Equal Employment Opportunity Commission v. Unit Drilling Company et al
Filing
169
OPINION AND ORDER by Magistrate Judge Paul J Cleary ; granting in part and denying in part 148 Motion to Compel (kjp, Dpty Clk)
IN THE UNITED STATES DISTRICT COURT
FOR THE NORTHERN DISTRICT OF OKLAHOMA
EQUAL EMPLOYMENT
OPPORTUNITY COMMISSION,
Plaintiff,
PATSY CRAIG,
Intervenor-Plaintiff,
v.
UNIT DRILLING COMPANY,
Defendant.
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Case No. 13-CV-147-TCK-PJC
OPINION AND ORDER
Before the Court is the Motion to Compel Discovery Responses filed by
Plaintiff Equal Employment Opportunity Commission (“EEOC”). [Dkt. No. 148].
EEOC seeks to compel Unit Drilling Company (“Unit”) to produce additional
information in response to five discovery requests; EEOC also seeks to have its
Request for Admission (“RFA”) No. 1 deemed admitted due to Unit’s improper
response.
The Court will address the RFA first. The fight over this issue is
symptomatic of the senseless fighting that has pervaded discovery in this case.
RFA No. 1 concerns a letter written by Kristin VanOrman (“the VanOrman
letter”), responding to a Charge of Discrimination filed in February 2009 with
the Utah Antidiscrimination and Labor Division (“UALD”) by Plaintiff-Intervenor
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Patsy Craig. Kristin VanOrman is a Salt lake City, Utah, lawyer hired by Unit.
The VanOrman letter was submitted to UALD on Unit’s behalf to convince the
agency to dismiss Craig’s discrimination charge.
RFA No. 1 asks Unit to admit the following:
Unit Drilling submitted the letter dated March 17, 2009, attached as
Exhibit 1, to the Utah Antidiscrimination and Labor Division in
response to Patsy Craig’s Charge of Discrimination.
In response, Unit neither admitted nor denied RFA No. 1. Instead, Unit
stated:
Unit Drilling admits Kristin VanOrman submitted the letter dated
March 17, 2009, to the Utah Antidiscrimination and Labor Division.
Unit Drilling denies the letter accurately depicts the facts
surrounding Patsy Craig’s application for employment to Unit
Drilling.
[Dkt. No. 148, p. 6].
At first blush, this response implies that VanOrman submitted this
letter to the UALD without authorization from Unit. However, that is
clearly not so. Unit’s Rule 30(b)(6) witness, John Cromling, testified as
follows at his deposition on June 18:
Q.
And the author of the response is listed as Kristin
VanOrman, counsel for Unit Drilling Company; is that correct?
A.
Yes.
Q.
Unit Drilling authorized Miss VanOrman to submit this
response; correct?
*
*
*
A.
Yes.
Q,
Did Unit Drilling review the response before it was
submitted?
A.
Legal would have; I wouldn’t.
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Q.
But Unit Drilling did?
A.
Yes.
Q.
And the purpose of that review would be to make sure it’s
accurate; is that right?
*
*
*
A.
I would assume so.
[Dkt. No. 158-5, Cromling dep., p. 47 at line17 to p. 48, line 14].
Cromling also testified:
Q.
This is Unit Drilling Company’s response to Patsy Craig’s
charge of discrimination; correct?
A.
Yes.
Q.
And Unit Drilling submitted this to the Utah antidiscrimination labor division in response to that charge of discrimination;
correct?
A.
Yes.
[Id. at p. 49, lines 9-16].
Cromling testified further:
Q.
But it is your testimony that this was submitted on behalf of
Unit Drilling; correct?
A.
Yes.
Q.
And it was reviewed by Unit Drilling before it was submitted;
correct?
A.
Yes.
[Id., p. 62, lines 14-19].
Unit’s refusal to admit RFA No. 1 is ridiculous. Such conduct is a waste of
the Court’s time and the parties’ time and money. Fed.R.Civ.P. 36(a)(6) provides:
Motion Regarding the Sufficiency of an Answer or Objection.
The requesting party may move to determine the sufficiency of an
answer or objection. Unless the court finds an objection justified, it
must order that an answer be served. On finding that an answer
does not comply with this rule, the court may order either that the
matter is admitted or that an amended answer be served. The court
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may defer its final decision until a pretrial conference or a specified
time before trial. Rule 37(a)(5) applies to an award of expenses.
The Court finds that RFA No. 1 should be DEEMED ADMITTED.
Discovery: Applicable Legal Principles
It is generally understood that discovery under the Federal Rules is
limited by relevance and burdensomeness. Rich v. Martin Marietta Corp., 522
F.2d 333, 343 (10th Cir.1975); Littlebear v. Advanced Bionics, LLC, 2012 WL
2979023, *1 (N.D.Okla. July 20, 2012). Following the 2000 amendment of
Fed.R.Civ.P. 26, the Tenth Circuit Court of Appeals noted:
This change implemented a two-tiered discovery process; the first
tier being attorney-managed discovery of information relevant to
any claim or defense of a party, and the second being courtmanaged discovery that can include information relevant to the
subject matter of the action. See, e.g., 6 James Wm. Moore et al.,
Moore's Federal Practice § 26.41[1] (3d ed.2007) [hereinafter Moore's];
8 Charles Alan Wright, Arthur R. Miller, & Richard L. Marcus,
Federal Practice and Procedure § 2008 (2d ed.2008) [hereinafter
Federal Practice]; Thomas D. Rowe, Jr., A Square Peg in a Round
Hole? The 2000 Limitation on the Scope of Federal Civil Discovery,
69 Tenn. L.Rev. 13, 17 (2001). Accordingly, when a party objects
that discovery goes beyond that relevant to the claims or defenses,
“the court would become involved to determine whether the
discovery is relevant to the claims or defenses and, if not, whether
good cause exists for authorizing it so long as it is relevant to the
subject matter of the action.” Fed.R.Civ.P. 26 advisory committee's
note (2000). This good-cause standard is intended to be flexible. Id.
When the district court does intervene in discovery, it has
discretion in determining what the scope of discovery should be.
In re Cooper Tire & Rubber Co., 568 F.3d 1180, 1188–1189 (10th Cir.2009).
While Rule 26 still contemplates liberal discovery and broad concept of
relevance, the Rule also recognizes that discovery must be proportionate to the
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case and issues at hand. Fed.R.Civ.P. 26(b)(2). Thus, trial courts have broad
discretion in managing discovery matters and are subject to review only for
abuse of discretion. Smith v. Sentinel Inc. Co., Ltd., 2011 WL 2883433, *1
(N.D.Okla. July 15, 2011).
Rule 26(b)(1) provides that parties may obtain discovery “regarding any
matter, not privileged, that is relevant to the claim or defense of any party....
Relevant information need not be admissible at the trial if the discovery appears
reasonably calculated to lead to the discovery of admissible evidence.” Fed.R
.Civ.P. 26(b)(1). At the discovery phase of litigation “relevancy” is broadly
construed.
EEOC’s Five Discovery Issues
EEOC seeks to compel additional information in five categories1: (1)
Payroll information as to employee start date, end date and promotions between
January 2008 and December 2013; (2) Daily Drilling Reports for 2008-13; (3)
Drilling rig job applications for 2008-13; (4) Hiring spreadsheets2008-13; (5) Job
applicant interview notes, 2008-13.
The purpose of this discovery is largely to enable EEOC to perform a back
pay damage calculation; however, EEOC also seeks information related to the
The Court limited the geographical scope of discovery to Unit rigs Nos.
232 and 115, and all other rigs within 100 miles of Casper and Pinedale, WY,
and Oklahoma City, OK. [Dkt. No. 112, p. 6].
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number of hours employees worked, when job openings occurred on rigs, and
the basis for hiring decisions. [Dkt. No. 148 & 166].
Unit objects that it has provided information it was required to produce,
that additional information requested is irrelevant, overly broad and unduly
burdensome. [Dkt. No. 156].
The Court has examined the submitted briefs and finds that oral
argument would be of little assistance in resolving this matter.
Discussion
(1) Payroll Information – Motion GRANTED.
Pursuant to the Court’s May 9, 2014 Order, Unit was to produce its
Master Payroll file for the period January 1, 2008 to December 31, 2013. [Dkt.
No. 112, p. 6]. In its response to EEOC’s Motion to Compel, Unit states that it
has produce “payroll data sufficient to calculate potential back pay damages for
the claimants.”
Unit was ordered to produce its Master Payroll File for the
specified time period and geographic location. Unit shall produce its Master
Payroll File, as previously Ordered.
(2) Daily Drilling Reports – Motion DENIED.
Unit has admitted that it did not hire any female rig hands during the
January 1, 2008 – December 31, 2013, time period. [Dkt. No. 156-3, pp. 6-7].
Unit has produced pay records for employees on various rigs. The Court
envisioned in its May 9 Order that production of sufficient information might
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eliminate the need for Unit to produce Daily Drilling reports. [Dkt. No. 112, pp.
6-7]. The Court finds that Unit’s production is sufficient and proportionate to
the discovery EEOC needs to pursue its claims herein.
(3) Job Applications – Motion DENIED.
Rather than produce all job applications from Unit’s personnel files, Unit
produced a list of rig hands hired during the relevant time period and invited
EEOC to select a reasonable number of applications for review. [Dkt. No. 156-11,
p. 8]. The Court finds this an appropriate discovery response, proportionate to
the needs of the case.
(4) Hiring Spreadsheets – Motion DENIED.
In March, Unit produced hiring spreadsheets for the specific years the
individual claimants herein submitted job applications to Unit. EEOC logged no
objection until the last day of discovery. The Court finds Unit’s production is
sufficient for EEOC’s needs in pursuing the claims herein.
(5) Interview Notes – Motion DENIED.
The Court finds EEOC’s request for interview notes from job interviews
conducted over a six-year period to be excessive and disproportionate to the
discovery necessary to pursue its claims herein.
ACCORDINGLY, the Motion to Compel is GRANTED IN PART AND
DENIED IN PART as outlined above.
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IT IS SO ORDERED this 21st day of July 2014.
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