Source: s3://data.kl3m.ai/documents/govinfo/USCOURTS/USCOURTS-caed-2_05-cv-01898/USCOURTS-caed-2_05-cv-01898-11/pdf.json

Nature of Suit Code: 550
Nature of Suit: Prisoner - Civil Rights (U.S. defendant)
Cause of Action: 42:1983 Prisoner Civil Rights

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IN THE UNITED STATES DISTRICT COURT

FOR THE EASTERN DISTRICT OF CALIFORNIA

CHARLES T. DAVIS,

Plaintiff, No. 2:05-cv-1898 JAM EFB P

vs.

D.L. RUNNELS, et al.,

Defendants. ORDER

 /

Plaintiff is a state prisoner proceeding without counsel in an action brought under 42

U.S.C. § 1983. He proceeds on the retaliation claims asserted in his second amended complaint

against defendants Amero, Hougland, Von Rader, Miranda, Runnels, and Simmorson. See Dckt.

Nos. 16, 71, 77.

Defendants filed a motion for summary judgment on December 21, 2012. Dckt. No. 82.

Thereafter, on January 14, 2013, plaintiff filed a motion to compel defendants to respond to

discovery requests that he served on November 15, 2012. Dckt. No. 83. On the same day,

plaintiff also moved, pursuant to Rule 56(d) of the Federal Rules of Civil Procedure, to postpone

consideration of defendants’ motion for summary judgment pending discovery. See Dckt. No.

84 (referencing former Rule 56(f), amended in 2010). Thereafter, plaintiff filed a motion to

compel the production of the “complete deposition transcript for summary judgment.” Dckt. No.

88. For the reasons stated below, plaintiff’s motions are denied.

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I. Motion to Compel (Dckt. No. 83)

The court’s October 19, 2011 discovery and scheduling order required that written

discovery requests be served by December 2, 2011, and that all discovery be completed by

February 3, 2012. Dckt. No. 39. Absent an extension of the discovery cutoff, plaintiff’s January

14, 2013, motion to compel is untimely. However, the procedural history regarding plaintiff’s

original discovery request is muddled.

Just prior to the expiration of the deadline for completion of all discovery, while

defendants’ motion to dismiss was pending, plaintiff filed a motion to compel on January 25,

2012. Dckt. No. 52. Thereafter, the undersigned issued findings and recommendations on the

motion to dismiss, which had the potential to significantly reduce the number of claims and

defendants in this action and to allow plaintiff leave to amend his complaint. Accordingly, the

court denied the motion to compel without prejudice.1 That order also cautioned plaintiff that if

he amended his complaint and resubmitted the motion to compel, he must revise it so that it is

clear as to which defendants and which claims his requests pertained. See Dckt. No. 75 (Sept.

25, 2012 Order explaining that if plaintiff filed another motion to compel, “ it must be tailored to

the claims and defendants in the operative complaint,” and warning plaintiff that the court would

not “compel defendants to respond to discovery requests that are overbroad and burdensome,

that require the creation of ‘statistical data,’ or that do not appear reasonably calculated to lead to

the discovery of admissible evidence”). Plaintiff did not do so.

After the findings and recommendations were adopted, and the deadlines to amend his

complaint and for completion of discovery (including discovery motions) had passed, plaintiff

served new and different discovery requests and filed the instant motion to compel. Dckt. No.

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 The August 22, 2012 findings and recommendations addressed defendants’ motion to

dismiss plaintiff’s second amended complaint, and recommended that certain claims and

defendants be dismissed with leave to amend. Dckt. No. 71. In response, plaintiff filed

objections indicating that he would not amend his complaint. See Dckt. No. 72 (Pl.’s Sept. 4,

2012 objections, dated Aug. 31, 2012); see also Dckt. No. 76 at 5 (stating he “would stand upon

[his] pleadings alleged in the complaint & would not amend it”). 

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83. While the September 25, 2012 order was entered after the discovery cutoff date, contrary to

plaintiff’s belief that order did not authorize plaintiff to propound new discovery requests in this

action. To the extent that it served as a “de facto” modification of the discovery deadline, as

plaintiff suggests, it merely allowed plaintiff to revise and resubmit the earlier motion to compel

that had been denied without prejudice. Thus, the denial without prejudice preserved for

plaintiff a further opportunity to seek an order to compel responses to his original discovery

requests that were served prior to the cutoff of discovery. See Dckt. No. 75. Rather than

revising and resubmitting that earlier filed motion to compel as authorized, plaintiff served a new

discovery request consisting of an additional 24 requests for production, which were not

authorized, and then moved to compel responses to those untimely requests. Plaintiff has not

sought a further extension of the discovery cutoff to permit those requests and the new motion

directed at them must be denied as untimely.

Even if his filings are construed as a request to modify the discovery deadline, he has not

satisfied the standards for doing so and the request must be denied. A scheduling order may be

modified upon a showing of good cause. Fed. R. Civ. P. 16(b). Good cause exists when the

moving party demonstrates he cannot meet the deadline despite exercising due diligence. 

Johnson v. Mammoth Recreations, Inc., 975 F.2d 604, 609 (9th Cir. 1992). Here, plaintiff

cannot demonstrate the requisite good cause.

The deadline for completing discovery was February 3, 2012. Plaintiff’s additional 24

requests for production appear to place more focus on the claims that survived defendants’

motion to dismiss. See Dckt. No. 83, Attach. 1. However, the narrowing of plaintiff’s claims

following resolution of defendants’ motion to dismiss does not entitle plaintiff to a second shot

at discovery. Even if plaintiff believes that further discovery is warranted, he has not articulated

a good reason why he did not earlier pursue that discovery. Plaintiff should have known how his

claims in this action would be narrowed as early as October 1, 2012, when he adamantly

informed the court that he had no intention of amending the claims that the undersigned had

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recommended be dismissed. See Dckt. No. 76. Yet plaintiff allowed six weeks to pass before

taking any action to engage in further discovery. See Dckt. No. 83, Attach. 1 (Pl.’s Nov. 15,

2012 requests for production). Although defendants informed plaintiff that his discovery

requests were untimely as early as November 21, 2012, plaintiff waited until January 10, 2013 –

the day before his opposition to defendants’ summary judgment was due – to mail his request for

a Rule 56(d) continuance and to compel responses to his untimely discovery. See Dckt. No. 83,

Attach. 2; Dckt. Nos. 83, 84. More to the point, plaintiff has not shown why he did not pursue

this discovery within the time permitted to do so under the scheduling order. The new requests

do not pertain to new claims. Rather, they address claims asserted in the original complaint as

plaintiff declined the opportunity to amend. He has not otherwise explained why he did not

serve these new requests during the time he was to have done so under the scheduling order.

On this record, there is simply no good cause to support modification of the discovery

deadline.

II. Rule 56(d) Request (Dckt. No. 84)

After defendants moved for summary judgment, plaintiff filed a request to defer ruling on

the summary judgment motion pending further discovery pursuant to Rule 56(d) of the Federal

Rules of Civil Procedure. Dckt. No. 84. Rule 56(d) permits a party opposing a motion for

summary judgment to request an order deferring the time to respond to the motion and

permitting that party to conduct additional discovery upon an adequate factual showing. See

Fed. R. Civ. P. 56(d) (requiring party making such request to show “by affidavit or declaration

that, for specified reasons, it cannot present facts essential to justify its opposition.”). A Rule

56(d) affidavit must identify “the specific facts that further discovery would reveal, and explain

why those facts would preclude summary judgment.” Tatum v. City and County of San

Francisco, 441 F.3d 1090, 1100 (9th Cir. 2006). A Rule 56(d) affidavit must also identify “some

basis for believing that the information sought actually exists.” Blough v. Holland Realty, Inc.,

574 F.3d 1084, 1091 n.5 (9th Cir. 2009).

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Plaintiff fails to make the showing required under Rule 56(d). Rather, he makes a

general assertion that defendants’ allegedly retaliatory conduct “was the product of an ongoing

custom, policy, and practice.” Dckt. No. 84 at 7, 9. Plaintiff fails to clearly identify what

specific discovery he is seeking on this basis, what particular facts are expected to be disclosed

from that discovery and how they relate to the pending motion for summary judgment. 

Moreover, plaintiff fails to demonstrate that whatever information he seeks actually exists, and

that it would prevent summary judgment. While plaintiff lists various types of evidence that

may be discoverable under the Federal Rules of Civil Procedure, see id. at 4, general and

conclusory statements of the law do not assist plaintiff in demonstrating that he is entitled to

further discovery pursuant to Rule 56(d) prior to consideration of the summary judgment motion.

Next, plaintiff refers to his first motion to compel (Dckt. No. 52), arguing that defendants

failed to provide a single substantive response. Id. at 6. The court previously addressed and

denied this motion to compel without prejudice, instructing plaintiff that if he chose to re-file a

motion to compel, “it must be tailored to the claims and defendants in the operative complaint

and explain why defendants’ responses to his discovery requests are inadequate.” Dckt. No. 75. 

As noted, plaintiff failed to comply with these instructions. The court will not revisit that motion

to compel through the instant Rule 56(d) request.

Lastly, plaintiff relies on his concurrently filed motion to compel as support for his Rule

56(d) request. Dckt. No. 84 at 1-2. That motion, as just discussed, has been denied, and does

not lend support to plaintiff’s Rule 56(d) request. Accordingly, plaintiff’s motion is denied. 

III. Motion to Compel Production of “Complete Deposition Transcript” (Dckt. No. 88)

Plaintiff also requests a copy of his deposition transcript, arguing that his testimony

“cannot be fairly read in context based upon the defendants’ limited excepts” in their summary

judgment motion. As a threshold matter, there is nothing inappropriate about the defendants’

reliance on “limited excerpts” from plaintiff’s deposition transcript. The court notes, however,

that in accordance with the requirements of Local Rul 133(j), defendants submitted to the court a

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courtesy copy of the entire deposition transcript. Because that transcript has been submitted to

the court, defendants are required by Local Rule 135(d) to serve a copy of it on plaintiff. 

Accordingly, defendants shall serve plaintiff with a copy of the transcript. Local Rule 135(d)

Service Upon All Parties (“copies of all documents submitted to the Court shall be served upon

all parties to the action”).

IV. Order

Accordingly, IT IS HEREBY ORDERED that:

1. Plaintiff’s motion to compel (Dckt. No. 83) is denied. 

2. Plaintiff’s motion for a Rule 56(d) continuance (Dckt. No. 84) is denied.

3. Plaintiff’s motion to compel production of the deposition transcript (Dckt. No. 88) is

granted.

4. Plaintiff’s response to defendants’ December 21, 2012 motion for summary judgment

is long overdue. See E.D. Cal. Local Rule 230(l). Within 30 days of the date of this order,

plaintiff shall file either an opposition to the motion or a statement of no opposition. Failure to

comply with this order may result in a recommendation that this action be dismissed. See E.D.

Cal. Local Rule 110.

Dated: May 13, 2013.

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