Burgard v. International Business Machines Corporation

Background

Cheryl Burgard brought this action on behalf of herself and others similarly situated against International Business Machines Corporation. The opinion states that eight other former or current IBM Executive Assistants later joined the action. The order concerns three of those joining plaintiffs: MaryBeth Acocella, Bernadette Ocampos Romero, and Ellen Rosner.

Fact discovery—the stage in which parties exchange information and evidence—was scheduled to end on April 15, 2025. The parties submitted a joint letter describing a discovery dispute.

Discovery dispute

International Business Machines Corporation argued that the three joining plaintiffs had not sat for depositions or provided documents responsive to its requests. It also stated that they had not provided deposition availability for more than three months, had not verified their written answers to interrogatories for more than five months, and had produced no documents.

The plaintiffs did not dispute that the three individuals had failed to provide deposition dates, verify their interrogatories, or produce documents.

Ruling

The court waived the requirement for a pre-motion conference and treated the parties’ letter as a motion for sanctions under Federal Rule of Civil Procedure 37, which permits consequences for failing to comply with discovery obligations. Judge Philip M. Halpern granted the motion.

The court ordered the three joining plaintiffs, no later than April 15, 2025, to respond to the discovery requests, serve verified interrogatory answers, produce responsive non-privileged documents, and appear for depositions at mutually agreeable dates and times. The order states that failure to strictly comply will result in dismissal of those plaintiffs’ Fair Labor Standards Act claims in this action with prejudice. The clerk was asked to terminate the pending letter-motion.