Opinion
5:23-cv-597-TJC-PRL
07-23-2024
ERIN MCCOY ALARCON, ERIN MCCOY ALARCON and PAUL MCCOY, Personal Representative of the Estate of Barbara McCoy on behalf of the Estate of Barbary McCoy Plaintiffs, v. USAA GENERAL IDEMNITY COMPANY, Defendant.
ORDER
PHILIP R. LAMMENS, UNITED STATES MAGISTRATE JUDGE
On July 9, 2024, the plaintiffs moved to compel the defendant's responses to their interrogatories under Federal Rule of Civil Procedure 33(b). (Doc. 15). In response to the motion to compel, Defendant filed a response submitting that its “counsel had been waiting on an opinion from coverage counsel so as to complete these answers to interrogatories with correct information.” (Doc. 16 at 1). The defendant stated that it would sign and return the answers to the interrogatories and file it within the court, which was ostensibly done on July 22, 2024. (Docs. 16 at 1; 17).
The plaintiffs and the defendant have not briefed the issue of attorney's fees, and they do not provide enough information for the Court to determine an award pursuant to Federal Rule of Civil Procedure 37. Accordingly, although the motion to compel (Doc. 15), is denied as moot, the Court will not award attorney's fees to the plaintiffs as incurred in preparing and filing the motion to compel.
Finally, as stated, the plaintiffs have apparently filed a notice regarding their service of the interrogatory answers. (Doc. 17) (stating that the answers are attached, but not providing any such attachment). In the Middle District, discovery-related documents, such as answers to interrogatories, should not be filed on the docket unless and until the Court needs to decide an issue brought to its attention. Fed.R.Civ.P. 5(d)(1); Middle District Discovery (2021) at Section I.C.1.
“Copies of written interrogatories, answers and objections to interrogatories, notices of oral depositions, transcripts of oral depositions, requests for the production of documents and other things, responses to requests for production, matters disclosed pursuant to Rule 26(a)(1), Federal Rules of Civil Procedure, requests for admissions, and responses to requests for admissions shall not be filed with the Court as a matter of course.” Middle District Discovery (2021) at Section I.C.1.
The parties are cautioned that they should review the Middle District Discovery Handbook prior to filing future discovery materials with the Court. As for the instant discovery materials, the “notice of service of answers to plaintiff's [sic] interrogatories” (Doc. 17), is hereby STRICKEN. Likewise, the plaintiffs' “mandatory Rule 26 disclosures” (Doc. 12), and the “plaintiff [sic] notice of service of first interrogatories to Defendant” (Doc. 14), are hereby STRICKEN.
DONE and ORDERED.