Lakes v. Bath & Body Works, LLC ( 2021 )

1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 UNITED STATES DISTRICT COURT 9 EASTERN DISTRICT OF CALIFORNIA 10 11 CRYSTAL LAKES, No. 2:16-cv-02989-MCE-AC 12 Plaintiff, 13 v. ORDER 14 BATH & BODY WORKS, LLC, 15 Defendant. 16 17 In bringing the present Request for Reconsideration (ECF No. 175), Plaintiff 18 Crystal Lakes (“Plaintiff”) asks this Court to reverse the Magistrate Judge’s July 29, 19 2020, Order denying Plaintiff’s Motion for an Order to Show Cause re Contempt and for 20 Sanctions. ECF No. 163. Plaintiff’s Motion is premised on an argument that Defendant 21 Bath & Body Works, LLC (“Defendant”) should be held in contempt for falsely 22 representing that no documents evidencing a “silent recall” of three-wick candle existed. 23 To support its argument, Plaintiff asks the Court to require Defendant to produce the 24 deposition testimony obtained from a Bath & Body Works manager in another case 25 which it believes will show that Defendant ordered a completely different candle to be 26 removed from the market over flaring concerns. In the Order denying Plaintiff’s Motion, 27 the Magistrate Judge noted that she had already refused to order sanctions in the form 28 of an adverse inference jury instruction based in part upon the same argument, which 1 she found to be insufficient. According to the Magistrate Judge, Plaintiff’s renewed 2 motion, this time cast as a request for contempt, also failed. She observed that 3 contempt proceedings require evidence establishing a prima facie case of contempt 4 (ECF 174 at 6-7), and that no such evidence had been presented. Moreover, the 5 Magistrate Judge reasoned, Plaintiff’s effort to use contempt proceedings to compel 6 production of evidence (in the form of the deposition transcript) that would, in turn, 7 establish her prima facie case, was improper. Plaintiff moved for reconsideration before 8 this Court. 9 In reviewing a magistrate judge’s determination, the assigned judge shall apply 10 the “clearly erroneous or contrary to law” standard of review set forth in Local 11 Rule 303(f), as specifically authorized by Federal Rule of Civil Procedure 72(a) and 12 28 U.S.C. § 636(b)(1)(A).1 Under this standard, the Court must accept the Magistrate 13 Judge’s decision unless it has a “definite and firm conviction that a mistake has been 14 committed.” Concrete Pipe & Prods. of Cal., Inc. v. Constr. Laborers Pension Trust for 15 So. Cal., 508 U.S. 602, 622 (1993). If the Court believes the conclusions reached by the 16 Magistrate Judge were at least plausible, after considering the record in its entirety, the 17 Court will not reverse even if convinced that it would have weighed the evidence 18 differently. Phoenix Eng. & Supply Inc. v. Universal Elec. Co., Inc., 104 F.3d 1137, 1141 19 (9th Cir. 1997). 20 After reviewing the entire file, this Court cannot say that the Magistrate Judge’s 21 decisions outlined above were clearly erroneous. The Magistrate Judge did not abuse 22 her discretion in determining that Plaintiff should not be permitted to use contempt 23 proceedings as a discovery springboard to establish a prima facie case that was not 24 otherwise present. To the extent that Plaintiff asks this Court to substitute the Magistrate 25 Judge’s judgment in that regard with its own (indeed, Plaintiff goes so far as to state that 26 1 Federal Rule of Civil Procedure 72(a) directs the district court judge to “modify or set aside any 27 portion of the magistrate judge’s order found to be clearly erroneous or contrary to law.” Similarly, under 28 U.S.C. § 636(b)(1)(A), the district judge may reconsider any pretrial order “where it is shown that the 28 magistrate’s order is clearly erroneous or contrary to law.” 1 | it was within the Magistrate Judge’s “discretion” to order the requested discovery”), that 2 || request is improper. Moreover, since the candle at issue in this litigation and the candle 3 || that was the subject of the requested deposition transcript appear to be completely 4 | different products, Plaintiff's argument that Defendant somehow “admitted” all key facts 5 || to support a contempt finding in any event also cannot pass muster. Plaintiff's Request 6 | for Reconsideration (ECF No. 175) is accordingly DENIED. 7 IT IS SO ORDERED. 8 | Dated: July 8, 2021 9 J late UES. Mthin □ AX XE - ‘0 SENIOR UND STATES DISHeacY TUDGE 11 12 13 14 15 16 17 18 19 20 21 22 23 24 25 26 27 28 2 See Plaintiff's Request, ECF No. 175, 2:6-8.