Gamza-Machado De Souza v. Planned Parenthood Federation of America, Inc.

What the Filing Was About

Defendants Planned Parenthood Federation of America, Inc. (PPFA), Rachel Moreno, and George Walker asked the court to schedule a conference concerning Plaintiff Ilana Gamza-Machado De Souza’s mental-health records. The filing states that Plaintiff worked at PPFA from October 1, 2019, through November 30, 2020, and that her lawsuit seeks damages for medical and psychological conditions that she attributes to her termination, including anxiety, depression, paranoia, and difficulty focusing.

Defendants asserted that earlier records showed Plaintiff had received mental-health treatment before and during her employment. They referred to a prior order dated March 31, 2022, which required Plaintiff to provide releases for mental-health providers’ records from January 2019 onward because the records were relevant to causation and damages. That order also required Plaintiff to continue her deposition for three hours to answer questions about her mental health after the records were produced.

Discovery Dispute

According to Defendants, Plaintiff provided supplemental releases for Dr. Leonid Vorobyev and Dr. Maryana Tselniker, but those releases did not produce the earlier records Defendants sought. Defendants also stated that records obtained from a third party identified Dr. Felix Geller as a psychiatrist whom Plaintiff had not disclosed in the litigation. Defendants argued that Plaintiff should provide a release for Dr. Geller and for providers who treated her between January 2019 and May 2020.

Defendants requested that the court either hold a conference or order Plaintiff to provide additional releases for that period. They also requested reasonable costs and attorney’s fees under the rule governing expenses for motions to compel discovery. In addition, they asked for a 45-day extension of the case-management deadlines because they had not yet deposed Plaintiff under the prior order and had not obtained the records they considered necessary.

Court’s Action

The court’s order states: “A discovery conference is scheduled for March 25, 2022, at 4:00 P.M.” It directs the parties to call a telephone number and use an access code. Judge Lorna G. Schofield signed the order.

The provided opinion text does not state that the court granted or denied Defendants’ requests for additional releases, costs, attorney’s fees, or extended deadlines. It also contains an apparent date inconsistency: the order is dated May 16, 2022, but the conference is listed as occurring on March 25, 2022.