Jasmine Edwards v. Ryan D. Snyder

Summary

The United States District Court for the Northern District of Indiana grants Plaintiff’s motion to compel discovery and grants Defendant’s motion to stay civil proceedings in part. The court declines to find Defendant’s one-day-late discovery objection waived but grants the motion to compel because Defendant did not oppose it or meet his burden to justify withholding the requested materials. The court stays all proceedings except production of responsive documents and requires a status report regarding the related criminal case.

Holdings

1. Defendant's one-day delay in serving his objection did not warrant total waiver because the delay resulted from counsel's mistake, caused minimal prejudice, and constituted good cause for relief from waiver.
2. Plaintiff was entitled to an order compelling Defendant to produce documents responsive to her second request for production.
3. A partial stay was appropriate because the civil and criminal proceedings arose from the same facts and civil discovery could burden Defendant's Fifth Amendment rights, but the stay did not apply to Plaintiff's motion to compel.

Questions Presented

1. Whether Defendant's one-day delay in asserting an objection to Plaintiff's second request for production waived the objection.
2. Whether Plaintiff was entitled to an order compelling production when Defendant did not respond to the motion to compel or carry his burden of showing why the requested discovery was improper.
3. Whether the civil action should be stayed because of the related criminal prosecution and the potential effect of civil discovery on Defendant's Fifth Amendment rights.

Disposition

other