Case Summaries – Page 188 – Electronic Discovery Law

FDIC v. Appleton, No. CV-11-476-JAK (PLAx), 2014 WL 10245383 (C.D. Cal. Nov. 29, 2012)

Dec 01 2012

Key Insight: Where plaintiff produced Relativity database with some 700,000 documents culled from its main server using search terms, and defendants complained there was no apparent logic to database and they could not tell what documents were responsive to what requests, court sided with defendants and ordered plaintiff to create files in Relativity into which it would place documents responsive to each particular request

Nature of Case: Receiver brought action against former officers and directors of failed bank

Electronic Data Involved: ESI

Lake Village Healthcare Ctr., LLC v. Hatchett, 407 S.W. 3d 521 (Ark. 2012)

Dec 01 2012

Key Insight: Trial court did not err when it struck part of defendants’ answers as sanction for discovery violations where trial court’s order specifically detailed the opportunities afforded defendants to either comply with the email request or furnish a basis upon which the court could determine they were trying to comply with the request, and trial court found that defendants failed to produce the emails in response to the discovery request, failed to produce the emails when ordered by the court, failed to timely notify the court of compliance problems, failed to furnish sufficient information of their good faith efforts, and failed to furnish information regarding when compliance could be expected

Nature of Case: Wrongful death, negligence, breach of fiduciary and confidential duty, medical malpractice

Electronic Data Involved: Email

Kruse Tech. P?ship v. Daimler AG, No. SACV 10-1066 JVS (RNBx), 2012 WL 12888668 (C.D. Cal. Oct. 22, 2012)

Dec 01 2012

Key Insight: Defendant moved to re-tax $202K of costs for exemplification and reproduction that were denied by the clerk. The court found that costs of copies provided to Defendant?s witnesses were not necessary or taxable because they were not requested by or tendered to the opposing party, as discussed in In re Ricoh Co., Ltd. Patent Litig., 661 F.3d 1361, 1368 (Fed. Cir. 2011). The court allowed $12.013.68 in XDD?s costs for converting documents to TIFF, performing OCR (required by court order) and producing the documents to Plaintiff. Defendant argued costs from third-party vendor IAV for storage of responsive documents and processes to allow digital searching of Defendant?s databases should have been allowed by the clerk. Plaintiff argued these were costs for collection and review of documents, rather than for copying. Plaintiff also argued the OCR fees were duplicative and that Defendant?s invoices did not provide sufficient detail to support taxation. The court found these costs were not taxable (searching and organizing rather than copying, as well as duplicative) and properly denied by the clerk.

Nature of Case: Taxable Costs

Electronic Data Involved: ESI

Eisai v. Sanofi-Aventis U.S., LLC, No. 08-4168 (MLC), 2012 WL 1299379 (D.N.J. Apr. 16, 2012)

Dec 01 2012

Key Insight: Court denied plaintiff?s motions to compel discovery from an additional 175 custodians and an additional 27 custodians (two separate requests) upon its determination that the requests were cumulative or duplicative and that the burden outweighed the potential benefit; of note was the significant expenditures of the defendants on already-produced discovery and the volumes produced as well as the estimated cost of the additional requested discovery, where the estimated burden of producing the additional 175 custodians was 140,00 hours of manpower and roughly $15 million dollars?an amount that exceeded the expected value of plaintiff?s claim

Electronic Data Involved: ESI from 200+ custodians

Gray v. Novell, Inc., No. 8:06-CV-1950-T-33TGW, 2012 WL 3886026 (M.D. Fla. Sept. 6, 2012)

Dec 01 2012

Key Insight: Where defendant failed to explain why conversion and printing of all of plaintiff?s electronically produced discovery was necessary, court declined to allow defendant to recover those costs

Electronic Data Involved: Costs related to printing of ESI

Pacificorp v. N.W. Pipeline GP, No. 3:10-cv-00099-PK, 2012 WL 6131558 (D. Or. Dec. 10, 2012)

Dec 01 2012

Key Insight: Addressing issue of taxable costs related to electronic discovery, court allowed recovery of costs related to ?converting already selected files into a database,? bates stamping, conversion to searchable PDF, and storage of electronic data but denied recovery as to collecting documents and culling them for responsiveness

Electronic Data Involved: Taxable costs related to ESI

MC Asset Recovery LLC v. Castex Energy, Inc., NO. 4:07-CV-076-Y, 2012 WL 12919263 (N.D. Tex. April 26, 2012)

Dec 01 2012

Key Insight: Court acknowledged that the parties could have communicated better to resolve the issue, but granted Plaintiff?s motion to compel re-production of ESI in .tiff format with a summation load file (including metadata) where Plaintiff indicated issues with Defendant?s production but where Defendant failed to timely follow up and then voluntarily re-produced ESI but not in a format that included metadata; the court also noted the strong showing that the metadata would be useful in the case and Plaintiff?s willingness to substantially narrow the number of documents sought, thus reducing the burden of production

Electronic Data Involved: ESI with metadata

Bull v. United Parcel Service, Inc., 665 F.3d (3d Cir. 2012)

Dec 01 2012

Key Insight: Circuit court found that ?producing copies in instances where the originals have been requested may constitute spoliation if it would prevent discovering critical information,? but also found that in the present case the District Court abused its discretion ?in ruling that, within its spoliation analysis, Bull intentionally withheld the original documents from UPS? and further abused its discretion when it imposed the sanction of dismissal with prejudice

Nature of Case: Employment litigation

Electronic Data Involved: Copies of hardcopy doctor’s notes

Gonzalez v. Las Vegas Police Dept., No. 2:09-cv-00381-JCM-PAL, 2012 WL 1118949 (D. Nev. Apr. 2, 2012)

Dec 01 2012

Key Insight: Where video surveillance tape was destroyed in contravention of duty to preserve, the court nonetheless denied plaintiff?s motion for sanctions (an adverse inference) where it determined that there was no prejudice to plaintiff because defendants identified the three officers/employees who processed plaintiff on the night of the allegedly wrongful arrest and because defendants conceded that the initial booking processes indicated that plaintiff was not the person sought by the relevant warrant

Nature of Case: Violation of civil rights (wrongful arrest) and related claims

Electronic Data Involved: Video surveillance

Gottlieb v. Iskowitz, 2012 Wl 2337290 (Cal. Ct. App. June 20, 2012)

Dec 01 2012

Key Insight: Appellate court found that trial court did not abuse discretion in imposing terminating sanctions for plaintiff?s egregious and willful discovery violations, including repeated failure to produce responsive materials in violation of the court?s multiple orders and subsequent ?dump? of 15 million pages of uncategorized documents that were not Bates labeled or accompanied by a corresponding index and which appeared to be largely non-responsive based on a review of 10% of the documents (?A dump of disorganized documents by definition is non-compliant.?); trial court?s award of significant damages was reversed and remanded for a new default proveup hearing on damages

Nature of Case: Libel, intentional infliction of emotional distress, and related claims

Electronic Data Involved: ESI

Catagory:Case Summaries