IN THE UNITED STATES DISTRICT COURT

NORTHERN DISTRICT OF TEXAS

DALLAS DIVISION

SENIOR LIVING PROPERTIES LLC )

TRUST, )

Plaintiff, )

) Civil No. 3:04-CV-00816-G

V. )

)

CLAIR ODELL INSURANCE AGENCY )

LLC, et al., )

Defendants. )

ORDER

The Court has considered the parties' pleadings with respect to the pending motions. 

Senior Living Properties, LLC Trust (SLP Trust) filed a motion to compel on August 31,

2005, seeking an order requiring Defendant Clair Odell Insurance Agency, LLC d/b/a Clair

Odell Group and Mellon Insurance Agency, Inc. (collectively "COG") to fully respond

without objection to SLP Trust's discovery requests. SLP Trust claims that they served three

separate sets of written discovery upon COG, to which COG offered boilerplate and

frivolous objections.

The Court finds that documents should have been produced in response to the

original requests. The discovery pleadings and correspondence in question were sent to SLP

Trust by COG's predecessor counsel, whose disqualification Chief United States District

Judge Joe A. Fish ordered in May, 2005. COG's current counsel acknowledges that certain

objections and responses were incomplete when they were made and represents that he has

worked diligently to supplement the incomplete responses by providing responsive

documents to SLP Trust. 

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It is now less than one week before trial. The Court finds that COG has now

substantially complied with the discovery requests, or is in the process of complying, and

that its remaining objections to the discovery requests are sustained. For these reasons, SLP

Trust's Motion to Compel, filed August 31, 2005, is Denied. Nevertheless, the Court

admonishes COG to comply diligently with its continuing duty to supplement its discovery

answers. 

The Court will now consider SLP Trust's Motion for Expedited Consideration of its

Motion for Discovery Sanctions, as well as COG's Motion to Continue the Hearing. The

Court finds that the responses provided are sufficient for the Court to rule on the motion for

sanctions and that further delay would simply distract from trial preparation. Accordingly,

COG's Motion to Continue the Hearing, filed September 28, 2005, is Denied. SLP Trust's

Motion for Expedited Consideration of its Motion for Discovery Sanctions, filed September

14, 2005, is Granted.

The Court next addresses SLP Trust's Motion for Discovery Sanctions. As the Court

previously noted, COG's predecessor counsel did not produce documents that should have

been produced and not provide proper responses to the discovery requests. COG's thorough

compliance with the original requests for production would have yielded the additional

discovery. The Court finds, however, that COG did not act in bad faith. When the errors in

production were discovered, present counsel for COG substantially complied with the

discovery requests.

SLP Trust is entitled to reasonable costs and attorney fees incurred because of COG's

failure to produce the discovery when it was requested. However, SLP Trust's counsel

would have been required to review the documents regardless of when they were produced. 

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SLP Trust's counsel was required, however, to duplicate its efforts to determine what was

new discovery and what had been provided previously. Therefore, SLP Trust's Motion for

Sanctions, filed September 14, 2005, is Granted in Part and Denied in Part. The Court

orders COG to pay SLP Trust the travel costs for the two attorneys, as well as fifty percent

of the requested attorney fees for a total of $22,195.62. The Court denies SLP Trust's other

requests for sanctions. 

It is so ORDERED, September 29, 2005.

___________________________________

PAUL D. STICKNEY

UNITED STATES MAGISTRATE JUDGE

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