce

responsive documents for inspection and copying the within 14 days.
No objections will be allowed.4

Rule 37(d)(3) incorporates the

sanctions available under Rule 37(b)(2)(A)(i)-(vi). However, other
than recovery of the expenses incurred in filing the motion the
plaintiff did not seek additional sanctions.
With regard to the recovery of expenses, under Rule 37(d)(3)
the court must require the party failing to act, or the attorney
advising that party, or both, to pay the reasonable expenses,
including attorney’s fees caused by the failure unless the failure
was substantially justified or other circumstances make an award of
expenses unjust.5

Plaintiff’s motion shows that a good faith

attempt was made to obtain the discovery responses without court

4

Generally, discovery objections are waived if a party fails
to timely object to interrogatories, production requests or other
discovery efforts.
See, In re U.S., 864 F.2d 1153, 1156 (5th
Cir.), reh’g denied, 869 F.2d 1487 (5th Cir. 1989); Godsey v. U.S.,
133 F.R.D. 111, 113 (S.D. Miss. 1990.)
5

See, Rules 37(d)(1)(B) and (d)(3).
2

action.

Nothing in the record indicates that the defendants’

failure was substantially justified or any circumstances that would
make an award of expenses unjust.

Therefore, the plaintiff is

entitled to reasonable expenses under Rule 37(d)(3). Plaintiff did
not claim a specific amount for the time expended in filing this
motion.

However, a review of the motion and memorandum supports

the conclusion that an award of $250.00 is reasonable.
Accordingly, the Plaintiff’s Motion to Compel Defendants to
Make Initial Disclosures and Respond to Discovery is granted.
Defendants

shall

interrogatories,

serve
and

their

produce

initial
for

disclosures,

inspection

and

answers
copying

to
all

documents responsive to the plaintiff’s requests for production,
without objections, within 14 days. Pursuant to Rule 37(d)(3), the
defendants are also ordered to pay to the plaintiff, within 14
days, her reasonable expenses in the amount of $250.00.
Baton Rouge, Louisiana, October 10, 2012.

STEPHEN C. RIEDLINGER
UNITED STATES MAGISTRATE JUDGE

3