K. GARY SEBELIUS, Magistrate Judge.
This matter comes before the court upon plaintiffs' Motion for Finding of Violation of Rule 30(b)(6)(ECF No. 419). Plaintiffs contend that Citigroup. Inc.'s ("Citigroup's") designee as a corporate representative under Fed. R. Civ. 30(b)(6) was unprepared for the deposition that occurred on June 13, 2017. For the following reasons, this motion is denied.
Plaintiffs, Randall A. Schneider and Amy L. Schneider, bring claims against defendants, CitiMortgage, Inc. ("CitiMortage"); Citibank, National Association ("Citibank"); Citigroup; and Primerica Financial Services Home Mortgages, Inc. ("Primerica"), for breach of contract and for violations of the Kansas Consumer Protection Act. The claims involve defendants' alleged misconduct in handling the Schneiders' residential mortgage loan, and their 2010 loan refinance. The Schneiders allege that they were wrongfully assessed overcharges and fees and they were denied a loan refinance for which they were qualified.
The court has previously detailed the difficulties in discovery in this case. The court will only address the problems that relate to the instant deposition. In August 2014, plaintiffs served their Rule 30(b)(6) notices.
On January 28, 2016, the court denied plaintiffs' motion for conference, finding that a telephone conference would not aid the parties.
Conferences were held by the parties after the court's order of January 28, 2016. The parties conferred in excess of six hours in conferences on February 22, 2016, and March 2, 2016. After the first conference, plaintiffs provided a revised list, which the parties discussed at the second conference. On March 3, 2016, plaintiffs served another list of topics which included a number of new topics.
On April 7, 2016, plaintiff filed a notice to take the Fed. R. Civ. P. 30(b)(6) deposition of Citigroup's corporate designee on April 25, 2016.
On October 31, 2016, the court granted Citigroup's motion in part and denied it in part.
On February 17, 2017, Judge Crow denied plaintiffs' motion for review. Various problems again arose in the efforts to schedule the deposition of Citigroup's representative.
Citigroup produced Jason Cramer as its Rule 30(b)(6) representative. Mr. Cramer is a director of CitiMortgage. He reports to the chief operating officer of CitiMortgage.
The deposition proceeded on the following six topics:
In their motion, plaintiffs raise a variety of arguments. Plaintiffs suggest that Mr. Cramer was not prepared to address "many" of the topics. They further suggest that he was not provided with sufficient information to answer their questions and, in some cases, was simply "guessing" at the answers. Finally, they contend that "much" of what Mr. Cramer testified to was "inaccurate" because it conflicted with "actual documents."
Rule 30(b)(6) governs deposition notices and subpoenas directed to organizations.
The testimony of a Rule 30(b)(6) designee represents the knowledge of the corporation, not of the individual deponents.
Rule 30(b)(6) is not designed to be a memory contest.
The court's review of the deposition excerpts provided by the parties reveals that Mr. Cramer examined a variety of written materials in preparation for the deposition. He also relied upon his own experience in managing default servicing operations at CitiMortgage.
Four of the six topics are specific to plaintiffs' loan. Plaintiffs sought information on Citigroup's (1) involvement in the servicing of the loan (Topic 42rr); (2) involvement in communicating with them following their refinance application in May 2010 (Topic 43ss); (3) involvement in evaluating their refinance application in May 2010 (Topic 44tt); and (4) anticipated sources of direct and indirect revenue from the 2010 refinance application if it had been approved (Topic 46vv).
With regard to Citigroup's involvement with the servicing of the loan or the refinance application, Mr. Cramer testified that Citigroup did not service plaintiffs' loan or interact with plaintiffs concerning their request for refinancing. He testified that Citigroup was a bank holding company, and as such, it is the corporate vehicle for financial reporting and public disclosures on behalf of itself and other Citi entities. He confirmed on numerous occasions that Citigroup does not originate or service mortgage loans. In making these statements, Mr. Cramer indicated that he relied upon documents provided to him by Citigroup's counsel as well as his personal knowledge of the responsibilities of Citigroup and CitiMortgage.
The court finds that Mr. Cramer was adequately prepared to respond to these topics. Mr. Cramer also provided the requested information under each of these topics. His testimony was responsive to plaintiffs' counsel's questions. Although plaintiffs' counsel did not approve of Mr. Cramer's answers, the court finds that he was adequately prepared, and did properly respond to the questions.
Plaintiffs also contend that Mr. Cramer was unable to specify any amount of revenue that Citigroup realized from the loan or would have realized from the refinancing. Mr. Cramer stated he was unable to provide this information and why he was unable to provide it. He explained that Citigroup is a holding company and "[t]hey're not in the day-to-day management of individual sources of revenue for each of [the other] entities."
The court finds that Mr. Cramer was adequately prepared for this topic. He provided all of the information he was able to procure and explained why he could not provide any additional answers. Again, the court believes that Mr. Cramer's responses were sufficient. As the court has recognized on numerous occasions in this case, the court cannot decide the accuracy of information provided in discovery.
Finally, plaintiffs complain that Mr. Cramer failed to adequately address the two topics on the role and relationship between Citigroup and the other defendants as well as a non-party. Plaintiffs contend that Mr. Cramer was unprepared to address these topics. Plaintiffs suggest that his review of only public documents was inadequate.
Once again, the court finds Mr. Cramer properly prepared to respond to these topics. He did rely upon "publicly available documents that showed the corporate structure of [the] entities," but he also relied upon his own experience as a director of CitiMortgage. He addressed all of the entities noted in the topics and discussed their various roles. He also talked about their policies and the oversight at each of the entities. Plaintiffs are skeptical about some of Mr. Cramer's answers, but again the court cannot determine the accuracy of those answers.
In sum, the court finds that plaintiffs' motion does not support their claim that Citigroup's deponent was inadequate in specific requests. Citigroup properly produced a deponent to speak on its behalf. The court finds that Mr. Cramer was adequately prepared and he properly responded to plaintiffs' counsel's questions.
Accordingly,