IN THE UNITED STATES DISTRICT COURT

FOR THE NORTHERN DISTRICT OF TEXAS

FORT WORTH DIVISION

ROBERT (BOB) ROSS,

 Plaintiff/Counterclaim Defendant,

v.

ASSOCIATION OF PROFESSIONAL 

FLIGHT ATTENDANTS, et al., 

 Defendants/Counterclaim Plaintiff.

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 Civil Action No. 4:22-cv-343-Y

 Judge Terry R. Means

 (Relates to Motion Referred to

 Magistrate Judge Cureton)

RESPONSE OF APFA DEFENDANTS IN OPPOSITION

TO PLAINTIFF’S SECOND MOTION

TO COMPEL PRODUCTION OF DOCUMENTS

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TABLE OF CONTENTS

FACTUAL AND PROCEDURAL BACKGROUND ....................................................................2

ARGUMENT...................................................................................................................................6

A. The APFA’s Document Production Is Appropriate.............................................................6

B. Requests 4(g), 8 and 9 Are Objectionable in toto................................................................8

C. The Document Production Was In The Proper Format .....................................................10

CONCLUSION..............................................................................................................................10

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TABLE OF AUTHORITIES

Cases Page(s)

Arcuri v. Trump Taj Mahal Assocs.,

154 F.R.D. 97 (D.N.J. 1994)......................................................................................................7

MetroPCS v. Thomas,

327 F.R.D. 600 (N.D. Tex. 2018)........................................................................................9, 10

Samsung Electronics America, Inc. v. Chung,

325 F.R.D. 578 (N.D. Tex. 2017)......................................................................................2, 6, 8

Upjohn Co. v. U.S.,

449 U.S. 383 (1981)...................................................................................................................7

Vargas v. APFA,

No. 4:22cv403-Y (N.D. Tex.)....................................................................................................3

Case 4:22-cv-00343-Y Document 160 Filed 11/17/23 Page 3 of 15 PageID 3148
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IN THE UNITED STATES DISTRICT COURT

FOR THE NORTHERN DISTRICT OF TEXAS

FORT WORTH DIVISION

ROBERT (BOB) ROSS,

 Plaintiff/Counterclaim Defendant,

v.

ASSOCIATION OF PROFESSIONAL 

FLIGHT ATTENDANTS, et al., 

 Defendants/Counterclaim Plaintiff.

§

§

§

§

§

§

§

§

§

§

§

 Civil Action No. 4:22-cv-343-Y

 Judge Terry R. Means

 (Relates to Motion Referred to

 Magistrate Judge Cureton)

RESPONSE OF APFA DEFENDANTS IN OPPOSITION

TO PLAINTIFF’S SECOND MOTION

TO COMPEL PRODUCTION OF DOCUMENTS

Defendants the Association of Professional Flight Attendants (“APFA”), its President, 

Julie Hedrick, and its Treasurer, Erik Harris (collectively herein, “the APFA Defendants”) hereby 

oppose Plaintiff’s Second Motion to Compel Production of Document, Doc. 140.

As set forth below, Plaintiff served sweeping Requests for Production on the APFA 

Defendants in August 2023. The APFA Defendants responded in writing and have produced 

upwards of 6000 pages of responsive documents. Plaintiff’s complaints regarding the scope of 

the production are inaccurate, and his bald assertions that the few Requests for which no 

responsive documents have been produced are appropriate under the Federal Rules are

unconvincing and incorrect as a matter of law. Plaintiff has not met his burden for obtaining the 

relief requested. The APFA Defendants have complied with their obligations under the Federal 

Rules, and this motion should be denied.

Case 4:22-cv-00343-Y Document 160 Filed 11/17/23 Page 4 of 15 PageID 3149
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FACTUAL AND PROCEDURAL BACKGROUND

As explained more fully in the APFA Defendants’ Opposition to Plaintiff’s prior motion

to compel, Doc. 153, this case arises out of an internal union arbitration which addressed charges 

of financial misconduct by Plaintiff Robert (“Bob”) Ross during his term as National President 

of the APFA, resulting in a final and binding determination that Mr. Ross had received funds 

which he was not authorized to have under the APFA Constitution and APFA Policy Manual, and 

which he has not paid back to the Union. This lawsuit is Mr. Ross’s effort to avoid his 

responsibility under that arbitration award. APFA, in its counterclaim, seeks to hold Mr. Ross 

responsible for his breach of fiduciary duty under federal law.

On August 13, 2023, Plaintiff served the APFA Defendants with fifteen Requests for 

Production, some with multiple subparts. Pl.’s Appx. 51-56. The Requests generally sought “all 

documents and communications of any kind” on a wide variety of subjects; some were expressly 

or impliedly limited in time to the period April 1, 2020, to the present (numbers 1, 3, 4, 5, 7, 8, 9, 

10, 13, 14), while others contained no such express or implied limitation on time (6, 11, 12, 15, 

16). While his Motion and Proposed Order lists all of the Requests as if they were at issue here, 

Plaintiff’s Brief addresses only ten of these requests by number (1, 3, 4, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10, 11 and 

14), see Pl.’s Br. Supp. 2d Mot. Compel, Doc. 141, at pages 10, 11, 12, 13, 14. Plaintiff is 

obligated to “specifically and individually identify each discovery request in dispute and 

specifically, as to each request, identify the nature and basis of the dispute ... and must include a 

concise discussion of the facts and authority that support the motion as to each discovery request 

in dispute.” Samsung Electronics America, Inc. v. Chung, 325 F.R.D. 578, 594 (N.D. Tex. 2017) 

(citation and internal quotation marks omitted). Accordingly, the Defendants address only the

ten particular Requests which Plaintiff discusses in his brief. See Doc. 141 at 14 (concluding that 

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the Court should “compel Defendants to produce documentation responsive of ... Requests for 

Production No. 1, 3, 4, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10, 11 and 14”).

Without repeating the full text of each Request herein, most of them sought “documents 

or communications” among various people on these particular subjects:

• The “Transition Agreement” between Ross and APFA’s Board of Directors, 

governing his early departure from office in the face of a recall petition in 

2018. (RFP 1, 3 and 4);

• A hypothetical merger between APFA and another union, the Association of 

Flight Attendants (“AFA”) (RFP 6);

• The Article VII Arbitration of Eugenio Vargas, who is Plaintiff in the related

case of Vargas v. APFA, No. 4:22cv403-Y (N.D. Tex.) (RFP 7);

• An APFA Executive Committee meeting on December 1, 2020 (RFP 10); and

• The effort to collect a debt from Mr. Ross through a collection agency. (RFP 

14).

In addition, Plaintiff sought all communications between APFA and Ruben Armendariz, 

who served as the Article VII Arbitrator in both the Ross and Vargas cases, but without limiting 

the communications to those particular two cases (RFP 11), as well as communications relating 

to other Article VII Arbitrations involving APFA members who are not parties to this or the 

Vargas lawsuits: Nena Martin, Melissa Chinery-Burns and Sandra Lee (RFP 8, 9).

Finally, in Request 4, Plaintiff made a sweeping request for

All documents and communications of any kind between the National Officers, 

[Base President] John Nikitas, [APFA Member] Melissas Chinery-Burns, and 

[outside counsel] William Osborne since April 1, 2020, discussing any of the 

following:

a. The Ross Administration;

b. Article VII of the APFA Constitution;

c. The Ross Transition Agreement; 

d. Hal O’Neil’s accounting review of the Ross Transition Agreement;

e. The Confidential Memo;

f. The Overpayment of Wages Letter; and

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g. The American Airlines December 13, 2014, Collective Bargaining

Agreement.

1

To identify potentially responsive documents, the APFA searched its paper and electronic 

files through a variety of mechanisms, including searching emails of relevant individuals and 

archived material, and obtaining documents directly from union representatives. The APFA 

Defendants served written responses, and nearly 5000 pages of responsive documents on 

September 13, 2023. See Pl.’s Appx. 54-59; Defs.’ Appx. 1-3 (Matts Declaration) and 5 (9/13/23 

transmittal email). 

While objecting to aspects of Requests 1, 3, 6, 7, 10 and 11, Defendants served 

documents responsive to those Requests which were relevant to this case, not privileged and 

which could be reasonably identified. 

Defendants objected to, and initially did not identify responsive documents in its 

production regarding the sweeping Request 4, on the ground that it failed to describe with 

reasonable particularity the item or category of items to be produced, sought irrelevant 

information, and was overly burdensome. In addition, Plaintiff’s requests for communications 

with outside counsel Mr. Osborne sought privileged information. 

Defendants also objected to Requests 8 and 9, and did not produce responsive documents 

thereto, because they sought communications involving Article VII Arbitrations involving nonparties Nena Martin, Melissa Chinery-Burns and Sandra Lee, which have nothing to do with this 

case. Pl.’s Appx. 53-4. The APFA Defendants objected that these requests sought information 

1 With respect to Request 4(g), APFA is the certified collective bargaining representative for the 

American Airlines Flight Attendants, with the responsibility to negotiate and enforce its 

collective bargaining agreement with American. APFA is currently in negotiations with 

American Airlines regarding amendments to the current collective bargaining agreement, see 

https://www.apfa.org/negotiations-status/ , and the present lawsuit does not involve any aspect of 

the collective bargaining agreement.

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that was not relevant to any party’s claim or defense, is not proportional to the needs of the case, 

and is overly burdensome. Id.

Defendants then supplemented their production on multiple occasions, as they identified

additional responsive documents. Between October 12 and October 21, 2023, Defendants 

produced an additional 1885 pages of documents, largely involving email communications on 

various topics from Plaintiff’s Requests for Production. Defendants also provided Plaintiff’s 

counsel with a privilege log (which they will supplement as appropriate). Defs.’ Appx. 12

(production and privilege log transmittal emails). This supplemental production included 

communications responsive to portions of Request 4. In response to Plaintiff’s conferral 

requests, the APFA searched for and produced documents responsive to those portions of 

Request Number 4 which bore on the issues before the Court – communications among the 

identified parties regarding the Article VII charges and Awards against Mr. Ross and Mr. Vargas, 

the Transition Agreement, overpayments to Ross, and efforts to collect. Additional responsive 

documents were produced in the supplemental productions. APFA maintains its objection to 

requests for all communications regarding “The Ross Administration” more generally; Article 

VII of the APFA Constitution more generally; and the Union’s collective bargaining agreement 

with American Airlines.

In accordance with its obligations under the Federal Rules, APFA continues to search for 

responsive documents and will produce them as they are identified.

Plaintiff has now moved to compel, and, without addressing the terms of any particular 

Request, or the responses provided, broadly asserts that all the requested documents are relevant, 

Doc. 141 at 10, 13. Plaintiff contends generally (and incorrectly) that “Defendants failed to 

provide responses to Plaintiffs’ discovery requests”, Doc. 141 at 1, that “only a limited number 

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of documents were produced in response to RFP 1, 3, 7, 10, 11 and 14”, and that “virtually no 

email exchanges or communications of any kind were produced” at all. Id. at 7. 

Plaintiff’s Brief concludes with a request to compel production of “documentation

responsive of [sic] Requests for Production No. 1, 3, 4, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10, 11 and 14.” Doc. 141 at 

14. His Proposed Order, however, would compel production of all fifteen Requests, including 

the five which are not mentioned in his Brief. In addition, while the Requests for Production did 

not specify a format for production of electronically stored documents, Plaintiff seeks production 

in “original .PST format.” Pl.’s Proposed Order.

ARGUMENT

Plaintiff has failed to meet his burden of establishing either that the APFA Defendants’

responsive production is in any way deficient or that the Requests for Production for which no 

documents were produced seek information that is relevant to the action or will lead to the 

discovery of admissible evidence. See Samsung Electronics America, Inc. v. Chung, 325 F.R.D. 

at 594. His motion should be denied. 

A. The APFA’s Document Production Is Appropriate. 

The APFA searched for and produced non-privileged documents responsive to Requests 

1, 3, 7, 10, 11. See Pl.’s Appx. 31-32; Defs.’ Appx. 5 (9/13/23 transmittal email). APFA objected

to the production of privileged documents and produced a privilege log. Defs.’ Appx. 12

(privilege log email).2

2 Plaintiff has not addressed the privilege log which was provided, but does make a broad and

unsupported assertion that the APFA and its in-house counsel do not have an attorney-client 

privilege vis-à-vis members of the APFA. That view is mistaken. See Upjohn Co. v. U.S., 449 

U.S. 383, 395 (1981) (organizational attorney-client privilege applies to communications made 

by employees to corporate counsel for the purpose of counsel rendering legal advice to the 

corporation); Arcuri v. Trump Taj Mahal Assocs., 154 F.R.D. 97, 109 (D.N.J. 1994) (rejecting 

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The APFA Defendants agreed to search for and produce documents responsive to Request

Number 6, which sought communications “discussing a merger between APFA and AFA,” but 

limited the period of time to the tenure of the current National Officers, and found no responsive 

documents to produce.3 

The APFA has also searched for and produced documents responsive to subparts (b), (c), 

(d), (e) and (f) of Request 4, as well as subpart (a) insofar as it pertains to Mr. Ross or Mr. Vargas 

and the issues in this case. For all these Requests, APFA has been and is conducting additional 

review to comply with its obligation to supplement production.

Plaintiff’s response to the production of thousands of pages of responsive documents is to 

complain that they are “only a limited number of documents”, and to contend that “virtually no 

email exchanges or communications of any kind were produced”, and that “Notably missing ... 

are any emails from the National Officers, Julie Hedrick, Josh Black, Larry Salas, and Erik 

Harris,.” Doc. 141 at 7. These sweeping statements are demonstrably incorrect. The thousands 

of pages of documents produced contain hundreds of pages of emails specifically responsive to 

Plaintiff’s requests from and among all of those individuals, many of which, for illustrative 

purposes, we identify by bates-number in the Defendants’Appendix hereto (and can produce for 

in camera review). See Defs.’ Appx. 14-16.4

attempt by union members to pierce attorney-client privilege between union officers and

counsel).

3 Plaintiff theorizes that he was subjected to Article VII charges by two rank and file members, 

and found by an independent Arbitrator to have engaged in financial malfeasance in office, 

because he opposed the possibility of such a merger. But neither he nor APFA has any evidence 

to support that theory. 

4 A list of the emails produced in the extant discovery, by bates-number, indicating those which 

involve the National Officers (who Plaintiff asserts are not in any produced email) is provided at 

Defendants’’ Appendix 14-16. 

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B. Requests 4(g), 8 and 9 Are Objectionable in toto.

With respect to the remainder of Request 4 and to Requests 8 and 9, for which no 

documents have been produced, Plaintiff had the initial obligation in his Requests to seek only 

“matter that is relevant to any party’s claim or defense and proportional to the needs of the case,” 

and “to describe with reasonable particularity each ... category of items to be inspected,” Fed. 

R. Civ. P. 26(b)(1) and 34(b)(1)(A). Plaintiff also has the burden, on this motion, “to specifically, 

as to each request, identify the nature and basis of the dispute ... and ... include a concise 

discussion of the facts and authority that support the motion as to each discovery request in 

dispute,” Samsung Electronics America, Inc. v. Chung, 325 F.R.D. at 594.

Plaintiff did not meet his obligations in either these Requests or in his motion. The 

information sought was not described with reasonable particularity, and as drafted is not relevant, 

not likely to lead to admissible evidence, and compliance with these Requests would impose an 

undue burden on the APFA Defendants. Plaintiff has never explained why materials from 

unrelated arbitrations involving non-parties have any bearing on this case and are appropriate 

subjects for discovery.

Request 4 has seven subparts. As described above, APFA in its supplemental production 

produced responsive documents regarding subparts (b), (c), (d), (e) and (f) of Request 4, as well 

as subpart (a) insofar as it pertains to Mr. Ross or Mr. Vargas and the issues in this case. That 

subpart sought, in addition, all communications regarding “the Ross Administration,” which he 

defined as “Robert ‘Bob’ Ross, Nena Martin, Eugenio Vargas, or Marcy Dunaway,” Pl.’s Appx. 

Plaintiff complains that there are no communications with Joe Burns in these emails. Mr. 

Burns is an attorney retained by APFA solely for the limited function of assisting with ongoing 

collective bargaining negotiations with American Airlines, and the fact that none of the 

responsive emails relating to internal APFA discipline were with Mr. Burns should not be 

surprising. 

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28. Communications regarding Mr. Ross and Mr. Vargas, and which pertain to the issues in this 

case, have been produced. But the demand to produce communications regarding Ross or Vargas 

more generally as well as non-parties Martin and Dunaway, without any reference to the issues 

before the Court in this case, is plainly inappropriate. See MetroPCS v. Thomas, 327 F.R.D. 600, 

610 (N.D. Tex. 2018) (discovery requests are “facially overbroad where [they] ... seek all 

documents concerning the parties to [the underlying]] action, regardless of whether those 

documents relate to that action and regardless of date; [t]he requests are not particularized; and 

[t]he period covered by the requests is unlimited.”). With particular respect to communications

regarding Ms. Martin and Ms. Dunaway, Plaintiff has not demonstrated the relevance of any such 

communications, much less all of them (which is what he seeks); nor has he accounted for the 

burden it would impose on those individuals to have information regarding them disclosed in 

unrelated litigation. 

Subpart (g) of Request 4 seeks communications among specified people regarding the

“American Airlines December 13, 2014, Collective Bargaining Agreement.” This case does not 

involve that Collective Bargaining Agreement, and Plaintiff does not even attempt to explain 

how any such documents would bear on this matter. Moreover, given that APFA’s primary 

function as the collective bargaining representative is to negotiate and enforce its collective 

bargaining agreement on behalf of over 26,000 Flight Attendants, a request for all 

communications regarding that agreement is patently overly broad and unduly burdensome in 

any context, see MetroPCS, 327 F.R.D at 610, and would likely interfere with the APFA’s 

ongoing contract negotiations with American.

Requests 8 and 9 seek communications involving Article VII Arbitrations involving nonparties Nena Martin, Melissa Chinery-Burns and Sandra Lee. Pl.’s Appx. 53-4. The APFA 

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Defendants objected that these requests sought information that is not relevant to any party’s 

claim or defense, is not proportional to the needs of the case, and is overly burdensome. As with

Request 4(a), Plaintiff has not met his burden of making reasonably particular requests, nor has 

he demonstrated the possible relevance of such documents, nor indicated how such document

might lead to the discovery of admissible evidence. The request would unfairly disclose personal 

information regarding non-parties with no offsetting value to the resolution of this litigation.

C. The Document Production Was In The Proper Format. 

Finally, Plaintiff’s brief contains a lengthy exposition regrading tools which a party might 

use to search for and recover emails using Microsoft Outlook, Doc. 141 at 6-7, and he asks in his 

Proposed Order for a directive that APFA produce documents in “.PST format.” But his 

Requests for Production did not seek documents in any particular format. See Pl.’s Appx. 24, and 

the APFA should not be made to incur the time or expense of producing the same documents in 

more than one format. See Fed. R. Civ. P. 34(b)(2)(E)(iii) (“A party need not produce the same 

electronically stored information in more than one form.”). Indeed, Plaintiff’s counsel only 

requested any documents in .PST format on October 21, 2023, and then only in connection with 

APFA’s response to a Request for Production by Mr. Vargas in the related case. See Pl.’s Appx. 

114 (Doc. 142-2 at 17). Plaintiff’s new demand in his brief for a wholesale second production in 

a different format, which he had not previously requested, and for which he has never articulated

a rationale, would do nothing more than impose undue costs on APFA.

CONCLUSION

For the foregoing reasons, the APFA Defendants respectfully request that Plaintiff’s 

motion should be denied.

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Dated: November 17 , 2023 Respectfully submitted, 

 /s/ James D. Sanford

JAMES D. SANFORD

Tex. Bar No. 24051289

Gillespie Sanford LLP

4803 Gaston Ave.

Dallas, TX 75246

Tel.: (214) 800-5111; Fax.: (214) 838-0001

Email: jim@gillespiesanford.com

JEFFREY A. BARTOS (pro hac vice)

D.C. Bar No. 435832

Guerrieri, Bartos & Roma, PC

1900 M Street, N.W. Suite 700

Washington, DC 20036

Tel.: (202) 624-7400; Fax: (202) 624-7420

Email: jbartos@geclaw.com

Counsel for the Association of Professional Flight 

Attendants, Julie Hedrick and Erik Harris

CHARLETTE L. MATTS (pro hac vice)

Tex. Bar No. 24133870

Association of Professional Flight Attendants

1004 W. Euless Blvd.

Euless, TX 76040

Tel.: (682) 301-8454

Email: Cmatts@apfa.org

Counsel for Defendant and Counterclaim Plaintiff 

Association of Professional Flight Attendants

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CERTIFICATE OF SERVICE

I certify that on November 17 , 2023, a true and correct copy of the foregoing document

was served upon all persons who have requested notice and service of pleadings in this case via 

the Court’s ECF system. 

KERRI PHILLIPS

K.D. Phillips Law Firm, PLLC 

6010 W. Spring Creek Parkway 

Plano, TX 75024

Phone: (972) 327-5800

Fax: (940) 400-0089

Email: kerri@KDphillipslaw.com

MICHAEL R RAKE

Michael R. Rake, Attorney at Law PO Box 1556

Lake Dallas, TX 75065 

Tel.: (940) 498-2103

Fax: (940) 498-2103

Email: mrake1@mrakeattorney.com

 

/s/ James D. Sanford

JAMES D. SANFORD

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