Opinion ID: 1464920
Heading Depth: 2
Heading Rank: 3

Heading: Entitlement to Discovery

Text: The last question is whether the district court should have allowed plaintiffs to engage in limited discovery before dismissing the 2007 complaints so that plaintiffs could attempt to identify jurisdiction-establishing functions or duties not immunized from suit under the discretionary function exception. The district court held that the fact-based discovery that Plaintiffs are anxious to obtain only comes into play once they identify the specific directive that [d]efendants have ignored. Such a directive will be in the public realm and therefore fact discovery will not assist them in meeting this crucial threshold requirement. Freeman, 2007 WL 1296206, at . We review the district court's evidentiary rulings for abuse of discretion. Andrade v. Chojnacki, 338 F.3d 448, 454 (5th Cir.2003); Williamson v. U.S. Dep't of Agric., 815 F.2d at 382 (It hardly bears repeating that control of discovery is committed to the sound discretion of the trial court and its discovery rulings will be reversed only where they are arbitrary or clearly unreasonable.); Mayo v. Tri-Bell Indus., Inc., 787 F.2d 1007, 1012 (5th Cir. 1986) (same). We find no abuse of discretion in this case. The party seeking discovery bears the burden of showing its necessity. See Sec. & Exch. Comm'n v. Spence & Green Chem. Co., 612 F.2d 896, 901 (5th Cir.1980) (holding that in the context of a summary judgment motion, the party seeking discovery must conclusively justify his entitlement ... by specifically demonstrating `how postponement of a ruling on the motion will enable him, by discovery or other means, to rebut the movant's showing' and may not simply rely on vague assertions that additional discovery will produce needed, but unspecified, facts (internal citations omitted)). The party seeking discovery typically meets this burden by alleging the specific facts crucial to immunity which demonstrate[] a need for discovery. Kelly v. Syria Shell Petroleum Dev. B.V., 213 F.3d 841, 852 (5th Cir.2000). On the other hand, a party is not entitled to jurisdictional discovery if the record shows that the requested discovery is not likely to produce the facts needed to withstand a Rule 12(b)(1) motion. See Williamson v. U.S. Dep't of Agric., 815 F.2d at 382. This is particularly true where the party seeking discovery is attempting to disprove the applicability of an immunity-derived bar to suit because immunity is intended to shield the defendant from the burdens of defending the suit, including the burdens of discovery. See Arriba Ltd. v. Petroleos Mexicanos, 962 F.2d 528, 534 (5th Cir.1992) (observing the tension between permitting discovery to substantiate exceptions to statutory foreign sovereign immunity and protecting a sovereign's or sovereign agency's legitimate claim to immunity from discovery); cf. Anderson v. Creighton, 483 U.S. 635, 646 n. 6, 107 S.Ct. 3034, 97 L.Ed.2d 523 (1987) (One of the purposes of the [ Harlow v. Fitzgerald, 457 U.S. 800, 817, 102 S.Ct. 2727, 73 L.Ed.2d 396 (1982),] qualified immunity standard is to protect public officials from the `broad-ranging discovery' that can be `peculiarly disruptive of effective government.'); Williamson v. U.S. Dep't of Agric., 815 F.2d at 382-83 (affirming stay of discovery where absolute and qualified immunity applied). Here, we find no fault in the district court's conclusion that a mandatory directive, if one existed, could be found in the public realm. Plaintiffs have not presented any argument addressing the district court's conclusion. While we need not decide whether the sources of a nondiscretionary federal directive, for the purposes of the discretionary function exception, will always be in the public domain, we conclude that in this case plaintiffs' allegations are based on statutes, regulations, and other authorities that are publicly available. [16] Despite the district court's holding, plaintiffs have failed to articulate a discrete discovery request that might cure the jurisdictional deficiency and have failed to otherwise specify where they might discover the necessary factual predicate for subject matter jurisdiction; thus, we have no choice but to affirm. See, e.g., Gager v. United States, 149 F.3d 918, 922 (9th Cir.1998) (affirming denial of discovery because plaintiffs have not specified in any way where such additional evidentiary material might be found); Arriba Ltd., 962 F.2d at 534 (permitting discovery only circumspectly and only to verify allegations of specific facts crucial to an immunity determination). Even if we assume that some relevant jurisdictional fact may not be available outside of discovery, plaintiffs have not made the requisite showing entitling them to such discovery. In their brief to this court, plaintiffs asseverate that discovery would reveal whether governmental mistakes were the result of an exercise of discretion or operational negligence, of delays in answering mission assignments, of nonchalance in pre-positioning supplies and personnel, of failing to provide adequate medical supplies, or of blockading the American Red Cross from evacuation points. This amorphous discovery requestwhich is at least more detailed than the general request asked of the district court to permit discovery to flesh out specifics of negligencefails to assert the existence of a particular federal regulation, order, or directive (or the potential contents of any such authority) that is not already known in this case and that falls outside of the discretionary function exception. Nor do plaintiffs suggest how discovery might lead to such a directive; thus, the district court did not abuse its discretion when it denied this broad request for discovery. See Mesa v. United States, 123 F.3d 1435, 1439 (11th Cir.1997) (holding that appellants failed to point[] to any requested discovery that could reasonably be expected to reveal conduct outside of the discretionary function exception); see also In re Orthopedic Bone Screw Prod. Liab. Litig., 264 F.3d 344, 365 (3d Cir.2001) (affirming stay of discovery pending dispositive motion where proposed discovery was for claims within the FTCA's discretionary function exception); Creek Nation Indian Hous. Auth. v. United States, 905 F.2d 312, 313 (10th Cir.1990) (affirming denial of discovery before plaintiff could ascertain a violation of a nondiscretionary duty where the plaintiff failed to identify any applicable nondiscretionary regulation); Miller v. United States, 710 F.2d 656, 666 (10th Cir.1983) (affirming denial of discovery where there are no facts which plaintiffs could arguably develop to escape the effect of the statutes and regulations, which were within the discretionary function exception). The district court's conclusion is particularly sound in light of the reasons for which the Stafford Act's discretionary function exception confers immunity from suit. Congress intended the discretionary function exception to shelter the government from the burdens of answering a lawsuitincluding those related to intrusive discoverynot just from potential monetary liability. See Rosas, 826 F.2d at 1008 ([T]he legislative history of the statute reveals that Congress was concerned not only about the possible costs of paying damages, but also the certain costs of defending suits arising from government relief.). Without a more discrete, tailored request, we find no abuse of discretion and will not subject the executive branch to discovery in a case over which the district court lacks jurisdiction. See Gaubert, 499 U.S. at 324-25, 111 S.Ct. 1267 (For a complaint to survive a motion to dismiss, it must allege facts which would support a finding that the challenged actions are not the kind of conduct that can be said to be grounded in the policy of the regulatory regime.).