U.S. District Judge Rosemary Collyer appears ready to wash her hands of fights over evidence in a wrongful-termination case pending since 2010. In a rare display of judicial sarcasm, she titled her latest ruling last week: “Order on One Millionth Discovery Dispute.” Collyer wrote that while she “admires the advocacy of counsel,” she was “exhausted” by the fights over documents and other information. The lawyers asked for a meeting with the judge via telephone to discuss the latest spat, but Collyer decided to dispose of the issues right away in writing instead.
The case involves wrongful-termination claims against Fannie Mae. The plaintiff, Caroline Herron, was a former Fannie Mae vice president who returned to the mortgage giant in 2009 as a consultant to help implement U.S. Department of Treasury mortgage foreclosure prevention programs. Herron claimed she was fired after reporting what she believed were problems with how Fannie Mae was handling Treasury-related projects. Fannie Mae denied wrongdoing. Collyer, a federal district judge in Washington, noted in her order that deadlines for the exchange of information had been “extended repeatedly” in the case.
