Opinion ID: 544362
Heading Depth: 2
Heading Rank: 2

Heading: Nationwide Discovery

Text: 24 Plaintiffs claim they were hampered in their presentation of evidence by a pre-trial discovery ruling. The district court denied plaintiffs' motion to compel nationwide discovery about the identification of each person responsible for [Champion's] operation, the identification and function of each department, and the number and type of employees in each department and in the Company as a whole, by age for each year since January 1, 1980. The district court apparently found this request to be unduly burdensome on defendant. 6 25 [I]n the context of investigating an individual complaint the most natural focus is upon the source of the complained of discrimination--the employing unit or work unit. Marshall v. Westinghouse Elec. Corp., 576 F.2d 588, 592 (5th Cir.1978) (denial of division-wide discovery request which encompassed some 7,500 employees in thirty-two districts and three manufacturing plants); accord EEOC v. Packard Elec. Div., General Motors Corp., 569 F.2d 315, 318-19 (5th Cir.1978). While Champion's RIF was initiated at the national level, each plant was given considerable autonomy in drawing up its own RIF master plan. The decision to terminate Earley and Noe in the RIF--as opposed to other employees--was made at the local level. Where, as here, the employment decisions were made locally, discovery on intent may be limited to the employing unit. See, e.g., Mack v. Great Atlantic and Pacific Tea Co., Inc., 871 F.2d 179, 187 (1st Cir.1989). 26 Plaintiffs' motion in the district court to compel discovery was conclusory in its statement of reasons for much broader discovery; and the district court was--we think understandably--unpersuaded. A vague possibility that loose and sweeping discovery might turn up something suggesting that the structuring of the RIF was discriminatorily motivated does not show particularized need and likely relevance that would require moving discovery beyond the natural focus of the inquiry. Joslin Dry Goods Co. v. EEOC, 483 F.2d 178, 183-84 (10th Cir.1973). Denial of a motion to compel nationwide discovery will be reversed only if it constitutes an abuse of discretion, Donovan v. Mosher Steel Co., Div. of Trinity Indus., 791 F.2d 1535, 1537 (11th Cir.1986), and we cannot say the district court abused its discretion. 27 AFFIRMED.