Case Summaries – Page 284 – Electronic Discovery Law

Averett v. Honda of Am. Mfg., Inc., 2009 WL 799638 (S.D. Ohio Mar. 24, 2009)

Dec 01 2009

Key Insight: Where the burden of searching all possible locations for a mention of plaintiff was overly burdensome in light of plaintiff?s 17 year history with the company and the unlikely possibility that additional relevant information would be discovered and where plaintiff failed to identify with particularity any documents she believed to exist or category of information likely to contain relevant information, among other things, court denied plaintiff?s motion to compel, citing Fed. R. Civ. P. 26(b)(2)

Nature of Case: Employment discrimination

Electronic Data Involved: ESI

QuinStreet v. Ferguson, 2009 WL 1789433 (W.D. Wash. June 22, 2009)

Dec 01 2009

Key Insight: Where defendant responded to plaintiff?s requests for production by producing a link to the responsive electronically stored information and where the link appeared to be thousands of pages of raw code and the emails could not be separated from one another, court ordered re-production of the information in a reasonably readable format or for defendant to cooperate to allow conversion of the ESI by a third party, for defendant to number each email to indicate to which request it was responsive, and for a statement regarding whether production was complete

Nature of Case: Defamation, interference with contractual relations, and intentional interference with prospective economic damages

Electronic Data Involved: ESI, emails

Dong Ah Tire & Rubber Co., Ltd. V. Glasforms, Inc., 2009 WL 1949124 (N.D. Cal. July 2, 2009)

Dec 01 2009

Key Insight: Stating ?Taishan did not even come close to making reasonable efforts to carry out its preservation of materials??, court ordered adverse inference and monetary sanctions (attorney?s fees and costs) for third-party defendant?s failure to preserve relevant evidence in violation of its litigation related duty to preserve and, in some instances, in violation of its own document retention policies

Nature of Case: Breach of contract (non-conforming goods)

Electronic Data Involved: ESI

U.S. v. Weaver, 2009 WL 2163478 (C.D. Ill. July 15, 2009) (Not Reported)

Dec 01 2009

Key Insight: Court granted motion to compel production of emails stored for less than 181 days in web-based email account pursuant to government?s trial subpoena upon finding that such emails were not stored for purposes of back up protection and thus not in ?electronic storage? pursuant to The Stored Communications Act such that a warrant was required

Nature of Case: Child pornography

Electronic Data Involved: Previously opened emails stored for less than 181 days in web-based account

FSP Stallion 1, LLC v. Luce, 2009 WL 2177107 (D. Nev. July 21, 2009)

Dec 01 2009

Key Insight: Where parties disagreed regarding the format of production and the need to produce and re-produce ESI with certain metadata, court ordered production of historical accounting data in native format, and for the production of responsive ESI ?in the form of TIF images or other agreed upon file format with the associated metadata?and the OCR file?; court allowed previously redacted privileged documents to be scanned to preserve the privilege

Nature of Case: Claims arising in part from false and misleading statements and omissions concerning financial condition of Golf Club

Electronic Data Involved: Financial information, emails, ESI

Zenith Elecs., Inc. v. Vizio, Inc., 2009 WL 3094889 (S.D.N.Y. Sept. 25, 2009)

Dec 01 2009

Key Insight: Court denied motion to compel production of documents by non-party pursuant to subpoena where court determined non-party did not have control of the documents requested because such documents were maintained by foreign parent company and non-party did not have access to them in the ordinary course of business

Nature of Case: Patent infringement

Electronic Data Involved: ESI, source code

Mechling v. City of Monroe, 152 Wash. App. 830 (Wash. Ct. App. 2009)

Dec 01 2009

Key Insight: Court of appeals vacated (in part) judgment of trial court and ruled former statute ?does not exempt disclosure of personal email addresses used by elected officials to discuss city business? and that plaintiff was entitled to the requested email messages without the personal email addresses redacted; court also held that there was no express obligation to produce email records in electronic format, but that statutory duty to ?provide the fullest assistance? obligated trial court to consider reasonableness and feasibility of electronic production on remand; redacted emails need not be scanned and produced electronically

Nature of Case: Complaint pursuant to Public Disclosure Act

Electronic Data Involved: Email addresses, emails

U.S. v. Dunning, 2009 WL 2815739 (D. Ariz. Nov. 12, 2009)

Dec 01 2009

Key Insight: Court denied defendant?s motion to compel production of ?information that is located in the unallocated or deleted space? of the relevant hard drive where defendant was in possession of ?precisely the same images of the hard drives? that the plaintiff possessed, where plaintiff was not in possession, custody, or control of information not already produced to defendant, and where ?Defendant [was] just as capable as the Government is of extracting the information for trial.?

Nature of Case: Criminal

Electronic Data Involved: Data from unallocated space on hard drive

In re McKesson Governmental Entities Average Wholesale Price Litig., 2009 WL 3706898 (N.D. Cal. Nov. 4, 2009)

Dec 01 2009

Key Insight: Where government agency objected to defendants? subpoena for the production of documents previously produced in a separate litigation on grounds of undue burden and cost based on the assertion that it needed to re-review all documents prior to production because some documents were subject to the deliberative process privilege and others were highly confidential, court held that the privilege had been waived by the agency?s failure to object in its initial response and by the production in separate litigation, ordered the documents produced under the POD ?Confidential, For Outside Attorney Eyes Only? and ordered defendants to bear the costs ?of copying and producing the documents in electronic form?

Nature of Case: Allegations that defendants artificially increased the published price of prescription drugs

Electronic Data Involved: ESI previously produced in separate litigation and maintained in database by third party

Palisades Collection, LLC v. Kedik, 890 N.Y.S. 2d 230, 67 A.D. 3d 1329 (N.Y. App. Div. 2009)

Dec 01 2009

Key Insight: Appellate court affirmed lower court?s finding that plaintiff failed to lay a proper foundation for the admission of a printed electronic spreadsheet where, although plaintiff?s agent averred the spreadsheet was kept in the usual course of business, the agent failed to establish his familiarity with plaintiff?s business practices and ?when, how, or by whom? the spreadsheet was made and where the agent failed to establish that the printed spreadsheet was a true and accurate representation of the electronic record

Nature of Case: Breach of contract

Electronic Data Involved: Printed electronic spreadsheet

Catagory:Case Summaries