Gym Door Repairs, Inc. et al v. New York City Department of Education et al

Filing 122

ORDER granting 121 Letter Motion for Discovery: The defendants are ordered to produce all non-privileged non-work product responsive documents and produce a privilege log for all withheld documents by Janaury 17, 2020. The plaintiffs may continue to conduct discovery until February 17, 2020. The Janary 13 conference is adjourned until March 17, 2020 at 11:30 a.m. (Signed by Judge P. Kevin Castel on 12/13/2019) (jwh)

Case 1:12-cv-07387-PKC Document 121 Filed 12/12/19 Page 1 of 2

December 12, 2019

The Hon. P. Kevin Castel
United States Judge
United States District Court
Southern District of New York
500 Pearl Street, Rm. 11D
New York, NY 10007

Re: GDRI v. NYCDOE, 12 CV 7387 (PKC) – REQUEST FOR DISCOVERY CONFERENCE

Dear Judge Castel:

This office represents Plaintiffs in the above-referenced matter. I write pursuant to
Fed. R. Civ. P. 37(a)(1) and Local Rule 37.2 to request a telephone conference with the
Court concerning the Defendants’ delay in producing documents and other electronically
stored information in response to Plaintiffs’ discovery demands.

Plaintiffs served their document demands on July 10, 2019. Exhibit A. The parties
agreed to ESI search terms soon thereafter. To date, however, the only files produced by
the Defendants are certified payroll records produced in 2016, apparently for use in a case
before Judge Koeltl. Plaintiffs are still waiting for documents and communications
responsive to their demands in this case.

In contrast to the Defendants, Plaintiffs have been rolling out their production since
October and completed their full production on November 27, 2019. Plaintiffs have already
taken two third-party depositions and are scheduled to take depositions of NYCDOE
witnesses starting next Tuesday, December 17, 2019.

The undersigned has conferred with counsel for the Defendants regarding the delay
on multiple occasions. While I sympathize with the reasons offered for the delay, it is now
prejudicial to my clients. Plaintiffs cannot be expected to complete depositions without the
benefit of document discovery. Counsel for NYCDOE has agreed to keep the depositions
“open” for questions regarding the belated production, but the fact of the matter is that
there is no time for this. Discovery closes at the end of this month and a pretrial conference

Case 1:12-cv-07387-PKC Document 121 Filed 12/12/19 Page 2 of 2

is scheduled for January 13, 2020. The discovery deadline has already been extended three
times.

My clients view the delay is yet another example of the abuse being leveled against
them by NYCDOE in retaliation for their efforts to advocate for compliance with New York
State Education Law. We ask the Court to consider a motion to compel the immediate
production of all documents responsive to Plaintiffs’ demands and grant a 30 day extension
of time for the Plaintiffs to complete depositions after all responsive documents and other
materials have been produced by the Defendants.
Respectfully submitted,

Katherine J. Daniels

cc: Counsel of Record via ECF

The defendants are ordered to produce all non-privileged ,

non-work product responsive documents and produce a privilege

log for all withheld documents by Janaury 17, 2020. The plaintiffs

may continue to conduct discovery until February 17, 2020. The

Janary 13 conference is adjourned until March 17, 2020 at 11:30 a.m.

SO ORDERED.
Dated: 12/13/2019