Schroeder v. Smith's Food & Drug Centers, Inc.
Filing
29
ORDER Granting in Part 19 Motion to Compel Discovery Responses from Defendant. Signed by Magistrate Judge Nancy J. Koppe on 10/2/2013. (Copies have been distributed pursuant to the NEF - SLR)
1
2
3
4
5
6
UNITED STATES DISTRICT COURT
7
DISTRICT OF NEVADA
8
***
9
15
)
)
)
Plaintiff,
)
2:12-cv-02024-LRH-NJK
)
vs.
)
)
SMITHS FOOD & DRUG CENTERS, INC.,
)
ORDER
)
)
Defendant.
)
)
This matter comes before the Court on Plaintiff’s Motion to Compel Discovery
16
Responses from Defendant (#19). The Court has considered Plaintiff’s Motion to Compel (#19),
17
and Defendant’s Response (#25). Plaintiff has not filed a Reply. The Reply was due by
18
September 30, 2013. See Docket No. 25. The Court finds that this motion is appropriately
19
resolved without oral argument. See Local Rule 78-2.
10
11
12
13
14
VICKI SCHROEDER,
20
21
BACKGROUND
This is a slip and fall case stemming from an incident on October 17, 2010, in which
22
Plaintiff Vicki Schroeder allegedly slipped and fell on the sidewalk when approaching the
23
entrance at one of Defendant’s stores in Las Vegas, Nevada. See Docket No. 19, at 3. It was
24
raining when the incident occurred and, according to Defendant, the concrete at the store where
25
the incident occurred was a brownish color and had a surface made up of polished concrete.
26
Docket No. 25, at 2.
27
28
On October 9, 2012, Schroeder filed the present lawsuit in the District Court of Clark
County, Nevada. Docket No. 1-1. Defendant removed the case to the United States District Court
1
for the District of Nevada on November 26, 2012. Docket No. 1. On January 2, 2013, the Court
2
3
entered a scheduling order and discovery plan setting the discovery deadline for November 26,
4
2013. Docket No. 9. On September 19, 2013, Plaintiff requested an extension of certain
5
discovery deadlines. Docket No. 21. The Court denied that request on September 25, 2013.
6
Docket No. 28.
7
Presently before the Court is Plaintiff’s Motion to Compel, Docket No. 19, which
8
indicates that, after extensive meet and confer efforts, the parties have not been able to reach an
9
agreement as to the scope of discovery related to prior slip and fall accidents at Smith’s stores.
10
11
12
Docket No. 19, at 3.
DISCUSSION
Plaintiff is requesting prior slip and fall information, for the three-year period prior to the
13
incident, related to “(1) slip and fall claims on the sidewalk of all Smith’s stores in Las Vegas
14
and/or (2) all slip and fall information for the Smith’s store at issue.” Docket No. 19, at 3.
15
Federal Rule of Civil Procedure 37 allows parties to move to compel responses to
16
discovery requests when a response has not been properly provided. Fed.R.Civ.P. 37(a)(1),
17
(a)(3)(B). The scope of discovery is broad and parties must respond to any request that is
18
“reasonably calculated to lead to the discovery of admissible evidence.” Fed.R.Civ.P. 26(b)(1).
19
This encompasses any matter that bears on, or that reasonably could lead to other matters that
20
could bear on, any issue that is or may be in the case. Oppenheimer Fund, Inc. v. Sanders, 437
21
U.S. 340, 351 (1978). This principle must be liberally construed to provide litigants with the
22
information essential to resolving disputed facts in an expeditious manner. See Shoen v. Shoen, 5
23
F.3d 1289, 1292 (9th Cir.1993). In slip and fall cases, “actual or constructive notice of the
24
dangerous condition is relevant on the question of Defendant's liability.” Demena v. Smith's Food
25
& Drug Centers, Inc., 2012 WL 3962381 (D. Nev. Sept. 10, 2012).
26
For example, in Snyder v. Fred Meyer Stores, Inc., the plaintiff alleged that she slipped
27
and fell on chicken grease near a chicken merchandiser display in a Fred Meyer store in
28
Washington and, accordingly, she requested information relating to all “other slip and fall
-2-
1
incidents or accidents related to chicken displays or chicken grease [which] occurred inside any
2
Fred Meyer Store in Washington, Oregon, Idaho, or Alaska.” Snyder v. Fred Meyer Stores, Inc.,
3
2013 WL 3089405, *1 (W.D. Wash. June 18, 2013). There, the court found that, because the
4
complaint sought to recover damages under a theory of premises liability, the request was
5
reasonably calculated to lead to the discovery of admissible evidence. Id. at *2. The Court
6
reasoned that “[i]f these incidents were common in Washington Fred Meyer stores, this evidence
7
would tend to suggest that Fred Meyer either was aware or should have been aware that chicken
8
grease and the [chicken merchandiser] displays were creating unsafe conditions in Fred Meyer
9
stores, or that this unsafe condition was reasonably foreseeable in light of how often it had
10
occurred in the past.” Id. at *3. The court limited the production, however, to incidents occurring
11
before the incident in question. Id.
12
Here, Defendant has agreed to produce accident reports for other slip and falls on the
13
sidewalk outside the Smith’s store involved in this litigation, but disputes whether it must
14
produce accident reports for every Smith’s store in Las Vegas. Docket No. 25, at 2. Defendant
15
asserts that information about every Smith’s store in Las Vegas is irrelevant because the sidewalk
16
surface outside the Smith’s store in question is different than the sidewalks in front of almost all
17
other Smith’s stores in Las Vegas. Id., at 3. According to Defendant, “almost every other
18
Smith’s store has ‘standard’ gray color concrete sidewalk,” whereas the sidewalk at the store in
19
question “was a brownish color and had a surface made up of polished concrete.” Id. at 3 and 4,
20
respectively (emphasis added). Defendant’s counsel’s affidavit states that 2-3 Smith’s stores in
21
the Las Vegas Valley have “the same polished concrete surface on the sidewalk as [the Smith’s
22
store in question].” Docket No. 25-1, at 3. Therefore, by Defendant’s own admission, there are
23
other Smith’s locations in Las Vegas with similar polished sidewalks. Information relating to slip
24
and fall incidents on those sidewalks, when wet,1 is clearly discoverable. Such information would
25
1
26
27
28
Slip and fall incidents which occurred on dry concrete are not relevant. The relevance of the
incident reports depends upon their being used to show actual or constructive notice of an unsafe
condition at the time of the incident. Incidents that occurred on dry concrete do not bear on this
issue. The court can discern no other reason why documents from such incidents would be relevant,
and accordingly rules that Defendant need not produce any documents related to incidents occurring
on dry concrete.
-3-
1
tend to suggest that Defendant either was aware or should have been aware that wet polished
2
sidewalks were creating unsafe conditions in front of Smith’s stores, or that this unsafe condition
3
was reasonably foreseeable in light of how often it had occurred in the past.
4
Information relating to slip and fall incidents on the standard gray sidewalks in front of
5
other Smith’s stores, however, is not discoverable in this case. Plaintiff fell on polished brown
6
concrete, not standard gray concrete and, therefore, conditions involving standard-gray concrete
7
are not relevant to this case.
8
9
Concerning Plaintiff’s request for all slip and fall information for the Smith’s store at
issue, Defendant has indicated that it has already produced all slip and fall information relating to
10
accidents which occurred outside the store at issue. Docket No. 25, at 2. Slip and fall incidents
11
which may have occurred inside the store are not relevant because they would in no way
12
implicate whether Defendant was aware or should have been aware that the sidewalks outside its
13
stores were creating unsafe conditions when wet, or that this unsafe condition was reasonably
14
foreseeable in light of how often it had occurred in the past.
15
Accordingly, the Court grants Plaintiff’s Motion to Compel to the extent that it requests
16
information about slip and falls that occurred on wet polished concrete outside of Smith’s stores
17
in Las Vegas during the three years prior to her incident.
18
CONCLUSION
19
Based on the foregoing, and good cause appearing therefore,
20
IT IS HEREBY ORDERED that Plaintiff’s Motion to Compel Discovery Responses from
21
Defendant (#19) is GRANTED in part.
22
IT IS FURTHER ORDERED that Defendant must produce information about slip and
23
falls that occurred on wet polished concrete outside of Smith’s stores in Las Vegas during the
24
three years prior to Plaintiff’s incident.
25
DATED this 2nd
day of October, 2013
26
27
28
NANCY J. KOPPE
United States Magistrate Judge
-4-
Disclaimer: Justia Dockets & Filings provides public litigation records from the federal appellate and district courts. These filings and docket sheets should not be considered findings of fact or liability, nor do they necessarily reflect the view of Justia.
Why Is My Information Online?