Mealey's Discovery
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October 19, 2023
Federal Magistrate: Sales Representatives’ Testimony Irrelevant In Hip Implant Suit
MOBILE, Ala. — A woman suing for injuries connected to her Pinnacle hip implant failed to show how testimony from the manufacturer’s sales representatives is relevant to her claims, an Alabama federal magistrate judge said, denying her request to depose the two representatives who were in the room during her surgeries.
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October 18, 2023
Ruling Limits Some Deposition Topics In Tax Attorney’s Microcaptive Insurance Suit
WEST PALM BEACH, Fla. — Ruling on the latest discovery dispute in a case involving a penalty related to microcaptive insurance companies, a Florida federal magistrate judge sustained the government’s objections to eight of the 14 topics the plaintiff noticed for depositions of the Internal Revenue Service.
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October 17, 2023
Judge: Defendants May Re-Depose Mesothelioma Sufferer In Wake Of Kidney Cancer
OAKLAND, Calif. — A judge overseeing an asbestos case in California said defendants may re-depose a husband and wife given the length of time since the original depositions and his subsequent kidney cancer diagnosis.
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October 16, 2023
N.J. Federal Judge Affirms Discovery Ruling In Pollution Liability Coverage Suit
NEWARK, N.J. — A New Jersey federal judge affirmed a magistrate judge’s ruling that a pollution liability insurer is not entitled to documents related to communications between the insured and its law firms about an underlying suit filed against the insured because the insurer failed to show that the magistrate judge’s ruling was clearly erroneous or contrary to law.
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October 16, 2023
Court Won’t Force Filing Of Asbestos Attorney’s Employment Allegations
LOS ANGELES — Redacted allegations in an employment action between an asbestos attorney and the firm he said fired him for complaining about witness coaching were never before the trial court and therefore can’t be unsealed, and the public has no interest in allegations shared only between parties to litigation, a California appeals court said Oct. 13 in denying a company’s request to unseal the redacted complaint.
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October 13, 2023
New York Justice Seals Burnham’s Tax Returns Used In Asbestos Trial
NEW YORK — Public curiosity does not outweigh a desire to protect proprietary commercial information disclosed in a tax return produced for use in the punitive damages portion of an asbestos trial that produced a $38 million verdict, a New York justice said in sealing the evidence.
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October 12, 2023
Pennsylvania Mediation Privilege Law Is Applied In Indemnification Row
TRENTON, N.J. — Ruling on a motion to compel discovery in a dispute between insurers and reinsurers over indemnification for asbestos bodily injury claims, a New Jersey federal magistrate judge denied it without prejudice as to two categories of documents but partly granted it as to a third category.
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October 11, 2023
SEC Seeks To Compel Musk’s Testimony In Twitter Investigation
SAN FRANCISCO — The Securities and Exchange Commission filed an application in the U.S. District Court for the Northern District of California for an order to compel Elon Musk to testify as part of an SEC investigation into his 2022 purchase of stock in Twitter Inc., saying Musk refused to comply with an administrative subpoena in September after having agreed to testify in May and called the subpoena harassment.
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October 11, 2023
Motion To Disqualify Opioid MDL Special Master For Reply-All Email Error Fails
CLEVELAND — The Ohio federal judge overseeing the opioid multidistrict litigation on Oct. 11 denied a motion filed by two pharmacy benefit managers (PBM) to disqualify the special master who was accused of bias after he inadvertently sent a personal email to the parties.
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October 11, 2023
‘Near Acrobatic Attempts To Avoid Deposition’ In Tax Evasion Suit Halted
CENTRAL ISLIP, N.Y. — Scolding the partner of a deceased tax evasion defendant for “gamesmanship” and disregarding court orders, a New York federal magistrate judge denied the man’s motion to quash a deposition subpoena served on him by the U.S. government stating, that the movant’s “near acrobatic attempts to avoid the deposition must now come to an end.”
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October 11, 2023
Trailer Owner Sanctioned For Incomplete Discovery In Personal Injury Suit
DALLAS — Acknowledging the “unusual circumstances” of the counsel for a defendant in a tractor-trailer accident personal injury lawsuit being unable to locate a company representative, a Texas federal magistrate judge ruled that the defendant was still responsible for its failure to provide complete discovery responses despite counsel’s representation of its efforts to comply with the discovery requests.
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October 10, 2023
Sony Must Provide Financial Info For Use In Canadian Shareholder Oppression Suit
SAN FRANCISCO — A California federal magistrate judge ruled that a minority shareholder’s subpoena for financial incentive information from Sony Interactive Entertainment America Trading LLC satisfies the threshold and discretionary requirements for obtaining discovery for use in a foreign tribunal, leading him to grant an ex parte application to serve such a subpoena on Sony.
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October 10, 2023
New York Special Master Won’t Allow Deposition Of Asbestos-Talc Expert
NEW YORK — Worrying that allowing an expert deposition in an asbestos-talc case could open the floodgates to such moves in New York, which generally doesn’t permit expert depositions, a special master recommended rejecting a defendant’s argument that the unique factors in the case and expert Jacqueline Moline’s report warranted such a drastic departure.
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October 06, 2023
Man: Reject Feigned Prejudice From Supplemental Asbestos Expert Disclosures
NEW YORK — Defendants’ efforts at creating the appearance of prejudice from an asbestos-talc expert’s supplemental report ignore that they deposed the witness with full knowledge of her opinions and knew almost immediately of a new article on which she relies, a plaintiff tells a federal judge in New York in opposing a motion to preclude the supplemental report.
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October 06, 2023
Magistrate Denies Relator’s Bid To Reopen Discovery In FCA Suit Against Medtronic
KANSAS CITY, Kan. — A Kansas federal magistrate judge on Oct. 5 denied a relator’s request to reopen discovery in his qui tam suit alleging that Medtronic and its related company and a hospital violated the False Claims Act (FCA) by participating in a scheme to provide medically unnecessary treatment resulting in the submission of false claims for payment to federal health care programs, finding that the relator failed to establish good cause to reopen discovery.
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October 04, 2023
Unsecured Creditors In Vesttoo Chapter 11 Case Get Leave To Conduct Discovery
WILMINGTON, Del. — The Official Committee of Unsecured Creditors in the jointly administered Chapter 11 case of Vesttoo Ltd. and 48 affiliated entities has been granted leave by a Delaware federal bankruptcy judge to conduct discovery.
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October 04, 2023
Reinsurer Largely Loses Privilege Row Involving Allocation Modeling Documents
WHITE PLAINS, N.Y. — Finding in part that allocation modeling documents in a discovery dispute are not privileged, a New York federal magistrate judge mostly denied a reinsurer’s motion for a protective order in the breach suit involving an environmental losses settlement.
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October 03, 2023
Fracking Operator: Documents Must Be Produced As They Form Basis Of Complaint
WHEELING, W.Va. — A hydraulic fracturing operator filed a reply brief in West Virginia federal court arguing that it should grant the company’s motion to compel production of documents that are directly related to the factual support of landowners’ claims in an abandoned wells dispute because it says the documents in question form the basis of the complaint against the company.
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October 02, 2023
U.S. High Court Won’t Review Sanctions, Orders In Law Professor’s Race Bias Suit
WASHINGTON, D.C. — The U.S. Supreme Court on Oct. 2 denied a pro se petition for a writ of certiorari filed by a former law professor seeking review of sanctions and other appellate orders in a race bias lawsuit.
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September 26, 2023
With Pending Settlement In Clearview Biometrics MDL, Discovery Motions Denied
CHICAGO — In the wake of a tentative settlement announcement by the parties in a multidistrict litigation alleging violations of the Illinois Biometric Information Privacy Act (BIPA) by artificial intelligence firm Clearview AI Inc., the magistrate judge overseeing discovery denied as moot motions for sanctions and a protective order and returned the case to the assigned presiding judge in Illinois federal court.
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September 22, 2023
Covington’s SEC Disclosure Order Stayed Pending Client’s D.C. Circuit Appeal
WASHINGTON, D.C. — One day before the deadline for Covington & Burling LLP to turn over the names of certain clients sought by the Securities and Exchange Commission in conjunction with a cyberattack investigation, a District of Columbia federal judge on Sept. 21 granted a motion by one of those clients, proceeding anonymously, to partially stay the order pending the intervenor client’s appeal of the disclosure order.
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September 19, 2023
Covington, SEC Stipulate To Confidential Release Of 6 Clients’ Names
WASHINGTON, D.C. — A District of Columbia federal judge on Sept. 19 approved and signed a stipulation between Covington & Burling LLP and the Securities and Exchange Commission under which the law firm agrees to produce, under a protective order, the names of six of seven clients the judge had ordered it to provide to the commission in a July order, which both parties agree that they will not appeal.
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September 19, 2023
High Court Review Sought For Reverse-Preemption Ruling In Insurance Info Row
WASHINGTON, D.C. — Arguing in part that the Third Circuit U.S. Court of Appeals removed “large pieces of insurance regulation from the purview of states, where it has long been placed and confirmed by the McCarran-Ferguson Act [MFA],” the Delaware Department of Insurance (DDOI) asked the U.S. Supreme Court to review a corporate privacy case involving microcaptive insurance company information.
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September 18, 2023
Hawaii Judge Grants Genetic Testing Blood Draw In Asbestos Case
HONOLULU — A mesothelioma sufferer will sit for a blood draw for the purposes of genetic testing after a judge in Hawaii granted a defendant’s motion in an asbestos case.
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September 15, 2023
Unsecured Creditors In Vesttoo Chapter 11 Case Want To Conduct Discovery
WILMINGTON, Del. — Arguing that it “is the only independent fiduciary capable of conducting a thorough and conflict-free investigation,” the Committee of Unsecured Creditors in the jointly administered Chapter 11 case of Vesttoo Ltd. and 48 affiliated entities on Sept. 14 asked a Delaware federal bankruptcy court for leave to conduct discovery.