Erdman v. Victor
- Lorna Schofield
- 1:20-cv-04162
- U.S. District Court · Southern District of New York
- 2
In Erdman v. Victor, Magistrate Judge Gorenstein ordered a defendant to search and produce responsive documents by August 3, 2022.
The defendant was required to search for and produce documents and provide a sworn compliance statement; the plaintiff was entitled to receive the responsive documents and statement.
What happened
In Erdman v. Victor, the plaintiff argued that a defendant had not timely produced documents during discovery. The defendant’s opposition did not address those arguments, so the court treated them as unanswered.
The court ordered the defendant to produce all responsive documents in his possession, custody, or control by August 3, 2022. The search had to include office computers and systems, the “P-Drive,” office email accounts, devices that underwent forensic analysis, and the defendant’s cell phone.
Magistrate Judge Gabriel W. Gorenstein also required the defendant to provide a sworn statement describing the search, the systems and repositories reviewed, the people involved, and efforts to obtain documents from them.
The detailed version
- Erdman v. Victor · No. 1:20-cv-04162
- Lorna Schofield
- July 26, 2022
Background
The court issued the order concerning Docket No. 150. The defendant’s opposition letter did not respond to the issues raised by the plaintiff. The court stated that the remaining time for discovery did not affect whether the defendant had timely produced documents, which generally must be produced within 30 days under Federal Rule of Civil Procedure 34(b)(2)(A). The court therefore treated the plaintiff’s arguments as unopposed.
Discovery standard
Federal Rule of Civil Procedure 34(a)(1) requires a party to produce responsive documents within that party’s “possession, custody, or control.” The court explained that this phrase is construed broadly. A party need not own or physically possess a document; a document may be within the party’s control if the party has the right, authority, or practical ability to obtain it from someone else.
Order
The court ordered the defendant to produce, on or before August 3, 2022, all responsive documents up to the present day that were in the defendant’s custody or control. The defendant had to search repositories under that control, including office computers and systems, the “P-Drive,” office email accounts, devices that underwent forensic analysis, and the defendant’s cell phone.
When producing the documents, the defendant also had to provide the plaintiff with a sworn statement describing the efforts made to comply. The statement had to identify the systems and repositories searched, the custodians involved, and efforts to obtain documents from those custodians. The order was issued by United States Magistrate Judge Gabriel W. Gorenstein.
Read the full 2-page opinion on CourtListener, the free public archive maintained by the Free Law Project.