It seems that courts were ruling on the intersection of new technology and discovery practice back in the day. In 1986, the United States Court of International Trade decided motions to compel discovery regarding new technologies in Daewoo Electronics Co., Ltd. v. U.S. The court even noted that “[t]his controversy is a good example of how the development of new technology for using, storing and transmitting information allows parties to test the rules of disclosure or discovery.” There, the court grappled with whether the Department of Commerce met their burden of producing certain documents. The Department of Commerce was accused of committing three faux pas: (1) the tapes provided to the plaintiff was recorded at a much greater density than was stated, (2) data regarding the sale of two separate companies was requested, but not provided, and (3) the government failed to provide material known as an SAS data set. The government argued that they were in strict compliance with an earlier order mandating that they turn over certain evidence. However, the court expressed that it was troubled “by indications that [the government] took an inordinately restrictive view of its obligations under the order.” The government, when ordered to turn over certain tapes, turned over the tapes themselves (which the plaintiff was unable to read), as opposed to the data contained on the tapes. “To say that the data sets into which the computer tapes were transferred are not governed by an order speaking of computer tapes is as if someone has said at the dawn of the era of typewriters that types documents are not governed by a court order speaking of ‘writings.’” Further, the court noted that if the government was acting in earnest, then they had “taken unfair advantage of the court’s lack of familiarity with the variety of further electronic refinements and embodiments of taped information.” Thus, the court granted the plaintiff’s Motion to Compel, setting a precedent for reasonable interpretation of words surrounding new technologies. Matthew G. Miller, a Seton Hall University School of Law graduate (Class of 2014), focuses his practice in the area of Intellectual Property. Matt holds his degree in Chemistry from the University of Chicago. During law school, Matt worked as a legal intern at Gearhart Law, LLC.
“Although not unlimited, relevance, for purposes of discovery, is an extremely broad concept.” See Condit v. Dunne, 225 F.R.D. 100, 105 (S.D.N.Y. 2004). The discovery process is essentially a fact-finding mission. In theory, opposing parties are supposed to work together to make the litigation process more efficient. When both sides refuse to comply, additional motions are required result in additional costs. In the case above, Assured Guaranty Municipal Corp. (“Assured”) wrote financial guaranty policies on three residential mortgage-backed securities (“RMBS”) sponsored by UBS Real Estate Securities Inc. (“UBS”). Id. Assured claimed that UBS breached their contractual obligations by providing false information in regards to credit. Assured filed a motion to compel the production of documents that were generated shortly after the transactions mentioned above. UBS claimed that the documents were irrelevant to the case at hand, and furthermore, such production would be unduly burdensome. The court mentioned that so long as the discovery appears reasonably calculated to lead to the discovery of admissible evidence, it will likely be permissible. The court also stated that only when the burden or expense of the proposed discovery outweighs its likely benefit will the court limit discovery. The court considered: the needs of the case; the amount in controversy; the parties' resources; the importance of the issues at stake in the action; and the importance of the discovery in resolving the issues, will the court limit discovery. The court granted Assured’s motion to compel against UBS. Conversely, UBS claimed that Assured also failed to comply with discovery demands. Assured allegedly failed to provide three categories of documents they claim are not related to the transaction at issue. The documents sought were thought to contain information about Assured's knowledge of the originator's underwriting policies and its knowledge of the practices of the rating agencies. Assured wanted documents to be provided to them; however, Assured has refused to cooperate in return. The court held that the documents requested by UBS could contain information very relevant to the initial contract dispute. This being the case, the motion to compel discovery against Assured was granted. Finally, the parties seemed to have disagreement about the search terms that will be used to search various sources for relevant information. In this regard, the court declined to step in as no expert opinions were provided and the court did not have “technical expertise.” The court left the parties with three options: The parties could learn to cooperate and agree on certain criteria, the parties could re-file a motion to compel with expert affidavits, or the parties could seek the assistance of a neutral independent consultant. The court ultimately left this decision to the parties. In summation, this case demonstrates that failing to cooperate with discovery is essentially a huge waste of time. As we see here, in the end, the court granted both motions to compel. The documents the parties attempted to hide were eventually exchanged. In a profession where time is money, attorneys cannot afford to stall and prolong the very process that makes our system function efficiently.
In a recent ERISA class action case against Coventry Healthcare, th plaintiffs raise four ERISA violations: “Count I asserts a claim for failing to prudently and loyally mange the Plan and assets of the Plan; Count II asserts a claim for failing to monitor fiduciaries; Count III asserts a claim for failing to avoid conflicts of interest; and Count IV asserts a claim for co-fiduciary liability.” While Count II was thrown out on an earlier motion, the remaining Counts are still pending. In this dispute, the plaintiffs filed a motion to compel the defendants to comply with discovery requests. The defendants responded, stating that the plaintiffs’ request was overbroad because it requested documents from too large of a time period. In support of this argument, the defendants cited the related securities violation that involved “the same set of operative facts” where a similar motion was struck down by the court. However, the court noted that ERISA litigation has a different scope from securities cases, and the relevant period here is the period of time during which Coventry engaged in imprudent investment: “[U]nlike the Securities Litigation, in which the focus is primarily on misleading statements, the focus in this ERISA action is also on Defendant’s conduct, as fiduciaries, in offering Company Stock as an investment option when they allegedly knew it was overvalued.” Thus, the court granted the plaintiffs’ Motion to Compel, although they did allow the defendant an opportunity to create a “claw-back” provision to reduce the potential burden. Matthew G. Miller, a Seton Hall University School of Law 2014 graduate, focused his studies in the area of Intellectual Property. Matt holds his degree in Chemistry from the University of Chicago. While in law school, Matt worked as a legal intern at Gearhart Law, LLC.
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