Case Summaries – Page 404 – Electronic Discovery Law

Computer Assoc. Int?l v. Am. Fundware, Inc., 133 F.R.D. 166 (D. Colo. 1990)

Dec 01 2004

Key Insight: Defendant’s duty to preserve source code arose no later than service of complaint, and its subsequent destruction of source code warranted default judgment on issue of liability; even assuming that maintenance of only a single, updated version of source code was, in other circumstances, a bona fide business practice, any destruction of versions of the code after service of complaint could not be excused as a bona fide business practice

Nature of Case: Copyright infringement, unfair competition, breach of computer software agreement

Electronic Data Involved: Source code

Farmers Ins. Co., Inc. v. Peterson, 81 P.3d 659 (Okl. 2003)

Dec 01 2004

Key Insight: Writ of prohibition issued, vacating lower court’s order requiring defendant to search all of its electronic and hard copy claim files covering three-year period; court suggested alternate approach using statistical sampling technique, but left the particulars of such sampling to parties to litigate in lower court

Nature of Case: Insurance bad faith

Electronic Data Involved: Electronic claim files covering three-year period

Grill v. Costco Wholesale Corp., 2004 WL 2314640 (W.D. Wash. Oct. 7, 2004)

Dec 01 2004

Key Insight: Finding that work product protection did not apply to contested emails, court ordered their production

Nature of Case: Disabled individual alleged violations of ADA

Electronic Data Involved: Email between plaintiff and third party

Jackson v. Microsoft Corp., 211 F.R.D. 423 (W.D. Wash. 2002)

Dec 01 2004

Key Insight: Plaintiff’s misconduct and discovery abuse (including obtaining email and proprietary information of employer, paying for such material, copying and using material to prepare case, and engaging in elaborate series of lies during depositions and evidentiary hearings re same) warranted dismissal with prejudice

Nature of Case: Employment discrimination

Electronic Data Involved: CDs and laptop computer hard drive

In re Livent, Inc. Noteholders Sec. Litig., 2003 WL 23254 (S.D.N.Y. Jan. 2, 2003)

Dec 01 2004

Key Insight: After defendant accounting firm produced only 25 pages of email from one custodian plus 14 emails from other employees, and plaintiffs voiced suspicions that production was incomplete, court directed defendant to fax to plaintiffs a written explanation of all the steps taken to find responsive emails; as to any further steps, court directed parties to read Magistrate Judge Francis’ opinion in Rowe Entertainment, then meet and confer re eight Rowe factors

Nature of Case: Securities litigation

Electronic Data Involved: Email

Multitechnology Servs., L.P. v. Verizon Southwest, 2004 WL 1553480 (N.D. Tex. July 12, 2004)

Dec 01 2004

Key Insight: Court ordered cost-shifting (50/50) where plaintiff sought information about Verizon’s past and present customers even though material was not “inaccessible” under Zubulake analysis, since data was available in Verizon’s computer databases or archives

Nature of Case: Breach of contract and related claims

Electronic Data Involved: Computerized customer data

Positive Software Solutions, Inc. v. New Century Mortgage Corp., 337 F. Supp. 2d 862 (N.D. Tex. 2004)

Dec 01 2004

Key Insight: Court ruled, reluctantly, that even though defendant had violated protective order relating to use of subject software and database, the order was not sufficiently clear and definite to be enforced by contempt

Nature of Case: Copyright infringement

Electronic Data Involved: Software and database

Samide v. Roman Catholic Diocese of Brooklyn, 773 N.Y.S.2d 116 (N.Y. App. Div. 2004)

Dec 01 2004

Key Insight: Court modified prior order directing defendants to produce contents of hard drives for in camera inspection; individual defendants now directed to produce hard copies of all emails relating to allegations against certain individual, including any deleted emails recovered by a qualified expert appointed by the referee supervising the discovery; only those emails that in fact deal with relevant allegations to be turned over to the plaintiff; plaintiff agreed to bear all costs related to recovery of data from hard drive

Nature of Case: Sex discrimination, negligent supervision and breach of contract

Electronic Data Involved: Email and deleted email on hard drives of individual defendants

State v. City of Clearwater, 863 So.2d 149 (Fla. 2003)

Dec 01 2004

Key Insight: City employees? personal email not subject to disclosure under public records law because it fell outside the state’s statutory definition of public records; mere placement of such email on government-owned computer system does not transform such email into a “public record”

Nature of Case: Suit by newspaper to access city employees’ emails under public records law; issue was certified to Florida Supreme Court as “question of great public importance”

Electronic Data Involved: Personal email stored on government-owned computers

In re Tyco Int’l, Ltd. Sec. Litig., 2000 WL 33654141 (D.N.H. July 27, 2000)

Dec 01 2004

Key Insight: Plaintiffs allowed to serve appropriately-worded subpoenas on certain third parties for limited purpose of giving notice of action and placing them under duty to preserve relevant evidence

Nature of Case: Securities fraud

Electronic Data Involved: Unspecified electronic data of third parties

Catagory:Case Summaries