Case Summaries – Page 404 – Electronic Discovery Law

State v. Cartwright, 336 Or. 408, 85 P.3d 305 (2004)

Dec 01 2004

Key Insight: Concluding that defendant had a right to obtain audiotaped prior statements of witnesses for use in cross-examining the individuals whose statements were on the tapes, court noted in footnote: “The audiotapes at issue here are the functional equivalent of written statements. It would be a towering triumph of form over substance to hold that [defendant’s former employer’s] choice of an electronic, rather than a documentary, mode of preserving the witness’ statements puts the statements beyond the reach of a subpoena duces tecum.”

Nature of Case: Criminal sexual harassment

Electronic Data Involved: Audiotapes of witness’ statements made by defendant’s former employer

TPS, Inc. v. U.S. Dept. of Defense, 330 F.3d 1191 (9th Cir. 2003)

Dec 01 2004

Key Insight: Reversing summary judgment for DOD, court stated that relevant inquiry as to whether an agency must provide information in requested format is whether, in general, a requested format is one that is “readily reproducible” by the agency, benchmarked against the agency’s “normal business as usual approach” with respect to reproducing data in the ordinary course of the agency’s business (not limited solely to the context of FOIA requests)

Nature of Case: FOIA action

Electronic Data Involved: Two electronic files in “zipped” format

Vitalo v. Cabot Corp., 212 F.R.D. 472 (E.D. Pa. 2002)

Dec 01 2004

Key Insight: Plaintiffs required to produce air modeling information and draft reports prepared by colleague of expert witnesses, which were considered by experts in forming their opinions

Nature of Case: Personal injury arising from emissions from beryllium plant

Electronic Data Involved: Air modeling information and draft reports sent via email

Zhou v. Pittsburgh State Univ., 2003 WL 1905988 (D. Kan. Feb. 5, 2003)

Dec 01 2004

Key Insight: Motion to compel production of computer-generated salary data granted; court further ordered parties to preserve all relevant evidence including all data compilations, computerized data and other electronically-recorded information

Nature of Case: Employment discrimination

Electronic Data Involved: Computerized payroll records

Mosaid Techs. Inc. v. Samsung Elecs. Co., 2004 WL 2550306 (D.N.J. July 7, 2004) (“Mosaid I”)

Dec 01 2004

Key Insight: Magistrate granted various discovery sanctions requested by plaintiff, including monetary sanctions and a jury instruction adverse to defendants based on destruction and non-production of email

Nature of Case: Patent infringement

Electronic Data Involved: Email

Allen v. Armstrong, 2004 WL 1533934 (D. Conn. Apr. 5, 2004)

Dec 01 2004

Key Insight: Order memorialized parties’ agreement regarding motion to compel: defendants agreed to produce all emails that exist in printed form, but would not conduct search of electronic database to retrieve emails since it would be cost prohibitive; defendant understood it would be precluded from offering evidence at trial that was not properly disclosed in discovery

Nature of Case: Employment discrimination

Electronic Data Involved: Email

Byrne v. Byrne, 650 N.Y.S.2d 499 (1996)

Dec 01 2004

Key Insight: Wife’s acts of removing laptop from family home and delivering it to her attorney for safekeeping were not wrongful; court established protocol for inspection and production

Nature of Case: Divorce proceeding

Electronic Data Involved: Financial data stored on laptop provided by husband’s employer

Computer Assoc. Int’l v. Quest Software, Inc., 56 Fed. R. Serv. 3d 401, 2003 WL 21277129 (N.D. Ill. June 3, 2003)

Dec 01 2004

Key Insight: Applying the Rowe balancing test, court denied producing party’s motion to require requesting party to pay costs associated with computerized privilege review estimated to cost $28,000-40,000

Nature of Case: Copyright infringement, misappropriation of trade secrets

Electronic Data Involved: 8 hard drives

Felham Enter. (Cayman) Ltd. v. Certain Underwriters at Lloyd’s, 2004 WL 2360159 (E.D. La. Oct. 19, 2004)

Dec 01 2004

Key Insight: Where defendant did not timely object to document requests and belated privilege log was inadequate, court determined that attorney-client privilege and work product protection had been waived and ordered production

Nature of Case: Insurance coverage

Electronic Data Involved: Insurer’s computerized “Z-note” file contents related to particular claim

GTFM, Inc. v. Wal-Mart Stores, 2000 WL 335558 (S.D.N.Y. Mar. 30, 2000)

Dec 01 2004

Key Insight: Plaintiffs’ motion for on-site inspection of computer records granted and defendant ordered to pay all plaintiffs’ expenses and legal fees unnecessarily expended due to defendant’s failure to make an accurate disclosure of its computer capabilities in December 1998

Nature of Case: Trademark infringement

Electronic Data Involved: Computerized information re purchase of goods bearing plaintiffs’ trademarks

Catagory:Case Summaries