Mealey's Discovery : Mealey's : Legal News & Analysis

Mealey's Discovery

January 10, 2025
Montana High Court: Governor May Claim Privilege Subject To In Camera Review

MISSOULA, Mont. — Reversing a trial court’s rejection of assertions of privilege by the Montana governor, a majority in the state’s Supreme Court affirmed guidelines for a gubernatorial privilege to protect from disclosure documents that contain advice related to the carrying out of a governor’s constitutional duties.
January 10, 2025
Memory Expert, Missing Evidence Central To Delaware Asbestos Case Developments

WILMINGTON, Del. — A Delaware judge excluded a memory expert in an asbestos pipe case, saying that while a company may challenge testimony, it may not do so through expert opinions because the testimony trespasses on the jury’s role of determining witness credibility. Meanwhile, the plaintiff in the case moved for an adverse instruction about missing evidence, saying a company “born under the specter of asbestos” should have known that it would face litigation, a move J-M Manufacturing Co. Inc. (JMM) portrayed as a coordinated effort to hamstring its ability to raise a defense.
January 09, 2025
Company Must Produce Witness’ Lawsuit Funding Evidence In OpenAI Trademark Case

SAN FRANCISCO — A company locked in a suit with OpenAI Inc. over trademark infringement must produce documents related to a nonparty witness who is an investor and is funding the company’s defense as the evidence goes to his credibility and bias, a federal magistrate judge in California said Jan. 8. In a second order the court granted OpenAI additional time to depose the company’s founder.
January 09, 2025
Man: ‘Discovery Fraud’ Should Make Court Reconsider Asbestos-Talc Judgment Ruling

BRIDGEPORT, Conn. — An asbestos-talc defendant secured jurisdictional dismissal on the basis of “ongoing discovery fraud,” a man told a Connecticut judge on Jan. 8 in a motion seeking to reargue a decision not to open judgment for the company.
January 09, 2025
Vice Chancellor Addresses Privilege Claims In DUFTA Case Discovery Dispute

WILMINGTON, Del. — A Delaware Chancery Court vice chancellor ordered plaintiffs to produce some documents they had argued were privileged and to pay for additional depositions in a putative class suit over an alleged scheme to strip capital from an insurance subsidiary on which many policyholders depend for long-term care (LTC) disability benefits.
January 08, 2025
Pipe Maker Opposes Reopening Expert Discovery In Asbestos Case

OAKLAND, Calif. — An asbestos pipe defendant told a California judge that it diligently pursued experts for its defense and that it would be prejudicial to reopen expert discovery simply because the plaintiffs did not exhibit the same behavior.
January 07, 2025
Judge Sets Aside Deadlines During Discovery In Breach Suit Against Ex-Underwriter

MIAMI — After an insurer asked to extend deadlines for reasons including that recent discovery “has revealed the broad scope of [its former underwriter]’s years-long, transnational scheme” that allegedly exposed it “to over $100 million in claims,” a Florida federal judge entered an order setting aside the deadlines while discovery continues.
January 07, 2025
South Dakota High Court: State Can’t Be Ordered To Produce Rape Victim’s Records

PIERRE, S.D. — The defendant in a rape case cannot subpoena the state to produce the victim’s treatment records that are not in its possession and that might not exist at all, the South Dakota Supreme Court ruled, reversing a trial court’s order to produce such records for in camera review.
January 06, 2025
Ohio High Court Remands Discovery Privilege Dispute In Medical Malpractice Suit

COLUMBUS, Ohio — Chiding a trial court for “erroneously limit[ing] its own power to control the discovery process,” the Ohio Supreme Court remanded a disagreement over whether a treating physician’s residency file is protected by the peer-review privilege, instructing the trial court to use in camera review, among other inquiries, in determining whether the privilege applies.
January 06, 2025
Opioid MDL Judge OKs Stay On Privilege Order, Denies Stay For Personnel Records

CLEVELAND — The Ohio federal judge overseeing the opioid multidistrict litigation on Jan. 6 released an amended order that granted two pharmacy benefit managers (PBMs) a temporary stay on an order finding that certain documents were not privileged but denied the motion to stay the release of personnel files.
January 03, 2025
9th Circuit Partly Reverses Dismissal Of Muslims’ Suit Over FBI Surveillance

SAN FRANCISCO — Nearly three years after the U.S. Supreme Court remanded a surveillance suit brought by a group of California Muslims against the Federal Bureau of Investigation, and 18 months after it heard oral argument in the matter, a Ninth Circuit U.S. Court of Appeals panel affirmed dismissal of constitutional claims against individual FBI agents while finding that a trial court erred in dismissing religious discrimination claims under the state secrets privilege without conducting the necessary inquiry.
December 18, 2024
Contempt, Stay At Issue In Asbestos Expert Subpoena Case

NEW YORK — An asbestos expert, her hospital employer and Johnson & Johnson, locked in a battle over production of the identities of individuals the expert relied on in a study on talc exposures, briefed a New York Supreme Court justice on whether contempt sanctions are warranted for failure to produce evidence or whether a forthcoming motion to reargue and a pending motion for a protective order stayed an appellate court’s ruling, according to documents filed on the court’s docket.
December 18, 2024
Facing Asbestos Trial Delay, Judge Advances Hearing On Reopening Expert Discovery

OAKLAND, Calif. — After a couple warned that experts on both sides of an asbestos case are unavailable and that continuing with the existing schedule would threaten to delay the case, a California judge issued a tentative ruling advancing a hearing on reopening expert discovery. Separately, the plaintiffs appealed a decision granting summary judgment to asbestos fiber supplier Union Carbide Corp.
December 18, 2024
Talc Company Calls Arguments For Reopening Case ‘Hollow,’ ‘Legally Meaningless’

BRIDGEPORT, Conn. — A distribution agreement that will allegedly now show connections to Connecticut has been in the plaintiff’s possession the entire time; an unpublished and not final South Carolina court ruling finding fraud does not warrant reopening the case; and arguments to the contrary are “hollow and legally meaningless,” a talc company tells a Connecticut judge.
December 17, 2024
School: Monsanto ‘Squandered’ Discovery Order Extension, Another Is Not Warranted

BURLINGTON, Vt. — The Burlington School District (BSD) on Dec. 16 filed a brief in Vermont federal court contending that Monsanto Co. “squandered” the extra time it was granted as part of an extension of discovery in the BSD’s lawsuit alleging contamination from polychlorinated biphenyls (PCBs) and that the district court should deny Monsanto’s motion for another extension.
December 17, 2024
Judge Stays Discovery In Lawsuit Over Alleged Workers’ Comp Scheme

BROOKLYN, N.Y. — A New York federal judge has stayed discovery pending resolution of expected dismissal motions in a Racketeer Influenced and Corrupt Organizations Act (RICO) lawsuit where a reinsurer and management general agency allege that the defendants took part in purportedly fraudulent workers’ compensation claims and personal injury lawsuits.
December 17, 2024
Massachusetts Magistrate Judge Compels Roof Material Maker To Disclose Documents

SPRINGFIELD, Mass. — A Massachusetts federal magistrate judge has granted an order compelling a roof coating maker to produce relevant documents in a construction defect suit and related insurance coverage litigation.
December 11, 2024
Judge: PFAS Defendant Must Produce Witness To Address Corporate Events After 2002

CHARLESTON, S.C. — A federal judge in South Carolina on Dec. 10 issued an order pertaining to all cases in the multidistrict litigation for the firefighting agent known as aqueous film forming foam (AFFF), which contains per- and polyfluoroalkyl substances (PFAS), directing one of the defendants in the case to prepare and produce a witness to speak for the corporation pursuant to a notice of deposition under Federal Rule of Civil Procedure 30(b)(6) on events that took place after 2002.
December 11, 2024
DuPont Wants Special Master’s Order Blocking Discovery In PFAS Case Reversed

TRENTON, N.J. — EIDP Inc., formerly E.I. DuPont de Nemours & Co., and its affiliates filed a reply brief in New Jersey federal court on Dec. 10, arguing that it should reverse an order issued by the special master in the per- and polyfluoroalkyl substances (PFAS) groundwater contamination case brought against the companies by the state of New Jersey because, contrary to the special master’s ruling, the declaration of a New Jersey Department of Environmental Protection (DEP) fails to satisfy the requirements of invoking the deliberative process privilege.
December 11, 2024
OpenAI Challenges Ruling Denying Evidence Of New York Times’ AI Use

NEW YORK — OpenAI Inc. objected to a magistrate judge’s decision denying the company access to evidence of how the New York Times Co. uses artificial intelligence, saying the ruling permits the newspaper company to speak “out of both sides of its mouth” by allowing it to seek billions of dollar in damages while embracing the same technology it denigrates.
December 11, 2024
Credit Unions Ask Court To Deny Wawa Discovery, Approve Data Breach Suit Agreement

PHILADELPHIA — A group of financial institutions (FIs) suing Wawa Inc. over its 2019 data breach filed a motion asking a Pennsylvania federal court to deny the defendant’s motion to compel certain communications related to the claims filing process for class members and to grant final approval to a three-tiered settlement agreement that received preliminary approval more than a year ago.
December 10, 2024
Indiana High Court: Adult Firm’s Discovery Objections Were Waived, Untimely

INDIANAPOLIS — In a dispute over the revoking of an adult entertainment license, the Indiana Supreme Court found that the owner of an adult entertainment firm waived its objections to an Indiana town’s discovery requests because they were filed almost a year late.
December 06, 2024
New Jersey Federal Magistrate Allows Limited Discovery In Disability Dispute

NEWARK, N.J. — A New Jersey federal magistrate judge on Dec. 5 determined that an attorney who alleges that his claim for long-term disability (LTD) benefits was wrongfully denied is entitled to take very limited discovery regarding compensation and performance evaluations of personnel used by the disability insurer in evaluating his LTD claim.
December 06, 2024
Epic, Apple File Status Report, Disagree On Privileged Documents In Antitrust Row

OAKLAND, Calif. — In an antitrust suit filed by Epic Games Inc. against Apple Inc. in a California federal court, the parties filed a status report regarding discovery, with Epic asserting “that Apple has engaged in gross overuse of privilege” and Apple claiming that Epic’s search terms are “too broad.” In the case, Epic has moved to enforce an injunction requiring Apple to permit app developers to inform users of methods of making in-app purchases (IAPs) outside of the company’s App Store.
December 06, 2024
Contractor, Subcontractors Explore Possible Settlement Before Further Discovery

BOSTON — A contractor and subcontractors filed a joint status report in a dispute stemming from allegedly faulty installation of flooring at a construction project in New Jersey, telling a Massachusetts federal court that “they are interested in exploring the possibility of settlement before engaging in further discovery.”