Brewer v. BNSF Railway Company

Filing 229

ORDER re 214 MOTION Leave to Conduct Additional Discovery filed by David Brewer. The Court will allow Mr. Brewer to conduct additional discovery via written questions. The parties will file with the Court a list of written questions that they agree Mr. Brewer may ask no later than June 28, 2017. If necessary, Mr. Brewer may file with the Court on the same date an additional list of questions he sought to ask but BNSF did not agree to. If Mr. Brewer submits an additional list of questions, the Court will conduct a hearing on the additional list of questions and entertain any objections BNSF has to them before determining whether to allow Mr. Brewer to ask the additional questions. Signed by Magistrate Judge John Johnston on 6/16/2017. (MMS)

IN THE UNITED STATES DISTRICT COURT
FOR THE DISTRICT OF MONTANA
GREAT FALLS DIVISION
CV 14-65-GF-BMM-JTJ
DAVID BREWER,
Plaintiff,

ORDER
vs.

BNSF RAILWAY COMPANY, a
Delaware Corporation,
Defendant.

Mr. Brewer filed a Motion to Conduct Additional Discovery on April 18,
2017. (Doc. 214.) BNSF filed its response on May 22, 2017, and Mr. Brewer field
his reply on June 7, 2017. (Docs. 223; 226.) The Court conducted a hearing on the
motion on June 14, 2017. (Doc. 227.)
The crux of the issue before the Court is BNSF’s response to some of Mr.
Brewer’s discovery requests. Mr. Brewer argued that BNSF’s original response to
his request for emails relevant to this case was deficient. (Doc. 215 at 6.) Mr.
Brewer stated that although BNSF claims its document retention policy provides
that emails are only retained for thirty days, the email system BNSF uses would
allow it to retain emails indefinitely. (Doc. 215-11 at 7.) In the Court’s view, this

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discrepancy provides good cause to allow Mr. Brewer to conduct additional limited
discovery via written questions under Federal Rule of Civil Procedure 31.
For this reason, the Court issues the following order:
1.

The Court will allow Mr. Brewer to conduct additional
discovery via written questions.

2.

The parties will file with the Court a list of written questions
that they agree Mr. Brewer may ask no later than June 28, 2017.

3.

If necessary, Mr. Brewer may file with the Court on the same
date an additional list of questions he sought to ask but BNSF
did not agree to.

4.

If Mr. Brewer submits an additional list of questions, the Court
will conduct a hearing on the additional list of questions and
entertain any objections BNSF has to them before determining
whether to allow Mr. Brewer to ask the additional questions.

DATED this 16th day of June 2017.

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