KAREN M. HUMPHREYS, Magistrate Judge.
This matter is before the court on plaintiff's motion to compel defendant to produce documents responsive to plaintiff's first set of production requests and for sanctions. (Doc. 53).
Highly summarized, Dealer Computer Services (DCS) alleges that Mr. Griffith orchestrated a transfer of assets in violation of the Kansas Uniform Fraudulent Transfer Act (KUFTA) to prevent DCS from collecting debts owed under two service contracts between DCS and Griffith Ford-Mercury, Inc. (GFMI), an Iowa automobile dealership formerly owned by Mr. Griffith. In a nutshell, DCS alleges that Mr. Griffith sold the assets of the corporation to a purchaser for a nominal amount and entered into a side agreement to be paid in excess of $45,000 per year for ten years under the guise of "an employment contract."
Plaintiff served defendant with 54 requests for the production of documents and defendant asserted some form of objection to every request. Plaintiff moves to compel, arguing that defendant's "boilerplate objections" are without merit and that production should be ordered. In response to the motion, defendant now argues:
Defendant's Response, Doc. 68, p. 3, (emphasis added). Defendant then discusses the objections concerning his personal financial documents and privilege assertions. The issues are addressed in greater detail below.
Plaintiff's motion to compel discusses defendant's lengthy list of boilerplate objections to Production Requests 3-39, 41-47 and 54 and explains why the objections have no merit. Rather than respond to those arguments, defendant now contends that, "notwithstanding the objections," he has produced all documents in his possession. It is improper to assert boilerplate objections to discovery requests when there are no documents responsive to the requests. Under Fed. R. Civ. P. 26(g) an attorney signing a discovery response certifies that any objection is 1) consistent with rules, 2) not interposed to cause unnecessary delay or expense, and 3) not unreasonably burdensome or expensive. If
In addition to the above problem, defendant has misquoted his duty to produce documents. Although defendant represents that he has produced all documents in his "possession," Fed. R. Civ. P. 34 requires production of documents in his "possession, custody, or control." To establish a clear record of defendant's discovery responses, defendant shall serve supplemental responses
Defendant prepared a privilege log to support his objection that certain documents are protected by the attorney-client privilege.
Although not supported by a privilege log, defendant also asserted the work product doctrine in response to Production Request 54. Request 54 asks for all documents that support defendant's defenses. Fed. R. Civ. P. 26(a)(1)(A)(ii) requires a party to identify and produce all documents in defendant's possession, custody, or control that may be used to support a defense. Defendant's assertion that such documents are protected from disclosure by the work product doctrine is without merit and summarily rejected. Defendant shall produce all documents responsive to Production Request 54 by
Finally, defendant asserts that his general objection based on the attorney-client privilege is necessary to preserve the objection "in the unlikely event additional privileged documents are discovered." Again, it is not appropriate to assert an objection concerning documents that do not exist and this argument is rejected.
Production Request No. 33 seeks documents, including bank statements and canceled checks, related to any payments made to defendant pursuant to the "employment agreement" with the purchaser of defendant's Iowa car dealership. This request for bank statements is overly board and would include the production of financial information that is not related to plaintiff's claims. Accordingly, the general request for monthly bank statements and canceled checks is denied. However, defendant shall produce documents which show his receipt of any payments from the purchasers of his dealership.
Production Request 36 asks for defendant's federal tax returns and Request 37 asks for defendant's state tax returns. The returns are relevant to show whether defendant recognized the payments as "employee compensation" and whether FICA taxes were paid. Evidence that FICA taxes were not paid would support plaintiff's contention that the payments were not for employee services but rather as part of a plan to avoid GFMI's creditors. Because the tax returns contain relevant information, defendant carries the burden of showing that the information is readily obtainable from other sources.
Production Request 38 seeks all financial statements prepared by defendant from 2003 to the present. The negotiations and sale that form the basis for plaintiff's fraudulent conveyance claims took place during the time from 2003 to 2004. Defendant's financial statements during this period are relevant to plaintiff's fraudulent conveyance claim and shall be produced by