Onate v. AHRC Health Care, Inc.

Background

The case involves more than 1,000 opt-in plaintiffs. After the court directed the parties to provide a discovery update and deposition schedule, they agreed on dates but disagreed about the proper scope of discovery for the 1,105 opt-in plaintiffs.

The plaintiffs proposed limiting written discovery to five percent of the opt-in population, limiting depositions to 15 opt-in plaintiffs, limiting each deposition to three hours, and allowing at least 60 days for the selected plaintiffs to answer written discovery. The defendant argued that every opt-in plaintiff should answer written interrogatories about the claims being asserted and proposed depositions of up to five percent of the opt-in population, or 55 employees. The defendant also sought a selection method based on facility and job-title groupings.

Legal standard

The court applied Federal Rule of Civil Procedure 26. That rule generally permits discovery of nonprivileged information relevant to a claim or defense and proportional to the needs of the case. Other provisions allow the court to limit discovery that is unreasonably cumulative or duplicative and to protect parties from undue burden or expense.

The court explained that decisions in Fair Labor Standards Act collective actions differ on whether all opt-in plaintiffs should face individualized discovery or whether discovery should be taken from a representative sample. The number of opt-in plaintiffs is an important consideration, and courts are more likely to order sampling when the number approaches 200.

Court’s analysis and order

The court found that requiring all 1,105 opt-in plaintiffs to answer interrogatories would generate more than 40,000 responses and potentially more than 20,000 pages of documents. The court also noted the plaintiffs’ contention that responding to those demands could require attorney time approaching or exceeding $1 million. It concluded that this discovery would be overly burdensome under Rule 26 and observed that much of the relevant employee information was already in the employer’s possession.

The court ordered that only five percent of the opt-in plaintiffs respond to written interrogatories. Those plaintiffs were to be selected randomly from up to five groupings proposed by the defendant. If the parties could not agree on a random-selection method, the plaintiffs would be selected alphabetically based on the second letter of their last name.

The court also limited depositions. Although the defendant proposed more than 50 depositions, the court authorized depositions of only 15 additional opt-in plaintiffs. The deponents were to be selected using the same sampling approach, and each deposition was limited to three hours rather than the full seven hours.

The court stated that the parties could jointly agree to adjust the number of depositions or written interrogatories and, if they did so, should notify the court. It ordered the parties to submit a letter proposing dates for completing opt-in discovery by November 3, 2023, and directed the Clerk of Court to close Docket Number 177. The opinion does not expressly label Docket Number 177 as granted or denied.