Nguyen et al v. Mercer Island Boys Basketball Booster Club et al

Filing 110

ORDER denying Defendant's 73 Motion to Compel as moot, denying request for attorney's fees, and denying 108 Motion to Strike. Signed by Judge Robert S. Lasnik. (MJV)

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1 2 3 4 5 UNITED STATES DISTRICT COURT FOR THE WESTERN DISTRICT OF WASHINGTON AT SEATTLE 6 7 8 ELLE NGUYEN, et al., CASE NO. 2:23-cv-00855-RSL 9 10 11 12 13 Plaintiffs, v. MERCER ISLAND BOYS BASKETBALL BOOSTER CLUB, et al., ORDER DENYING MOTION TO COMPEL AS MOOT, DENYING REQUEST FOR ATTORNEY’S FEES, AND DENYING MOTION TO STRIKE Defendants. 14 15 This matter comes before the Court on Defendant Boys & Girls Club of King 16 County and Marc Munson’s “Motion to Compel Discovery Responses from Plaintiffs and 17 for Attorneys [sic] Fees” (Dkt. # 73) and “Motion to Strike Plaintiffs’ New Response on 18 Defendants’ Motion to Compel Discovery and Document Production” (Dkt. # 108). 19 Defendants served their first set of discovery requests on February 16, 2024. 20 Plaintiffs obtained a 30-day extension of the time in which to respond, but did not serve 21 their initial, incomplete responses until May 14, 2024. The responses were supplemented, 22 as agreed by the parties, on May 24, 2024. Defendants identified various deficiencies in 23 the production and wrote a letter, dated May 31, 2024, requesting further supplementation 24 by June 14, 2024. Dkt. # 76-4. Although plaintiffs apparently agreed that some 25 supplementation was necessary and said they would endeavor to do so by June 21, 2024, 26 they did not supplement their responses until July 2, 2024, a day after this motion to ORDER DENYING MOTION TO COMPEL AS MOOT, DENYING REQUEST FOR ATTORNEY’S FEES, AND DENYING MOTION TO STRIKE - 1 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 15 16 17 18 19 compel was filed. Defendants agree that plaintiffs have now satisfied their discovery obligations with respect to the first set of discovery requests, but nevertheless seek an award of fees and costs under Rule 37(b)(2). Rule 37(b)(2) is clearly inapplicable: there was no “order to provide or permit discovery” with which plaintiffs failed to comply. In the absence of a prior court order, Rule 37(a)(5) governs a request for fees and costs. While an award may be appropriate under that subparagraph if the requested discovery is provided after a motion to compel is filed, fees and costs cannot be awarded if (i) the motion was filed without making a good faith attempt to obtain the disclosure without court involvement, (ii) the nondisclosure was substantially justified, and/or (iii) the circumstances make an award of expenses unjust. The Court in no way condones delaying full and complete discovery responses for more than three and a half months past the due date, but notes that the parties agreed to certain extensions of time and were in discussions regarding the dates of production throughout that period. While defendants’ frustration with plaintiffs’ inability to follow through on any of their commitments is evident and understandable, this motion to compel was filed only two weeks after plaintiffs failed to meet a deadline for supplementation that defendants had unilaterally set. In addition, counsel’s response to the motion to compel reveals that the relationship between her and her clients was already fraying at the time, further complicating efforts to supplement in a timely manner. See Dkt. # 75 at 4. 20 21 // 22 23 // 24 25 26 ORDER DENYING MOTION TO COMPEL AS MOOT, DENYING REQUEST FOR ATTORNEY’S FEES, AND DENYING MOTION TO STRIKE - 2 1 2 3 4 Having reviewed the submissions of the parties (including Ms. Nguyen’s assertions in Dkt. # 105 at 2), the Court finds that an award of fees and costs would be unjust in the circumstances presented here. Defendants’ motion to compel is denied as moot, their request for an award of fees and costs is denied, and the motion to strike is denied. 5 6 7 Dated this 24th day of October, 2024. 8 9 10 Robert S. Lasnik United States District Judge 11 12 13 14 15 16 17 18 19 20 21 22 23 24 25 26 ORDER DENYING MOTION TO COMPEL AS MOOT, DENYING REQUEST FOR ATTORNEY’S FEES, AND DENYING MOTION TO STRIKE - 3

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