Opinion ID: 702347
Heading Depth: 2
Heading Rank: 2

Heading: Excessive Burden of Compliance

Text: 21 Quad/Graphics also contends that the subpoena should not be enforced because it is excessively burdensome. Quad/Graphics argues, based upon an employee affidavit, that it will require over 200,000 employee-hours to comply with the EEOC subpoena. Although it terms this estimate conservative, it contends that compliance would be unduly burdensome even if the time estimate was drastically reduced. The company also focuses our attention on the EEOC's tenth information request, which seeks, in pertinent part, the reason Quad/Graphics has rejected each of the 36,188 job applicants that it has refused to hire since January 1, 1991. It claims that it has not recorded why each of these applicants was rejected, and avers that unearthing this data would be a monumental task. 22 Reminding us that the charge before the Commission is one of systemic discrimination, the EEOC submits that Quad/Graphics has not met its burden of showing that compliance with the subpoena will be unduly burdensome. It argues that Quad/Graphics' time estimates are grossly exaggerated. Finally, it states that Quad/Graphics will be required to generate only that information that exists in company documents or the minds of its employees. 23 To establish that the EEOC's subpoena is excessively burdensome, Quad/Graphics must show that compliance would threaten the normal operation of its business. EEOC v. Bay Shipbuilding Corp., 668 F.2d 304, 313 (7th Cir.1981). Quad/Graphics attempts to meet this burden by relying upon the affidavit of Mary Protz, the employee who would have primary responsibility for researching and compiling the information sought by the subpoena. Ms. Protz estimated that compliance would require 203,994 hours. Although Quad/Graphics has done more than simply assert that compliance would be burdensome, 5 we cannot say that the district court abused its discretion in rejecting Quad/Graphics' claim--a claim upon which Quad/Graphics had the burden of proof. 6 Ms. Protz's affidavit establishes on its face that its estimates are inflated. For example, Ms. Protz based her estimate that it would require over 180,000 hours to comply with the EEOC's tenth information request, in part, on her assumption that Quad/Graphics would be required to interview[ ] each unsuccessful applicant. See R.8 at 8. However, as the Commission acknowledged at oral argument, it is without authority to compel Quad/Graphics to obtain information that the company does not control. Cf. Bay Shipbuilding Corp., 668 F.2d at 313 (If a respondent lacks the information necessary to respond to part of a subpoena, of course it would be excused pro tanto.). Ms. Protz's estimates with respect to additional questions, as the district court emphasized in greater detail, were similarly exaggerated. See 868 F.Supp. at 1084. Finally, we note that the EEOC offered to mitigate the task of compliance by accepting a random sample of applications in response to its tenth information request, which seeks the reason Quad/Graphics has rejected each job applicant the company has turned down since 1991. Cf. EEOC v. Ford Motor Credit Co., 26 F.3d 44, 47 (6th Cir.1994) (limiting time period subject to subpoena from twelve and one-half to just over three years because information sought at beginning of period was of tenuous relevance to individual's claim of discrimination and full compliance would be costly and time consuming). We note that Ms. Protz estimated, without accounting for the EEOC's offer of random sampling, that almost ninety percent of the hours Quad/Graphics would require to comply with the subpoena related to compliance with this question. Accordingly, Quad/Graphics has failed to meet its burden of establishing that compliance with the EEOC subpoena would threaten its normal business operations.