Case Summaries – Page 172 – Electronic Discovery Law

Kregg v Maldonado, —N.Y.S.2d—, 2012 WL 4469935 (N.Y. App. Div. Sept. 28, 2012)

Dec 01 2012

Key Insight: Where lower court granted defendants? motion to compel the ?entire contents? of plaintiff?s social media accounts, appellate court found the ruling was in error where there was no contention that the contents contradicted plaintiff?s claims and where the appellate court determined the ?proper means? to obtain disclosure of relevant information was a ?narrowly-tailored discovery request seeking only that social-media-based information that relates to the claimed injuries arising from the accident?

Nature of Case: Claims related to injuries from motorcycle accident

Electronic Data Involved: Social media accounts

Rogers v Allstate Ins. Co., No. 11-cv-7776, 2012 WL 5250513 (E.D. Pa. Oct. 23, 2012)

Dec 01 2012

Key Insight: Where plaintiff recycled the at-issue computer after being notified that Allstate disputed the effective date of her cancellation (which may have been discernible from examination of the computer) but before it was formally requested in discovery (almost two years later), court questioned whether a lay person would have known to keep her computer because of potential litigation when the computer was not the subject of her claim and declined to dismiss her claims but indicated that it would entertain further motions practice on the issue closer to trial

Nature of Case: Breach of contract, bad faith

Electronic Data Involved: Personal Computer

AllianceBernstein L.P. v. Atha, —N.Y.S.2d—, 2012 WL 5519060 (N.Y. App. Div. Nov. 15, 2012)

Dec 01 2012

Key Insight: On defendant?s appeal of lower court?s order requiring production of his iphone to opposing counsel for counsel?s review, appellate court found the order too broad and ?tantamount to ordering the production of his computer? and remanded the case with the order that plaintiff produce the iphone to the court for in camera review to identify what if any information was responsive to plaintiff?s discovery request

Nature of Case: Breach of employment contract, misappropriation of confidential information

Electronic Data Involved: iPhone

Howell v. Buckeye Ranch, Inc., No. 2:11-cv-1014, 2012 WL 5265170 (S.D. Ohio Oct. 1, 2012)

Dec 01 2012

Key Insight: Court denied motion to compel Plaintiff?s production of her user names and passwords for all social media sites and indicated that Defendants were free to request relevant information from the private portions of Plaintiff?s social media accounts which Plaintiff?s counsel could access and produce and that Plaintiff remained obligated to preserve all relevant information and that if any information had been deleted, Plaintiff?s counsel should advise Defendants? counsel and attempt to recover the deleted data

Nature of Case: Employment discrimination

Electronic Data Involved: Social Media (Facebook)

Phillip M. Adam & Assocs. V. Dell Computer Corp., No. 2012-1238, 2013 WL 1092719 (Fed. Cir. Mar. 18, 2012)

Dec 01 2012

Key Insight: Circuit court found that the district court erred in imposing an adverse inference for failure to preserve absent evidence of bad faith and thus reversed the district court?s imposition of an adverse inference sanction

Nature of Case: Patent Infringement

Electronic Data Involved: Source Code

U.S. ex rel Yannacopoulos v. Gen. Dynamics, No. 03 C 3012, 2012 WL 1748120 (N.D. Ill. May 15, 2012)

Dec 01 2012

Key Insight: Court awarded electronic copying costs incurred in response to plaintiffs? production request

Electronic Data Involved: Exemplification costs

Chen v. New Trend Apparel, No. 11 Civ. 324 (GBD) (MHD), 2012 WL 4784855 (S.D.N.Y. Oct. 2, 2012)

Dec 01 2012

Key Insight: Court denied motion to compel inspection of defendants? computers reasoning that such inspections are granted only under limited circumstances ?when there is reason to believe that a litigant has tampered with the computer or hidden relevant materials despite demand for them in the course of the lawsuit or when the possession or use of the computer is an element of the parties’ claims or defenses? and further reasoning that movants made no showing to justify their request, particularly where certain information they sought had already been provided

Electronic Data Involved: Hard drives

Mailhoit v. Home Depot USA, No. CV 11-03892 DOC (SSx), 2012 WL 12884128 (C.D. Cal. Aug. 29, 2012)

Dec 01 2012

Key Insight: Addressing Defendant?s Motion for an order precluding discovery of disaster recovery backup tapes, court considered the factors laid out in Rule 26(b)(2)(B)?s Committee Note (2006) and relevant case law and concluded that Defendant met its burden to establish inaccessibility where restoration and production would be ?extraordinarily expensive, both in restoration costs and attorney time? and that Plaintiff failed to establish good cause to compel production, citing as most important the failure to substantiate the claim that the emails would be important or useful to her case; court rejected argument that sampling must be conducted before a cost-benefit analysis could be undertaken by the court

Electronic Data Involved: Disaster Recovery Backup Tapes

Fatpipe Networks India, Ltd. v. Xroads Networks, Inc., No. 2:09-CV-186 TC DN, 2012 WL 192792 (D. Utah Jan. 23, 2012)

Dec 01 2012

Key Insight: Where defendant claimed infringement based on alleged testing of defendant?s devices but claimed that no testing documentation was created and where, upon a neutral third party?s examination of the relevant devices, it was revealed that two key logs were missing expected messages and reflected abnormal device behaviors that plaintiff was unable to explain, the court held that defendant was prejudiced by plaintiff?s failure to protect and preserve the logs and the resulting inability to verify purported testing and thus ordered that all evidence of plaintiff?s testing of the devices would be precluded from introduction to the record or other use and ordered plaintiff to pay defendant?s expenses associated with the sanctions motion

Nature of Case: Patent infringement

Electronic Data Involved: Log messages, evidence of testing

Race Tires Amer., Inc. v. Hoosier Racing Tire, Corp., 674 F.3d 158 (3d Cir. 2012)

Dec 01 2012

Key Insight: On appeal, the Third Circuit vacated the District Court?s approval of taxable costs related to electronic discovery and remanded with instruction to re-tax in accordance with this opinion. Specifically, the court concluded that the relevant vendors? charges ?would not qualify as fees for ?exemplification?? and that ?of the numerous services the vendors performed, only the scanning of hard copy documents, the conversion of native files to TIFF, and the transfer of VHS tapes to DVD involved ?copying?? and were thus recoverable.

Nature of Case: Antitrust

Electronic Data Involved: Vendor charges related to electronic discovery

Catagory:Case Summaries