Darrielle Foster v. Lynroy Carty

Summary

The United States District Court for the Eastern District of Louisiana denied without prejudice AmGuard Insurance Company’s motion to compel discovery. The court found that the record did not establish that the parties had conducted the required Federal Rule of Civil Procedure 26(f) conference or that a scheduling order had been entered, making it unclear whether discovery had been properly initiated. The court stated that the motion could be refiled with evidence addressing these issues.

Holdings

1. A party generally may not seek discovery, and the court cannot determine that a motion to compel is proper, unless the parties have conducted the Rule 26(f) conference or discovery was otherwise authorized under Rule 26(d)(1). Because the record did not establish that the required conference occurred before AmGuard served discovery, the motion to compel was denied without prejudice.
2. If the discovery was served before the Rule 26(f) conference, Requests for Production are deemed served on the date of that conference under Rule 26(d)(2)(B), but the opinion identified no comparable deeming provision for interrogatories or requests for admission.

Questions Presented

1. Whether the court should grant an unopposed motion to compel when the record does not establish that the parties conducted the Rule 26(f) conference required before discovery.
2. Whether discovery requests served before the Rule 26(f) conference may support a motion to compel.

Disposition

other