Case Summaries – Page 407 – Electronic Discovery Law

United States v. Keystone Sanitation Co., 885 F. Supp. 672 (M.D. Pa. 1994)

Dec 01 2004

Key Insight: Inadvertent disclosure of defense attorney’s emails regarding defendants’ disposition of assets in context of massive production constituted subject matter waiver of attorney-client privilege because precautions taken to avoid such disclosure were not reasonable, defendants ordered to produce unredacted attorney billing memoranda relating to issue

Nature of Case: Environmental litigation

Electronic Data Involved: Email

Williams v. Hernandez, 2004 WL 1161318 (S.D.N.Y. May 25, 2004)

Dec 01 2004

Key Insight: Production request for all email to or from individual defendant during specified period was overly broad and burdensome, since plaintiff failed to justify the wholesale production of emails and failed to indicate why there would be relevant information concerning her claims in such emails

Nature of Case: Sex discrimination, negligent hiring and battery

Electronic Data Involved: Email

Bell v. Woodward Governor Co., 2004 WL 3121301 (N.D. Ill. Dec. 20, 2004)

Dec 01 2004

Key Insight: Where defendant represented that it had not located any other responsive documents which were not previously produced, court ordered defendant, with seven days of receipt of the order, to: (1) confirm that a reasonable search for the subject documents was conducted and indicate what the manner of the search was, (2) produce responsive documents, (3) confirm if no responsive documents exist, and (4) confirm instances where the documents were destroyed, indicating by whom and when, if possible

Nature of Case: Class action for race discrimination

Electronic Data Involved: Email and other documents

Edward D. Ioli Trust v. Avigilon Corp., No. 2:10-cv-605-JRG, 2012 WL 5830711 (E.D. Tex)

Dec 01 2004

Key Insight: Court found that local Patent Rule 3-4(a) requires production of source code and granted Plaintiff?s motion to compel

Nature of Case: Patent infringement

Electronic Data Involved: Source Code

Armstrong v. Amstead Ind., Inc., 2004 WL 1497779 (N.D. Ill. July 2, 2004)

Dec 01 2004

Key Insight: Court denied plaintiffs’ motion for sanctions stemming from defendants’ failure to disclose various relevant documents until after the close of fact discovery and plaintiffs’ expert disclosures, though defendants provided the material to their experts; instead, plaintiffs’ experts would be allowed to supplement their reports to address the belatedly-produced material

Nature of Case: Class action alleging violations of ERISA

Electronic Data Involved: Spreadsheets and reports

In re CI Host, Inc., 92 S.W.3d 514 (Tex. 2002)

Dec 01 2004

Key Insight: Texas Supreme Court denied defendant’s request for mandamus relief, finding that trial court did not abuse discretion in ordering production of backup tapes since defendant failed to support its objections as required by Tex. R. Civ. P. 193.4(a)

Nature of Case: Class action against web host alleging contract breach, negligence and violation of Deceptive Trade Practices Act

Electronic Data Involved: Backup tapes

Cumis Ins. Co. v. Diebold, Inc., 2004 WL 1126173 (E.D. Pa. May 20, 2004)

Dec 01 2004

Key Insight: Court ordered defendant to respond to document requests by searching its electronic storage devices and electronic data compilations; plaintiff convinced court that defendant may not have satisfied its discovery obligations by showing that responsive Diebold documents and emails had been obtained from other sources, but had yet to be produced by Diebold itself

Nature of Case: Insurance coverage

Electronic Data Involved: Emails

In re Gabapentin Patent Litig., 214 F.R.D. 178 (D.N.J. 2003)

Dec 01 2004

Key Insight: Forwarding or copying email or other documents that are prepared by non-lawyers for business purposes to a lawyer does not transform such email or documents into work product

Nature of Case: Patent infringement

Electronic Data Involved: Email

Hester v. Bayer Corp., 206 F.R.D. 683 (M.D. Ala. 2001)

Dec 01 2004

Key Insight: After case was removed to federal court, defendant obtained order vacating state court’s entry of ex parte preservation order requiring defendant to “suspend all routine destruction of documents, including but not limited to, recycling back-up tapes, automated deletion of e-mail, and reformatting hard drives,” compliance with which defendant estimated to cost $50,000/month

Nature of Case: Product liability

Electronic Data Involved: Documents and information in paper or electronic format

Kintera, Inc. v. Convio, Inc., 219 F.R.D. 503 (S.D. Cal. 2003)

Dec 01 2004

Key Insight: Emails exchanged between a narrow group of plaintiff corporate business’s non-attorney employees were protected from discovery by attorney-client privilege and work product doctrine; further, statements on plaintiff’s web site waived work product protection for affidavits described therein, but did not waive work product protection with respect to plaintiff’s recorded conversation with competitor’s former employees and email exchanges with them

Nature of Case: Copyright infringement and misappropriation of trade secrets

Electronic Data Involved: Email

Catagory:Case Summaries