Com. Resins Co. v. Carlson
Com. Resins Co. v. Carlson
2024 WL 4293068 (N.D. Okla. 2024)
July 30, 2024
Little, Christine D., United States Magistrate Judge
Summary
The plaintiffs filed a motion to compel the defendants to comply with a prior court order to produce tax returns. The defendants had previously agreed to obtain and produce the returns, but had not yet done so. The court granted the motion and ordered the defendants to immediately request the returns and supplement their discovery with copies once received.
Additional Decisions
COMMERCIAL RESINS COMPANY, INC., et al., Plaintiffs,
v.
RON CARLSON, JR., et al., Defendants
v.
RON CARLSON, JR., et al., Defendants
Case No. 19-cv-616-SEH-CDL
United States District Court, N.D. Oklahoma
Filed July 30, 2024
Counsel
Cole B. McLanahan, McAfee & Taft, Christopher Michael Scaperlanda, Elke Chantal Meeus, McAfee & Taft A Professional Corporation, Oklahoma City, OK, James Craig Buchan, McAfee & Taft, Tulsa, OK, Michael D. McClintock, Nichols Hills, OK, for Plaintiffs.Stephen Q. Peters, John Jay Carwile, Baum Glass Jayne Carwile & Peters, PLLC, Tulsa, OK, for Defendants.
Little, Christine D., United States Magistrate Judge
ORDER
*1 Before the Court is the plaintiffs' “Motion to Compel Compliance with Prior Court Order Regarding Tax Returns” (Doc. 277). The plaintiffs previously moved to compel production of tax returns (Doc. 111), which was granted following a hearing on August 18, 2021 (see Doc. 127), with the Court directing that “the defendants produce those returns that are within their possession, custody, or control and also that [they] supplement” their discovery response on the tax returns to represent that the responsive documents within their possession, custody, or control have been produced. The Court further ordered that, if the plaintiffs received no additional documents and wished to request the Court “to require the execution of releases for production by the Treasury Department of the returns, then the plaintiffs would need to file a ... motion and [provide] legal authority that supports [the Court] doing that.”[1]
The plaintiffs assert that, after the August 18, 2021 hearing, the defendants agreed in September 2021 to obtain copies of their tax returns from the IRS for production. In October 2021, the defendants' counsel provided the plaintiffs' counsel with copies of signed forms requesting the returns and represented that the requests had been submitted to the IRS. (Doc. 277-1). According to the plaintiffs, no tax returns have been produced following the August 18, 2021 hearing and, when plaintiffs' counsel more recently followed up to inquire about the tax returns, defendants' counsel responded that “discovery is long over” and stated that defendants “are not willing to reopen discovery unless [plaintiffs are] willing to confess the advancement motion.” (Doc. 277-2).
The defendants represent that they did submit the requests to the IRS in 2021 but have still not received the tax returns. They further indicate that, if and once received, they will supplement their discovery production with those tax returns and that they “are prepared to submit yet another written request to the IRS” but “without waiving their argument or position[,] and Plaintiffs should not be able to use this manufactured dispute to reopen or expand discovery.” (Doc. 281 at 4).
Although the discovery deadline has long passed, the plaintiffs are attempting to obtain the production of records that the Court previously ordered produced. While the ruling at the August 18, 2021 hearing contemplated the filing of an additional motion in the event the plaintiffs did not receive complete returns from the defendants directly and plaintiffs wished to require some form of tax return release be compelled, it is undisputed that the defendants thereafter agreed that they would obtain those tax returns and produce them once received. Thus, the plaintiffs' request for the tax returns is not an attempt to “reopen or expand discovery,” but is instead related to documents previously ordered produced and which the defendants agreed to produce.
*2 There is no dispute that the defendants' tax returns are relevant, the production of those returns has previously been ordered, and thus those records should be produced. While the defendants indicate that they requested those records nearly three years ago, they represent that they have not received those returns. Given that the defendants indicate no opposition to again requesting those records and producing them to the plaintiffs to supplement their prior productions, the Court finds and concludes that such request should be made immediately, in the most expeditious manner possible, and the defendants shall provide plaintiffs' counsel with documents evidencing such requests have again been made and thereafter shall supplement their discovery by providing copies of those returns. Accordingly, the plaintiffs' Motion to Compel (Doc. 277) is granted as set forth herein.
IT IS SO ORDERED this 30th day of July, 2024.
Footnotes
Given the passage of almost three years since the issue was first heard, the undersigned has listened to the recorded hearing on the prior motion to compel in order to recall the disposition of that motion.