Greenlee v. Southwest Health Systems, Inc.

Full title: KATHLEEN GREENLEE, Plaintiff(s), v. SOUTHWEST HEALTH SYSTEMS, INC., d/b/a…

Court: United States District Court, D. Colorado

Date published: Aug 31, 2006

Civil Action No. 06-cv-00103-EWN-PAC (D. Colo. Aug. 31, 2006)

Opinion

Civil Action No. 06-cv-00103-EWN-PAC.

August 31, 2006

ORDER

PATRICIA COAN, Magistrate Judge

This is an employment case, which has been referred to the undersigned pursuant to 28 U.S.C. § 636(b) for pretrial case management.

The matter now before the Court is the EEOC's Motion for a Protective Order that the Deposition of Commission Employee not be Taken, Doc. # 48, filed August 8, 2006. Upon careful consideration of the motion and the response, IT IS HEREBY

ORDERED that, due to the fact that the EEOC file, without privileged materials, has been produced, see EEOC motion at 4, and because defendant may not inquire into the EEOC's decision-making process, the EEOC's Motion for a Protective Order that the Deposition of Commission Employee not be Taken, Doc. # 48, filed August 8, 2006, is GRANTED. The 30(b)(6) deposition of an EEOC investigator shall not go forward. See EEOC v. Sears Roebuck and Co., 111 F.R.D. 385, 390 (N.D. Ill. 1986) (discussion of application of deliberative process privilege because "there is the concern that the judiciary should not interfere with executive functions, or `probe the mental processes' of an executive or administrative officer") ; see also Blanks v. Lockheed Martin, 2006 WL 189512 *2-3 (S.D. Miss. 2006) (upholding the deliberative process privilege and quashing deposition of EEOC investigator, while recognizing that certain information gathered by the EEOC was "purely factual or objective" and not shielded by the executive privilege) (internal citations omitted).