Mealey's Discovery
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March 30, 2021
Massachusetts High Court: Some Info Sought In AG’s Facebook Probe Is Privileged
BOSTON — Overturning two lower courts’ rulings, the Massachusetts Supreme Judicial Court on March 24 found that some of the data sought by the state’s attorney general (AG) in an investigation of Facebook Inc.’s data security practices is protected by the attorney-client privilege or the work product doctrine, remanding the case for a determination of which documents qualify for either privilege.
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March 24, 2021
Magistrate Grants Joint Motion For Protective Order In Tornado Coverage Suit
WINCHESTER, Tenn. — A federal magistrate judge in Tennessee on March 16 granted a joint motion for a protective order filed by a homeowners insurer and insureds, defining what constitutes confidential information in the insureds’ breach of contract and bad faith lawsuit arising from their tornado property damage.
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March 23, 2021
Government To 2nd Circuit: Microsoft Gag Orders Do Not Violate 1st Amendment
NEW YORK — Nondisclosure orders forbidding Microsoft Corp. from informing a client, or a representative thereof, about a warrant that compelled contents of its email accounts do not violate Microsoft’s free speech rights under the First Amendment to the U.S. Constitution, the U.S. government argues in a March 19 brief in the Second Circuit U.S. Court of Appeals, asserting that the orders are narrowly tailored to protect an ongoing criminal investigation.
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March 22, 2021
High Court Grants Cert In Foreign Tribunal Discovery Dispute
WASHINGTON, D.C. — The U.S. Supreme Court on March 22 said it will review a dispute over whether the federal statute governing judicial assistance in discovery for foreign and international tribunals applies to private commercial arbitral tribunals, the subject of a 3-2 circuit split.
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March 19, 2021
Marriott Data Breach Suit Plaintiffs Object To Search Of Their Electronic Devices
GREENBELT, Md. — Objecting to a special master’s recommendation that Marriott International Inc. be permitted to engage in a limited forensic examination of their electronic devices, the plaintiffs in a consolidated privacy class action over the hotel chain’s 2018 data breach on March 17 asked a Maryland federal court to deny that discovery request, which they contend would violate their privacy rights more than the original data breach.
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March 19, 2021
Sanction Over Subcontractor’s Failure To Disclose Umbrella Policy Vacated
ATLANTA — A Georgia appeals panel on March 16 vacated a ruling entering default against a now out-of-business subcontractor that allegedly installed a retaining wall that collapsed at a Home Depot U.S.A. Inc. as a discovery sanction for failing to disclose that it had a $5 million umbrella insurance policy, finding that the punishment was not warranted because there was no evidence of willfulness.
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March 18, 2021
Bankruptcy Judge OKs Bestwall’s Liability Discovery Requests, Denies Committee’s
CHARLOTTE, N.C. — A North Carolina federal bankruptcy judge on March 4 entered docket orders in favor of Chapter 11 debtor Bestwall LLC on two procedures for estimating the company’s asbestos liability and against the Official Committee of Asbestos Claimants, which had sought approval of four different estimation procedures.
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March 16, 2021
Bad Faith Claim Bifurcated From UIM Coverage Claim; Stay Of Discovery Denied
ANCHORAGE, Alaska — An Alaska federal judge on March 15 bifurcated an insured’s bad faith claim from the insured’s coverage claim in a dispute over coverage owed under an auto policy after determining that separate trials are warranted on the claims; however, the judge refused to stay discovery on the bad faith claim until after the underinsured motorist claim is resolved.
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March 16, 2021
Federal Judge Allows Sex Trafficking Coverage Suit To Proceed But Stays Discovery
ATLANTA — A federal judge in Georgia on March 15 refused to dismiss an insurer’s lawsuit seeking to rescind a liability insurance policy and a declaration that it has no duty to defend or indemnity the owner, operator and franchisors of a Marietta, Ga., hotel against underlying sex trafficking claims but stayed discovery to see how prosecution of the underlying action proceeds.
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March 16, 2021
Judge Strikes Insurers’ Request For Damages Stemming From Hospitals’ Bills
PHILADELPHIA — A federal judge in Pennsylvania on March 12 granted a motion to strike a request from Aetna Inc. and its affiliates for $102.7 million in damages stemming from the submission by medical billing companies for allegedly inflated claims for services provided by a physicians group for services provided at hospitals, finding that the insurers failed to disclose during fact discovery that such damages were being sought.
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March 15, 2021
Plaintiffs’ Co-Lead Counsel In Biomet Hip MDL Sanctioned By Judge
SOUTH BEND, Ind. — The Indiana federal judge overseeing the Biomet M2a Magnum metal-on-metal hip multidistrict litigation on March 11 ordered the plaintiffs’ co-lead counsel to pay fees and costs incurred by defendant Biomet Inc. in bringing a motion for sanctions for violating the court’s order on common discovery as it applied to two plaintiff cases.
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March 15, 2021
Judge Won’t Reconsider Frye Genetic Test Ruling In Asbestos-Talc Case
CHICAGO — A motion seeking reconsideration of a ruling denying genetic testing of a woman suffering from mesothelioma allegedly caused by asbestos in talc was denied by an Illinois judge on March 12 during a hearing, sources told Mealey Publications.
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March 15, 2021
Magistrate Quashes Subpoenas For UAE Entity’s Google Records To Enforce $51M Award
NEW YORK — A New York federal magistrate judge on March 12 quashed subpoenas issued to Google LLC for a United Arab Emirates joint stock company’s online records to aid in the enforcement of an arbitral award worth more than $51 million because the subpoenas were issued by a nonparty entity before its substitution as plaintiff in the litigation.
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March 12, 2021
5th Circuit Affirms Employer’s Summary Judgment In NASA Asbestos Case
NEW ORLEANS — A case involving a NASA engineer’s alleged asbestos exposures belonged in federal court, did not involve prejudicial discovery violations and cannot escape Louisiana’s workers’ compensation exclusivity provision, a Fifth Circuit U.S. Court of Appeals panel said March 9 in withdrawing a previous opinion and affirming a lower court.
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March 10, 2021
Insurer Must Submit Parts Of Claim File In Bad Faith Suit Over Home Fire Coverage
WILKES BARRE, Pa. — Granting in part a motion to compel discovery of their insurer’s unredacted claim file by a Pennsylvania couple whose home was destroyed in a fire, a Pennsylvania federal magistrate judge on March 5 found that certain information about insurance reserves and some communications with counsel were not privileged.
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March 09, 2021
Remote Review Of Source Code OK’d In ISP Copyright Case Due To COVID Restrictions
DENVER — A Colorado federal magistrate judge on March 8 issued a supplemental stipulated protective order allowing the plaintiff record labels in a copyright infringement suit against an internet service provider (ISP) to conduct their review of Charter Communications Inc.’s computer source code remotely due to restrictions related to the COVID-19 pandemic.
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March 08, 2021
New York Justice Opens Door To Jurisdictional Discovery In Asbestos Case
NEW YORK — A couple is entitled to jurisdictional discovery to determine how a California company’s asbestos-containing doors came to be used in a New York theater renovation, a New York justice said March 1 in denying dismissal on jurisdictional grounds.
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March 08, 2021
App Developers’ Counsel Not Sanctioned For Disclosing Confidential Apple Information
OAKLAND, Calif. — Although counsel for two app developers suing Apple Inc. for antitrust violations recited confidential materials in open court, a California federal magistrate judge on March 4 held that because the information had been made public otherwise, the attorney did not actually violate a protective order, leading the magistrate to admonish the attorney but otherwise deny Apple’s motion for sanctions.
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March 05, 2021
Verizon May Conduct Discovery On Reformation Claim In Remanded ERISA Suit
CENTRAL ISLIP, N.Y. — Adopting a magistrate’s report and recommendation, a New York federal judge on Feb. 19 found that Verizon Communications Inc. was entitled to conduct discovery related to an equitable relief claim brought against it in a life insurance benefits dispute under the Employee Retirement Income Security Act, finding that the defendant did not have a chance that to pursue discovery prior to a previous dismissal ruling.
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March 04, 2021
High Court Deems Agencies’ Draft Opinions Deliberative, Exempt From FOIA Requests
WASHINGTON, D.C. — Draft biological opinions prepared by two government agencies in response to proposed rulemaking by the Environmental Protection Agency constituted predecisional and deliberative documents and, as such, were exempt from disclosure under the Freedom of Information Act (FOIA), a U.S. Supreme Court majority held March 4, reversing a ruling by the Ninth Circuit U.S. Court of Appeals.