Lynch v. City & County of San Francisco

Background

The parties submitted a letter describing three discovery disputes. Kim Lynch asked to depose Grant Colfax, the Director of the San Francisco Department of Public Health; to obtain contact information for and depose Michael Brown, a former City and County of San Francisco employee; and to extend the fact-discovery deadline by two to four weeks. The deadline had expired on August 18, 2022.

Grant Colfax deposition

The court applied the standard for an “apex deposition,” meaning the deposition of a high-ranking official. Courts consider whether the official has unique, firsthand, non-repetitive knowledge and whether the requesting party has exhausted less intrusive discovery methods.

The court assumed, without deciding, that Lynch satisfied the first part of that test. It held that she had not shown that she exhausted other discovery methods. Lynch acknowledged that she had not served interrogatories or otherwise sought information from Colfax and instead asserted that his deposition was the next logical step. The court therefore denied her request for a court order allowing Colfax’s deposition.

Michael Brown contact information and deposition

Lynch stated that the City had told her Brown retired. She asserted that the City had not disclosed Brown’s contact information, but she did not dispute the City’s statement that her counsel had not requested Brown’s last known contact information. She also did not dispute that the City informed her of Brown’s retirement after receiving her deposition request and repeated that information later.

The court found no basis to order the City to provide a supplemental disclosure with Brown’s last known contact information. It also found that the record did not show that the City caused Lynch’s failure to subpoena Brown before the discovery deadline. The court denied Lynch’s request concerning Brown.

Extension of fact discovery

Lynch requested a two-to-four-week extension so she could depose Colfax and Brown. Because the court denied her requests concerning both individuals, it found no need to extend the discovery deadline and denied the extension request.

Disposition

The court denied Lynch’s requests on all three discovery issues and stated that the order disposed of Docket No. 28. Judge Edward M. Chen signed the order.