McHugh v. Fifth Third Bancorp, 1:21-cv-00238

Philip R. McHugh sued Fifth Third Bancorp and related defendants alleging age discrimination, failure to promote, wrongful termination, and retaliation under federal and Ohio law.
RHR International, a non-party consulting firm in Chicago, conducted an executive assessment of Timothy Spence (but not McHugh) for Fifth Third Bank.
McHugh served two subpoenas on RHR seeking documents related to executive assessments for the President/CEO role at Fifth Third between 2016 and present.
Both subpoenas required RHR to produce documents by mail or email to plaintiff’s counsel in Cincinnati, Ohio.
Upon RHR’s objection, McHugh moved to compel compliance in the Southern District of Ohio; RHR argued this was the wrong district because it is headquartered in Chicago (more than 100 miles from Cincinnati).

Issue	Plaintiff's Argument	Defendant's Argument	Held
Place of compliance under Rule 45 for document subpoenas	100-mile rule doesn't apply to electronic production; subpoenas specify Cincinnati as place of compliance	Rule 45(c) requires compliance within 100 miles of non-party's location; Chicago is the correct district	The place of compliance is Chicago (RHR’s location), not Cincinnati
Proper district for a motion to compel under Rule 45	Southern District of Ohio is appropriate since action is pending there and subpoenas name Cincinnati	Proper venue is the district where compliance is required (Northern District of Illinois), not where action is pending	Motion to compel must be filed in Chicago’s federal court, so the Ohio court lacks authority
Relevance of documents sought from RHR	Assessment documents regarding Spence are relevant to the discrimination lawsuit	Blanket objections; production improper due to subpoena procedural flaws	Court did not reach the merits due to procedural ruling
Effect of providing for electronic production on Rule 45's mileage limitation	Electronic production avoids personal presence, so 100-mile rule not relevant	Rule applies regardless of physical or electronic production	100-mile limitation applies; RHR need only comply in its home district