Opinion
21-cv-10815 (PKC)
03-30-2022
SHEILA RODRIGUEZ, Plaintiff, v. CITY OF NEW YORK, etc., Defendant.
ORDER
CASTEL, U.S.D.J.
The City of New York (the “City”) seeks to have this Court reconsider its March 22, 2022 Order coordinating discovery in this action with the discovery in In re NY City Policing During Summer 2020 Demonstrations, 20-cv-8924(CM) (“Summer 2020”). Contrary to its intended purpose, the City's letter of March 28, 2022 highlights the wisdom of coordination.
The City notes that four of the lawyers in this action are also counsel in Summer 2020 and have access to the discovery produced in Summer 2020 and presumably will have access to the April 1, 2022 supplemental production. This suggests the burden on the City is negligible. Counsel for the plaintiffs have advised the Court that there is “no need [for the City] to redisclose anything. . . .” (Ltr. Mar. 30, 2022; Doc 16.) If the material has been or will be produced in Summer 2020, then it is deemed produced in this action, subject to a similarly worded protective order. The ”high level” depositions in Summer 2020 will be attended by counsel for the City and counsel in Summer 2020, who, as the City points out overlap with counsel in this action, and therefore it is efficient and appropriate to have that discovery coordinated with the discovery in this action. 1
The Court has not and does not intend to decide at the juncture whether the plaintiffs have a viable Monell claim. The Court has not decided whether any summary judgment motion or trial relating to any Monell claim ought to go forward or be stayed or bifurcated. Circumstances unique to the overlap between this action and Summer 2020 make it efficient that Monell discovery in this action that overlaps Monell discovery in Summer 2020 go forward.
The City's letter motion (Doc 15) is DENIED. Plaintiffs' letter motion (Doc 16) is GRANTED to the limited extent that the Court directs the parties to meet and confer pursuant to Rule 26(f), Fed. R. Civ. P.
SO ORDERED. 2