Gardner-Alfred v. Federal Reserve Bank of New York

Background

Lori Gardner-Alfred and Jeanette Diaz moved under Federal Rule of Civil Procedure 37(a) to compel the Federal Reserve Bank of New York to reproduce its organizational witness under Rule 30(b)(6) and to produce Helen Mucciolo, Karen Lynch, Altheia Graham, Amy Chiaravallo, and Danielle Levitt for depositions. The New York Fed filed its own motion to compel the plaintiffs to produce documents and conduct additional searches.

The plaintiffs’ claims include allegations concerning COVID-19 vaccination policies and requests for religious accommodations. Gardner-Alfred claimed membership in the Temple of Healing Spirit and alleged that COVID-19 vaccines conflicted with her beliefs. Diaz alleged that her religious convictions prevented her from receiving certain vaccines and that she had requested a religious accommodation from her current employer.

Plaintiffs’ Motion to Compel

The court denied the request for another Rule 30(b)(6) deposition. The court found that the New York Fed’s witness had been prepared to discuss the bank’s COVID-19 vaccination policy. The witness testified that there was no national Federal Reserve Bank COVID-19 mandate and that individual Reserve Banks had established their own policies. The court held that the plaintiffs were entitled to a knowledgeable witness, but not to answers using the plaintiffs’ preferred terminology or answers they considered more desirable.

The court also denied the request to compel depositions of Mucciolo, Lynch, Graham, Chiaravallo, and Levitt. The scheduling order required the depositions of Mucciolo and Lynch to be completed by February 17, 2023, and the plaintiffs did not show that they could not meet that deadline despite diligent efforts. The plaintiffs also showed no reason why they could not have timely noticed the other three depositions, particularly because they knew about those witnesses from the New York Fed’s initial disclosures. The court stated that the plaintiffs had not shown good cause to modify the scheduling order and noted that their delay had caused prejudice to the New York Fed’s schedule.

New York Fed’s Motion to Compel

The court granted the New York Fed’s request for discovery concerning Gardner-Alfred’s claimed religious beliefs. Gardner-Alfred was ordered to produce her complete Vaccine Exemption Package from “Reverend Dr.” Phillip Valentine, records of payments to Valentine, and documents concerning her use of ivermectin and other medicines. The court found those materials relevant and proportional because the sincerity and religious nature of Gardner-Alfred’s asserted beliefs were issues in the case. The court also stated that evidence about when and why she joined the Temple of Healing Spirit could bear on whether her beliefs were sincerely held.

The court granted the request for documents concerning Diaz’s request for a religious accommodation from Moody’s vaccination policy. Diaz was ordered to produce records showing what accommodation she requested and the grounds for that request. The court held that those documents were relevant to whether Diaz had a bona fide religious belief that prevented her from meeting her employment obligations to the New York Fed and that the documents were not necessarily duplicative of her deposition testimony.

The court also ordered both plaintiffs to conduct additional searches and produce responsive documents. Gardner-Alfred was ordered to search her iPhone, email accounts, iCloud account, and tablet, including the email accounts NAlfred26@gmail.com and Alfred26@gmail.com, using the dates in the New York Fed’s requests, the plaintiffs’ existing search terms, and seven additional terms supplied by the New York Fed. The production had to include the image of Gardner-Alfred’s COVID-19 antibody test.

Diaz was ordered to search her iPhone, iCloud account, computer, and tablet using the same required dates and search-term requirements. The court found that the plaintiffs’ prior searches had been haphazard, could not be recreated or documented, and had resulted in incomplete production. The court declined to order plaintiffs’ counsel specifically to search their social-media accounts, but extended the time for producing responsive documents by two weeks if further inquiry showed that additional responsive social-media documents should be produced.

The court further ordered production of four categories of documents identified in the New York Fed’s February 10, 2023 letter: Diaz’s list of visited URLs after certain COVID-19-related searches; Diaz’s electronic notes concerning the litigation; Diaz’s income from companies she owned; and Gardner-Alfred’s current income. The court summarized the required production as the documents listed under request numbers three, four, five, and eight, along with the additional searches described in the opinion.

Disposition

Judge Liman concluded that the plaintiffs’ motion to compel was DENIED and the New York Fed’s motion to compel was GRANTED. The court directed the Clerk of Court to close docket numbers 95 and 97.