Court Orders Production of All Electronic Documents, Including Archived or Backup Emails and Electronic Files, for Key Players

Metro Wastewater Reclamation Dist. v. Alfa Laval, Inc., 2007 WL 1160012 (D. Colo. Apr. 19, 2007)

In this brief order, the court granted defendant’s motion to compel and ordered plaintiff to produce, among other things, certain plant data “in electronic format” and “all electronic documents, including the archived or back-up emails and electronic files for the Plaintiff’s personnel involved with the Project who are specifically identified in [defendant’s] Requests for Production related to the processes and operation of the Plant.”

The case involved claims for breach of a procurement contract for failure to meet the guaranteed specifications, and counter-claims seeking declaratory judgment relief related the contract.  Plaintiff had argued that the requested discovery was irrelevant, overly broad, overly burdensome, and costly.  The court’s analysis was short — it simply found that the requested discovery as outlined in the motion was relevant to the issues pending before the court and was discoverable under Fed. R. Civ. P. 26.