Involves the Power to Destroy

I’ve turned Ch J Marshall’s famous statement on its head:  “The power to tax involves the power to destroy.”McCulloch v. Maryland, 17 U.S. (4 Wheat.) 316, at p. 431 (1819).

B&D Insurance Company, Inc., et al., Docket No. 15403-22, filed 1/12/26, was confronted with “a formal request for production of documents. The request was divided into 64 parts. Under Rule 72(b)(3), the deadline for petitioners to respond to this request was 30 days from this request.” Order, at p. 1. (Footnote omitted).

B&D didn’t hit the 30-day finish line with all the documents in hand.

IRS filed a motion to compel, with two weeks to comply.

Judge Morrison doesn’t read this my blog (so I’ve been told), but he seems not to be an advocate of the “Win Your Case at Discovery” CLE school. So he held a hearing.

“At the hearing, petitioners explained that the formal request for production of documents was so extensive that fully complying with the 30-day deadline would have been impractical. Petitioners have since partly complied with the formal request for documents. Respondent indicated that it would be helpful if petitioners’ responses to the formal request for documents designated the specific part of the request to which each produced document relates. The Court anticipates that for petitioners to make these designations for the documents already produced and for documents produced in the future, petitioners will need more time to fully respond to the formal request for production of documents.” Order, at p. 1.

Now perhaps we have a microcaptivity case here, so I’m not wasting sympathy yet. I’m no fan of dodges or the floggers, enablers, and buyers thereof. But deluging an adversary with unduly burdensome requests is not going to win the one person you need most…the judge.