Case Summaries – Page 330 – Electronic Discovery Law

PML N. Am., LLC v. ACG Enters. of NC, Inc., 2007 WL 2156276 (E.D. Mich. July 26, 2007)

Dec 01 2007

Key Insight: Where defendant was insolvent and unable to fund litigation expenses or pay monetary sanctions imposed for electronic discovery abuses (which included among other things the unexplained disappearance of a hard drive from CEO’s laptop), and in light of CEO’s active participation in the fraud, breach of contract and e-discovery abuses, court granted plaintiff’s motion for leave to amend complaint to add defendant’s CEO as an individual defendant

Nature of Case: Fraud and breach of contract

Electronic Data Involved: Hard drive

Children’s Legal Servs. P.L.L.C v. Kresch, 2007 WL 4098203 (E.D. Mich. Nov. 16, 2007)

Dec 01 2007

Key Insight: Court denied motion to compel answers to multi-part interrogatory seeking each email address, mobile phone number, internet username, and instant messaging username used by any employee, associate, partner, paralegal, shareholder or other person who worked with defendant and was involved in the provision, referral or advertisement of legal services connected to the disputed service mark or any permutation thereof, finding it unduly broad, burdensome and not limited to the discovery of relevant matters

Nature of Case: Service mark infringement claims

Electronic Data Involved: Email addresses and user names

Member Servs., Inc. v. Sec. Mut. Life Ins., 2007 WL 2907520 (N.D.N.Y. Oct. 30, 2007)

Dec 01 2007

Key Insight: Court ordered defendant to produce highly relevant source code in electronic format subject to protective order in place and agreement by expert that he not share the information with others, including the plaintiffs, notwithstanding prior production in hard copy format

Nature of Case: Copyright infringement, breach of fiduciary duty, breach of contract, unfair trade practices

Electronic Data Involved: Source code

Hsieh v. Nicholson, 2007 WL 2438315 (N.D. Cal. Aug. 23, 2007)

Dec 01 2007

Key Insight: Finding any request for spoliation sanctions unwarranted, court denied plaintiff’s motion to compel production of emails where defendant made adequate showing that, after reasonable search and inquiry, he was unable to locate requested emails, plaintiff submitted no contrary evidence, and plaintiff identified no flaws in defendant’s search methods

Nature of Case: Employment discrimination

Electronic Data Involved: Email plaintiff claimed was sent in 2000

Marketfare Annunciation, LLC v. United Fire & Cas. Ins. Co., 2007 WL 3273440 (E.D. La. Nov. 5, 2007)

Dec 01 2007

Key Insight: Because trial was imminent and discovery had closed, and plaintiffs never sought extension of discovery deadline or expedited consideration of motion, court declined to address merits of plaintiffs? request that they be permitted to retain an expert at defendants’ expense to review defendants’ systems for relevant data, and, if data had been irretrievably deleted, for monetary and other sanctions; court advised that the appropriate method for relief for non-production of electronic data was for plaintiffs to first move to compel production of omitted materials, as opposed to bypassing this step and seeking sanctions directly

Nature of Case: Insurance coverage

Electronic Data Involved: Email and other electronic information about plaintiffs’ insurance claims

Williams v. ACS Consultant Co., Inc., 2007 WL 2822777 (E.D. Mich. Sept. 26, 2007)

Dec 01 2007

Key Insight: Although spoliation was shown based on individual plaintiff’s failure to return laptop to defendant for approximately seven months after court first ordered him to do so, destruction of files and other information and use of file-deletion and free-space wiping products on laptop, court denied motion to dismiss complaint as spoliation sanction because prejudice to defendant was not established — three months of discovery remained and it was not clear that defendant would not be able to obtain much of the evidence sought

Nature of Case: Racial discrimination, retaliation, hostile work environment and wrongful termination

Electronic Data Involved: Employer-issued laptop

DE Techs., Inc. v. Dell, Inc., 2007 WL 128966 (W.D. Va. Jan. 12, 2007)

Dec 01 2007

Key Insight: District judge modified magistrate’s December 4, 2006 sanctions order, allowing Dell to use the 57 disputed documents at trial since it concluded that Dell had provided the documents in a way that fulfilled all of its discovery obligations and DE had not moved to compel production of the documents in a different format

Nature of Case: Patent infringement

Electronic Data Involved: Electronic documents produced in searchable database

Marin v. Evans, 2007 WL 655456 (E.D. Wash. Feb. 27, 2007)

Dec 01 2007

Key Insight: Where it was undisputed that defendants had taken steps to prevent spoliation of evidence and the only support for preservation order was that defense counsel had been accused of destroying evidence in a separate case, court found that plaintiffs failed to show any evidence of past evidence destruction by the parties to this case and concluded that preservation order was not necessary

Nature of Case: RICO civil action

Electronic Data Involved: Emails

Bitler Inv. Venture II, LLC v. Marathon Ashland Petroleum LLC, 2007 WL 465444 (N.D. Ind. Feb. 7, 2007)

Dec 01 2007

Key Insight: Where principal of co-plaintiff forwarded 15 email exchanges with counsel to plaintiffs’ testifying expert witness, and expert witness produced them as part of his file even though he stated he did not consider them when forming his opinion, court ordered production of such emails under Rule 26(a)(2)(B)

Nature of Case: Breach of contract and waste

Electronic Data Involved: Privileged emails

White v. Potter, 2007 WL 1207205 (D.D.C. Apr. 24, 2007)

Dec 01 2007

Key Insight: Court ordered that certain representations of the Postal Service regarding the ineffectiveness or impossibility of additional searching for responsive documents and ESI be documented and attested to by sworn testimony, in order to lay a solid foundation upon which court could decide motion to compel and/or any future motion for sanctions

Nature of Case: Employment litigation

Electronic Data Involved: ESI

Catagory:Case Summaries