Lexis Legal News : Mealey's Discovery : Lawsuit Filings, Litigation, Settlements, Verdicts and Court News

Mealey's Discovery

August 15, 2022
7th Circuit Upholds Ruling For DOL In Subpoena Row Involving ERISA

CHICAGO — The investigatory authority of the U.S. Department of Labor (DOL) under the Employee Retirement Income Security Act “hinges on the information requested and its relation to an actual or potential ERISA violation,” a Seventh Circuit U.S. Court of Appeals panel ruled Aug. 12, upholding enforcement of an administrative subpoena issued against an entity that argued that it is not a fiduciary.
August 12, 2022
Bestwall Asbestos Claimants Relieved Of Daily Sanctions For Discovery Violations

CHARLOTTE, N.C. — A North Carolina federal bankruptcy judge on Aug. 8 lifted $100-per-day discovery sanctions for contempt she had imposed against hundreds of asbestos personal injury claimants in the Chapter 11 case of Georgia-Pacific spinoff Bestwall LLC for not providing complete information to the debtor in a discovery questionnaire, citing “substantial compliance” with the questionnaire requirements since the sanctions began.
August 10, 2022
Dismissal Denied In Declaratory Judgment Suit That Involves Reinsurance Agreement

BOSTON — Denying a motion to dismiss the first amended complaint (FAC) in a declaratory judgment suit regarding a stock purchase agreement (SPA) and reinsurance agreement, a Massachusetts federal judge on Aug. 9 called the FAC “somewhat cryptic” but ruled that the action is ripe and declined to dismiss the claims under the Declaratory Judgment Act.
August 10, 2022
Government To High Court: Petition On Attorney-Client Privilege Merits Denial

WASHINGTON, D.C. — There is no circuit split regarding application of the attorney-client privilege to so-called dual-purpose documents, the U.S. government asserts in an Aug. 1 brief opposing a petition for certiorari by a law firm that was compelled to produce its client’s documents, telling the U.S. Supreme Court that a trial court properly employed the primary purpose approach in deciding which documents were privileged.
August 05, 2022
Stipulation To Dismiss Agent Filed In Insurers’ $14.5M Suit Against Borrower

RALEIGH, N.C — Parties in a suit against a borrower on Aug. 4 filed a joint stipulation in North Carolina federal court agreeing to voluntarily dismiss the borrower’s agent from a suit filed by three insurers against the borrower, seeking to recover $14.5 million pursuant to a loan agreement for its alleged breach of contract in failing to make a first interest payment.
August 05, 2022
Judge Orders Discovery Into ‘Confusing To Say The Least’ Same-Named Companies

NEW ORLEANS — The confusion resulting from a dispute over which one of two same-named companies is responsible for employing an asbestos-exposed man requires discovery to clarify the facts, a federal judge in Louisiana said Aug. 2.
August 04, 2022
Pa. Panel: Homebuilders’ List Of Similar Water Claims Not Privileged Or Work Product

HARRISBURG, Pa. — A Pennsylvania appellate panel on July 28 affirmed a trial court’s finding that a homebuilder’s spreadsheets containing lists of customers who complained of water intrusion damage, the same claims brought by the homeowners in the cases on appeal, was not privileged or protected as attorney work product because the documents were factual in nature and prepared by the company’s operations department, not its legal counsel.
August 03, 2022
Discovery Ordered On Firm’s Hiring Of Arbitrator’s Daughter In $12.7M Award Row

GALVESTON, Texas — A Texas federal judge on Aug. 2 directed that employees of the law firm representing a $12.7 million award-creditor, which also hired the daughter of one of the arbitrators who issued the award, answer two specific questions regarding the hiring in addition to previously fulfilled discovery orders, but declined further discovery that “would send us off on a tangent that might never end.”
August 01, 2022
Government Petitions To Enforce Summonses In Microcaptive Insurance Probe

SHERMAN, Texas — Alleging failure to fully comply with administrative summonses issued during an Internal Revenue Service investigation involving purported “micro-captive” insurance transactions, the U.S. federal government on July 27 petitioned a Texas federal court to enforce those summonses against three entities and the person who is “their owner and/or principal officer.”
August 01, 2022
Employer Must Return, Destroy Data DOL Inadvertently Produced In FLSA Lawsuit

CENTRAL ISLIP, N.Y. — An employer being investigated under the Fair Labor Standards Act (FLSA) by the U.S. Department of Labor (DOL) must return or destroy certain electronically stored information (ESI) that was inadvertently provided in response to discovery requests, a New York federal magistrate judge ruled July 28, granting the DOL’s motion for a protective order and finding that the materials were protected by the informants’, attorney-client and deliberative process privileges.
July 29, 2022
Judge Approves Discovery In Take-Home Asbestos Turbine Exposure Case

PROVIDENCE, R.I. — A discovery request seeking information on products sold during the period of alleged asbestos exposure and limited to facilities where a man worked is reasonably narrow and seeks evidence that could be used in litigating the case, a Rhode Island judge said July 22.
July 28, 2022
Parties Select Mediator In Professional, D&O, Fiduciary Liability Coverage Suit

WEST PALM BEACH, Fla. — A professional liability, directors and officers liability and fiduciary liability insurer and its insured on July 25 filed a notice of selection of mediator for the insured’s breach of contract lawsuit arising from claims that he was wrongfully terminated by his former employer.
July 27, 2022
Judge Refuses To Bifurcate, Stay Claims In Professional Liability Coverage Suit

SEATTLE — A federal judge in Washington on July 25 denied a professional liability insurer’s motion to bifurcate and stay discovery of a law firm insured’s extracontractual claims, finding that “bifurcation is not likely to make the resolution of this matter more economical or more expedient.”
July 27, 2022
Maryland Panel: State Board Correct To Bar University From Recovering Carpet Costs

ANNAPOLIS, Md. — A panel of the Maryland Court of Special Appeals on July 19 held that the State Board of Contract Appeals did not err when it found that a state university forfeited its right to recover the costs incurred in remediating allegedly defective carpet and carpet padding because it did not first comply with the written notice requirement in the contract between it and the contractor hired to install the carpet.
July 26, 2022
Developer Permitted To Conduct Depositions In CGL Coverage Suit

SEATTLE — A federal judge in Washington on July 7 granted a developer’s motion for relief in a commercial general liability insurance coverage lawsuit with insurers, ruling that the developer should be provided with additional time to depose witnesses to allow the developer to properly defend its counterclaims against the insurers.
July 25, 2022
Government Asks High Court To Deny Certiorari Petition Questioning Filter Team Use

WASHINGTON, D.C. — A group of petitioners, who are the subjects of a federal criminal investigation, failed to establish that the use of walled-off filter teams to review and segregate seized information violates the attorney-client privilege or the work-product doctrine, the U.S. government argues in a July 21 brief, urging the U.S. Supreme Court to deny their petition for certiorari because the filter team protocol at issue does not conflict with any appellate ruling.
July 21, 2022
Ocwen Dodges Sanctions In Discovery Dispute But Must Submit Some Loan Documents

INDIANAPOLIS — In a mixed ruling for Ocwen Loan Servicing LLC, an Indiana federal magistrate judge on July 7 ordered the company to turn over about half of the documents that it withheld from discovery requests submitted by a customer suing it for real estate settlement and debt collection practices.
July 20, 2022
Discovery Ruling Issued, Government Motions Denied In Microcaptive Insurance Case

WEST PALM BEACH, Fla. — Ruling that letters outside the pleadings are “more appropriate for consideration on a more fulsome summary judgment record,” a Florida federal judge on July 18 denied motions by the government to dismiss or sever a claim in a tax attorney’s suit alleging that the Internal Revenue Service treated her unfairly, disclosed confidential return information and “has sought to destroy the microcaptive insurance industry.”
July 18, 2022
Government Says Discovery Requests In Mineral Rights Case Are ‘Overbroad’

DENVER — The U.S. government on July 1 filed a brief in Colorado federal court contending that it should deny a discovery motion filed by property owners with whom the government is engaged in a mineral rights dispute because the landowners have not carried their burden to demonstrate that they have a legal entitlement to jurisdictional discovery, and the government says the requests themselves are “overbroad.”