Kaye v. New York City Health And Hospitals Corporation

Background

Melissa Kaye, the plaintiff in an employment-discrimination case, filed four letters between January 7 and January 17, 2020, seeking the court’s intervention in disputes about the defendants’ production of electronically stored information. The court noted that Kaye submitted letters rather than the letter-motions contemplated by an earlier court order. The requests concerned issues including a privilege log, search terms, the document “culling” process, and possible additional inquiry into the defendants’ discovery methods.

Court’s analysis

Federal Rule of Civil Procedure 37(a)(1) and the magistrate judge’s individual rules require the parties to meet and confer before asking the court to resolve a discovery dispute. The court found that the parties had not thoroughly completed that process on many of the issues raised. It also noted that some issues had become moot because of later document production.

The court rejected Kaye’s request for what it described as “discovery on discovery”—an examination of how the defendants searched for and reviewed documents. Such a request requires an adequate factual basis showing that the existing production may be deficient, and any inquiry must be relevant and proportional to the case. The defendants had represented that they provided detailed information about their collection criteria, continuous active learning software, review workflow, and plans to validate the results. The court found that information sufficient to make the production transparent on the current record. It further concluded that Kaye had not shown a good-faith basis for investigating the defendants’ methodology or met her burden to justify that discovery.

Disposition

The court denied without prejudice the various requests for court intervention in the discovery disputes. United States Magistrate Judge James L. Cott signed the order on January 21, 2020.