Murphy v. Setzer’s World of Camping, Inc.

Bryan Murphy (plaintiff) sued Setzer’s World of Camping (Setzer’s) (defendant) in federal district court in Virginia. As part of the discovery process, Setzer’s served Murphy with a set of 11 interrogatories. Murphy responded to the requests within the proper time frame but objected to every interrogatory. Murphy objected to questions about basic personal information because they were not proportional to the needs of the case. Murphy asserted that some requests were too burdensome and some were irrelevant, but he did not substantiate or explain either type of objection. Murphy objected to a request for the identification of witnesses on the ground that Setzer’s had access to the information, including the contact details of employees at various companies, even though Setzer’s was only aware of certain witnesses and did not know which employees Murphy considered possible witnesses. Murphy further objected to certain interrogatories by claiming privilege, but he did not submit a privilege log with his interrogatory answers. Murphy was asked to provide additional information and sent 60 emails containing multiple various forms of business records to Setzer’s. Murphy did not indicate which emails responded to which interrogatories. Setzer’s objected, and the parties were unable to resolve the discovery dispute. Sezter’s filed a motion to compel, arguing that Murphy’s objections were unfounded and generalized.