TERESA J. JAMES, Magistrate Judge.
In its Memorandum and Order ruling on Defendant's Motion to Quash Notice of Deposition (ECF No. 39), the Court set forth the facts relating to the parties' discovery that is to be concluded before the preliminary injunction hearing set for March 4, 2015 before District Judge Carlos Murguia. The Court need not repeat those facts. In its Minute Sheet following the Court's February 5, 2015 telephone conferences with counsel (ECF No. 27), the Court provided instructions for how counsel should bring to the Court's attention any further disputes with respect to their early discovery so that the Court could address the issues before March 4, 2015.
Disputes have arisen between the parties. Pursuant to the Court's instruction, on February 26, 2015, both Plaintiff's and Defendants' counsel sent letters to the undersigned Magistrate Judge outlining their requests to compel discovery responses and explaining their resistance to discovery requests. Because the pre-hearing discovery the Court has allowed is on a condensed schedule, and the hearing is now four days away (with an intervening weekend), the Court issues this abbreviated Memorandum and Order without the parties having filed motions and without the benefit of full briefing. The Court construes the parties' letters as their respective motions to compel.
Plaintiff served on Defendants 49 Requests for Production of Documents. In response, Defendants stated a number of boilerplate objections. Defendants also provide a separate response to every request, each of which is preceded by a statement that Defendants are responding without waiving any of their specific or general objections.
Plaintiff takes exception to Defendants' objections as a general matter but does not request any specific relief.
The Court finds that Defendants have waived their boilerplate objections by having responded to each request. "[W]henever an answer accompanies an objection, the objection is deemed waived and the answer, if responsive, stands."
Defendants served two interrogatories on Plaintiff. Plaintiff objected to the first interrogatory on the grounds that it is overbroad and unduly burdensome because it "would require Plaintiff to identify every action, however de minimis, that Stearns took relating to each such solicitation [of business]." Without waiving the objection, Plaintiff provided an answer. In response to the second interrogatory, Plaintiff answered: "See objections and answers to interrogatory no. 1."
Defendants contend that Plaintiff's answers are off base and do not provide meaningful information about Plaintiff's claims of solicitation of business and breach of contract. Plaintiff responds that "there is no additional information Plaintiff could presently supply to respond to those [interrogatories] — beyond the facts, identified in the complaint and already disclosed to Defendants . . ., that Plaintiff has suffered significant lost business on the accounts Lisa Stearns worked."
The Court overrules Plaintiff's objections.
Defendants served on Plaintiff four Requests for Production of Documents. From counsel's letters, it appears that Plaintiffs have produced a very large volume of documents in response to the request. The Court is unable to determine based upon the information available to it at this time whether, as Defendants seem to imply, the production was overinclusive and intended to obfuscate or at least frustrate Defendants' search for relevant information. In addition, because of the abbreviated briefing, short time before the hearing, and limited information provided, the Court does not have a comprehensive understanding of the relevant considerations involved in determining whether Plaintiff has fully complied with its obligations in responding to Defendants' First Request for Production of Documents. The Court therefore makes the following limited ruling. With respect to Request Numbers 1 and 2, the Referral Logs to which Defendants refer clearly fall within the requests. Therefore, by the close of business on March 2, 2015, Plaintiff shall produce all such Referral Logs that exist for the time periods referred to therein. With respect to Request Numbers 3 and 4, to the extent Defendants are seeking to obtain information about contacts Plaintiff alleges were improper, the Court finds that this information can be discovered through other discovery requests and Request Numbers 3 and 4 are duplicative. If Defendants are seeking to obtain information about contacts Plaintiff alleges were improper, the Court finds that other means are likely to be more productive. If Defendants are seeking information relative to Plaintiff's claim for damages, that issue is not ripe in the current posture of the case which seeks injunctive relief. This is an issue the parties may wish to revisit in the normal course of discovery.