Opinion ID: 1379151
Heading Depth: 3
Heading Rank: 4

Heading: Did the Superior Court Abuse Its Discretion in Granting the GALs' and the Social Workers' Motions to Stay Discovery and in Denying Karen's Motion to Compel?

Text: Karen argues that the trial court erred in rendering three discovery rulings: (1) granting the GALs' motion to stay discovery pending resolution of their motion for summary judgment; (2) granting the individual social workers' motion to stay discovery pending resolution of their motion for summary judgment; and (3) denying Karen's motion to compel production. She contends that the stay unjustly crippled [her] ability to oppose summary judgment. [12] The State correctly argues that [t]he purpose of official immunity is to shield government officials from the distractions of litigation arising from the performance of their official duties. Official immunity shelters government officials not just from liability, but from suit, including pre-trial discovery. Mitchell v. Forsyth, 472 U.S. 511, 526, 105 S.Ct. 2806, 2815, 86 L.Ed.2d 411 (1985); see also Martin v. D.C. Metro. Police Dep't, 812 F.2d 1425, 1430 (D.C. Cir.1987) (Discovery is itself one of the burdens from which defendants are sheltered by the immunity doctrine.) overruled on other grounds, Crawford-El v. Britton, 93 F.3d 813 (D.C. Cir.1996). The superior court did not abuse its discretion in granting the motions to stay discovery as to the individual State defendants. Karen's motion to compel sought production of (1) job descriptions for individual State employees; (2) personnel files for those employees; (3) the State Department of Law's investigatory files for C.L.'s CINA case; (4) certain Anchorage Police Department records; (5) Department of Law information about prior suits or claims against any of the State defendants; and (6) all DFYS manuals relating to CINA proceedings and foster care licensing. Karen has not demonstrated that, to the extent particular categories of documents might have been properly discoverable, the court abused its discretion in denying relief to Karen on the discovery issues, given the potentially dispositive legal issues looming in the case. Further, Karen has not demonstrated how any error on these issues potentially prejudiced her ability to oppose the defendants' summary judgment motions.