Case Summaries – Page 187 – Electronic Discovery Law

Pursuit Partners, LLC v. UBS AG, No. FSTX08CV084013452, 2012 WL 1624242 (Conn. Sup. Ct. Apr. 3, 2012)

Dec 01 2012

Key Insight: Court found plaintiff had violated a court order compelling production of responsive materials, as evidenced by the production of additional responsive documents from other witnesses and by plaintiff?s agent?s inability to relate his process for identifying and collecting responsive information, but declined to order the case dismissed and instead ordered plaintiff to ?once again respond to each discovery request? and outlined what information should be tracked with regard to those efforts

Nature of Case: Claims concerning the purchase of several collateralized debt obligations (CDO’S) by the plaintiffs which resulted in a substantial loss as a result of the credit ratings downgrades in the market

Electronic Data Involved: ESI

Tadayon v. Greyhound Lines, Inc, No. 10-1326, 2012 WL 2048257 (D.D.C. June 6, 2012)

Dec 01 2012

Key Insight: In this case, following analysis of several discovery motions, Magistrate Judge Facciola wrote of the need for cooperation: “III. High Noon. As explained at the discovery status hearing held on April 30, 2012, there is a new sheriff in town-not Gary Cooper, but me. The filing of forty-page discovery motions accompanied by thousands of pages of exhibits will cease and will now be replaced by a new regimen in which the parties, without surrendering any of their rights, must make genuine efforts to engage in the cooperative discovery regimen contemplated by the Sedona Conference Cooperation Proclamation.FN3 First, the parties will meet and confer in person in a genuine, good faith effort. . . .”; also, court ruled that where Clawback agreement imposed no conditions on right to recall privileged documents, defendant could do so irrespective of alleged negligence

Nature of Case: Patent Infringement

Electronic Data Involved: All discovery

Oracle Am. v. Google, Inc., No. C 10-03561 WHA, 2012 WL 3822129 (N.D. Cal. Sept. 4, 2012)

Dec 01 2012

Key Insight: Court denied motion for electronic discovery costs pursuant to Fed. R. Civ. P. 54(d) and 28 USC 1920 where Defendant?s bill of costs included many line item descriptions for ?intellectual effort? such as ?analyzing the discovery documents,? preparing for and participating in a ?kickoff call? and other communications with co-workers and vendors

Nature of Case: Patent and Copyright infringement

Electronic Data Involved: Taxable costs related to electronic discovery

St. Louis Produce Mkt. v. Hughes, No. 4:09CV1912 RWS, 2012 WL 4378194 (E.D. Mo. Sept. 25, 2012)

Dec 01 2012

Key Insight: In a case where defendant tried to ?pull a fast one? by altering material terms to a contract and inducing plaintiff to sign it, defendant sought but was repeatedly unable to procure production of defendant?s laptop — which it suspected was used to alter the contract — and when the laptop was produced, it had been substantially damaged. Moreover, evidence indicated that defendant had destroyed relevant cell phone records and emails and that defendant?s counsel made repeated misrepresentations to the court. Thus, the court struck defendant?s pleadings as a sanction.

Nature of Case: Declaratory judgment that contract was invalid because procured by fraud

Electronic Data Involved: Laptop

Pearson Educ., Inc. v. Doe, No. 12 Civ. 4786(BSJ)(KNF), 2012 WL 4832816 (S.D.N.Y. Oct. 1, 2012)

Dec 01 2012

Key Insight: Court denied motion for expedited discovery to Paypal Inc purportedly intended to determine the identity of an alleged copyright infringer where plaintiff failed to sustain their burden of making a clear and specific showing of good cause and sufficient reason why there motion was necessary, including because plaintiff failed to assert that Doe defendant lived in the relevant judicial district, because plaintiff failed to establish that they exhausted traditional avenues of identification and because the subpoena was overly broad, among other reasons

Nature of Case: Copyright infringement

Electronic Data Involved: Identifying information from internet service provider (ISP)

Simon Prop. Gourp, Inc. v. Lauria, No. 6:11-cv-01598-Orl-31KRS, 2012 WL 6859404 (M.D. Fla. Dec. 13, 2012)

Dec 01 2012

Key Insight: Where Defendant threw laptop containing relevant evidence into the river following specific notice of her obligation to preserve and admitted her intent to destroy evidence, the court recommended entry of default judgment and that Defendant be required to pay Plaintiff?s reasonably attorneys? fees and costs incurred as a result of the spoliation

Nature of Case: Fraud

Electronic Data Involved: Laptop

Shutterfly Inc. v. Foreverarts, Inc., No. CR 12-3671 SI, 2012 WL 2911887 (N.D. Cal. July 13, 2012)

Dec 01 2012

Key Insight: Court granted ex parte motion for temporary injunction prohibiting destruction of relevant ESI where plaintiff showed that it was likely to succeed on the merits of the case, that it would suffer irreparable harm absent an injunction if defendants were to destroy evidence, and that the prohibition against destruction of evidence would not burden defendants

Nature of Case: Copyright infringement

Electronic Data Involved: ESI

United States v. Kilpatrick, No. 10-20403, 2012 WL 3236727 (E.D. Mich. Aug. 7, 2012)

Dec 01 2012

Key Insight: Court granted motion in limine to establish authenticity of text messages sent on ?pager devices? citing 1) a sworn declaration of the pager services? custodian of records that the text messages were what they purported to be; 2) distinctive characteristics in the messages, including the displayed unique PIN number; 3) one defendant?s public admission that he and other employees communicated using the at-issue pagers; and 4) the ability of jurors to rely in comparisons with previously authenticated text messages

Nature of Case: Criminal

Electronic Data Involved: Text messages sent using “pager devices”

Thermotek, Inc. v. Orthoflex, Inc., No. 3:11-cv-870-D (BF), 2015 WL 4138722 (N.D. Tex. July 7, 2012)

Dec 01 2012

Key Insight: For Defendants? discovery failures, including gross negligence in the identification and collection of potentially relevant documents (as a result of an individual defendant?s attempts to identify and collect responsive documents himself) and a ?cavalier attitude towards his discovery obligations? (as evidenced by the ?repeated failure? to conduct a proper document collection? and ?lack of candor regarding their document productions,? e.g., failure to indicate that certain produced emails were not ?the actual transmittal communications? that originally accompanied invoices), the court declined to impose severe sanctions absent evidence of bad faith – although the request was denied without prejudice – and ordered Defendants to pay reasonable expenses and fees incurred by Plaintiff that were attributable to Defendants? discovery misconduct, which Plaintiff represented could exceed $100,000

Nature of Case: Breach of contract, breach of warranty, unfair competition, fraud

Electronic Data Involved: ESI, including QUickbooks

Rawal v. United Air Lines Inc., No. 07 C 5561, 2012 WL 581146 (N.D. Ill. Feb. 22, 2012)

Dec 01 2012

Key Insight: Court sustained objections to taxation of costs related to processing email accounts and other files into searchable format where the services were performed by the ?litigation support department? of defendant?s outside counsel and went ?far beyond the mere reproduction or exemplification of documents? and instead comprised the ?kind of work conventionally performed by attorneys and paralegals, the costs of which are not recoverable?

Nature of Case: Discrimination and retaliation

Catagory:Case Summaries