Opinion
No. 00 Civ. 6112 (LTS)(FM)
March 12, 2003
ORDER
On March 3, 2003, Defendant MetLife submitted certain documents for in camera inspection, in response to the Court's February 21, 2003, order directing production of the documents listed on the privilege log previously distributed to Plaintiff. That privilege log consists of four entries, each with a generic description of the document type, plus sender, recipient and date information. MetLife supplied 14 pages of documents to the Court, none of which is grouped or labeled to correspond to the privilege log designations. Furthermore, based on the limited scope of documents supplied and the information set forth in Plaintiff's attorney's July 30, 2002 affidavit concerning MetLife's responses to Plaintiff's Document Request 3 and Interrogatories 2 and 3, it appears that Defendant may not have supplied all of the information called for by those discovery requests, which were among the subjects of the Court's March 12, 2002 Amended Order compelling discovery. The Court further notes that MetLife's factual assertions in its papers in opposition to Plaintiff's motion to compel as to the scope and timing of its administrative activity, on the one hand, and litigation-anticipatory activity, on the other, with respect to Plaintiff's supplemental benefit claim submissions are not supported by any affidavit or other evidence in admissible form. It is hereby ORDERED, that Defendant MetLife shall serve on Plaintiff's counsel and file with the Court, no later than March 24, 2003, a revised privilege log corresponding precisely to the documents provided to the Court, and shall also produce with or include on such log (as may be appropriate) any additional documents that relate to the period preceding the commencement of this litigation and that are responsive to Plaintiff's Document Request 3, and further ORDERED, that Defendant MetLife shall, by March 24, 2003, submit to the Court for in camera inspection a complete set of the withheld documents, clearly marked to correspond to the privilege log, and further ORDERED, that Defendant MetLife shall serve on Plaintiff's counsel and file with the Court, no later than March 24, 2003, any further response to Plaintiff's Interrogatories 2 and 3, and further ORDERED, that any additional factual material Defendant wishes the Court to consider in connection with its assertion of privilege or work product protection shall be served on Plaintiff and filed with the Court by March 24, 2003 (to the extent Defendant seeks to claim that any such factual material is itself privileged or subject to work product protection it shall submit the material to the Court only with a request for in camera inspection, providing written notice to Plaintiff of the request and of the general nature of the material submitted to the Court).
IT IS SO ORDERED.