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Mealey's Discovery

  • April 30, 2024

    FTC Seeks Evidence Of Amazon’s Use Of Self-Destructing Messages In Antitrust Suit

    SEATTLE — Asserting that Amazon.com Inc. executives, including Chief Executive Officer Jeff Bezos, have been discussing “sensitive business matters,” including the present monopolization lawsuit against it, via an encrypted-messaging app that “irrevocably destroys messages,” the Federal Trade Commission filed a motion in Washington federal court seeking to compel the online retailer to produce any corporate documents related to “preservation notices and its instructions about the use of ephemeral messaging applications.”

  • April 30, 2024

    Shareholders To 3rd Circuit: Revive Securities Case Against Reinsurer, Execs

    PHILADELPHIA — Arguing in part that one holding “invented a ‘total eclipse’ standard lacking any basis in” Omnicare, Inc. v. Laborers Dist. Council Constr. Indus. Pension Fund, shareholders filed an appellant brief challenging discovery and summary judgment rulings in a suit over allegations that a reinsurer and some of its former executives violated federal securities laws.

  • April 29, 2024

    Special Master Won’t Reconsider Discovery Into Drug Savings Plan

    NEWARK, N.J. — The special master overseeing a dispute in federal court in New Jersey between two drug payment assistance programs declined to reconsider or clarify her early ruling limiting discovery into the plaintiffs’ program or how Johnson & Johnson Health Care Systems Inc. prices certain drugs.

  • April 29, 2024

    Google Search Antitrust Judge Unseals Some Court Records For New York Times

    WASHINGTON, D.C. — The New York Times Co. was partly successful in its ongoing effort to obtain unsealed versions of court documents in the government’s antitrust lawsuit against Google Inc., when a District of Columbia federal judge issued a document-by-document ruling directing the parties and two nonparties to provide unredacted versions of certain documents related to Google’s agreements that purportedly contributed to its dominance in the internet search engine market.

  • April 26, 2024

    Indivior Proposes Plan For Phased Discovery In Suboxone MDL

    CLEVELAND — Indivior Inc., a defendant in the Suboxonefilm multidistrict litigation, filed a supplemental proposal for phased discovery on general causation following a request from the judge overseeing the MDL during a conference meeting.

  • April 25, 2024

    Magistrate Judge Won’t Exclude Moline’s Supplemental Report In Asbestos-Talc Spat

    NEW YORK — While disclosure of Jacqueline Moline’s 2023 study and her dose-calculation opinion were untimely, they were harmless because there is no evidence that her opinion changed, that the defendants were unaware of her opinions or that any prejudice the defendants would face cannot be remedied, a federal magistrate judge in New York said April 24 in denying a motion to exclude reliance on the supplemental material.

  • April 24, 2024

    Parties In WhatsApp Spyware Suit Argue Whether Letter Rogatory Is Appropriate

    OAKLAND, Calif. — WhatsApp Inc., NSO Group Technologies Limited and a nonparty research lab filed briefs in California federal court disputing whether discovery NSO seeks to obtain from the lab via a letter rogatory is relevant, appropriate or necessary to the computer fraud claims at the heart of the lawsuit over the defendant’s spyware.

  • April 24, 2024

    Juul Gets Partial Win In FOIA Suit Against FDA For E-Cig Ban Docs

    WASHINGTON, D.C. — A District of Columbia federal judge on April 23 granted in part and denied in part opposing motions for summary judgment filed by Juul Labs Inc. (JLI) and the Food and Drug Administration in an action brought by JLI to obtain materials documenting the FDA’s decision to deny Juul’s premarket tobacco application (PMTA) and ban its products from the market under the Freedom of Information Act (FOIA).

  • April 24, 2024

    Monsanto: School District’s Opposition To Motion To Quash Deposition Should Fail

    BURLINGTON, Vt. — Monsanto Co. has filed a reply brief in Vermont federal court contending that the Burlington School District’s (BSD) opposition to Monsanto’s motion to quash the BSD’s notice of deposition in litigation related to polychlorinated biphenyls (PCBs) in the school and the BSD’s challenge to Monsanto’s motion for a protective order related to testimony from a time period other than 1935 to 1977 constitute “a hidden attempt to argue a belated claim that [Monsanto] had a post-sale duty to warn.”

  • April 23, 2024

    Magistrate Orders Engineering Firm To Produce Documents In Flint Water Crisis Case

    ANN ARBOR, Mich. — A federal magistrate judge in Michigan ruled April 22 that an engineering firm that is a defendant in litigation stemming from the lead-contaminated water crisis in Flint must provide 40 documents in response to a motion to compel compliance with a discovery order, saying that the judge presiding over the case has already determined that the work product doctrine does not protect the documents in question.

  • April 17, 2024

    Apple, Plaintiffs, App Makers Differ On Discovery Issues In IPhone Antitrust Suit

    SAN FRANCISCO — In a trio of discovery letter briefs filed in California federal court, Apple Inc., a class of consumers and a nonparty app developer bicker over the relevance of the plaintiffs’ discovery requests related to notification of the recently certified class and the merits of the class monopolization claims against Apple.

  • April 15, 2024

    Judge Partly Grants Insurer’s Motion To Compel In D&O Coverage Dispute Over Merger

    WILMINTON, Del. — A Delaware judge on April 12 granted in part and denied in part a directors and officers liability insurer’s motion to compel discovery in a coverage dispute over claims that directors, officers and controlling shareholders breached their fiduciary duties in connection with the 2019 merger of Viacom and CBS Corp.

  • April 15, 2024

    Paper Mill, Contractor Debate Discovery Scope In Asbestos Indemnity Action

    RALEIGH, N.C. — In opposing a motion to compel production of evidence tied to its possible negligence, a paper product company tells a federal judge in North Carolina that it owed no duty to the employee of a contractor and is entitled to contractual indemnification for defending and ultimately settling the asbestos-related claim, the company says.

  • April 12, 2024

    Tepezza Hearing Loss MDL Judge Clarifies Discovery Order, OKs Bellwether Extension

    CHICAGO — The judge overseeing the Tepezza hearing loss multidistrict litigation clarified an order he signed in March compelling Horizon Therapeutics USA Inc. to hand over certain information to reflect that the drug manufacturer disputes the relevance of data that was requested by the plaintiffs.

  • April 11, 2024

    Sanctions Discovery Order In Trademark Row Between ICEE, Slush Puppie Stands

    CINCINNATI — A federal judge in Ohio on April 10 said he won’t reconsider his August bench ruling that granted discovery on a defendant’s request for sanctions against opposing counsel, in a contractual dispute involving a fabricated trademark license that was presented as valid for more than two years of litigation.

  • April 09, 2024

    Retired CARD Director Says BNSF Deposition Went Off The Rails

    GREAT FALLS, Mont. — Despite agreeing to limit deposition questions to mesothelioma and relevant issues, a railway asked a retired director of a medical clinic about unrelated diseases and practices, the man tells a federal judge in Montana in seeking a protective order and sanctions.

  • April 09, 2024

    After Summary Judgment In ERISA Fees Case, Defendants File Bill Of Costs For ESI

    DES MOINES, Iowa — After an Iowa federal judge granted summary judgment against a class of 401(k) participants in a dispute over record-keeping fees, grocery chain Hy-Vee Inc. and related defendants filed a bill of costs seeking $53,319.87 in taxable costs, including $40,232.83 for discovery of electronically stored information (ESI).

  • April 05, 2024

    Insurer Must Provide Claims File In Bar Fight Coverage Bad Faith Suit

    ORLANDO, Fla. — In light of an insurer’s failure to respond to a third-party bad faith claimant’s motion to compel production of documents, a Florida federal magistrate judge on April 4 granted the motion, giving the insurance company two weeks to comply or face the possibility of sanctions.

  • April 05, 2024

    Student Must Provide Medical Records In Gender Bias Suit Against Princeton

    TRENTON, N.J. — Because of the interrelated nature of physical and mental health, a New Jersey federal judge found that a Princeton University student waived any privilege in his medical records by claiming mental and emotional damages in his gender bias claims over the university’s investigation of claims of violence brought by his former girlfriend, with the judge affirming a magistrate’s denial of the plaintiff’s motion for a protective order to shield his records from discovery.

  • April 03, 2024

    Judge Denies Additional Genetic Mutation Testing In Mesothelioma Case

    LOS ANGELES — A defendant previously granted BAP-1 testing in a mesothelioma case should have requested the mutation testing it now seeks when it first sought testing, and there is too little time remaining to conduct the additional testing it now seeks, a California judge said in denying the request.

  • March 29, 2024

    L’Oréal: Bid To Compel Responses In Hair Relaxer Case ‘Unwarranted And Improper’

    CHICAGO — L’Oréal USA filed a brief in Illinois federal court on March 28 arguing that a motion to compel compliance with discovery orders filed by plaintiffs who contend they have been injured by chemicals in hair relaxer products is “unwarranted and improper” and that it has provided responses to interrogatories and there is nothing left to compel.

  • March 28, 2024

    Panel Affirms Order Denying Bid To Reopen Discovery In Care Home Negligence Suit

    TRENTON, N.J. — A New Jersey appellate court on March 27 affirmed lower court orders that denied an estate’s request to reopen discovery and granted a nursing home and related entities’ motion for summary judgment in a negligence suit filed against them, finding that the lower court did not abuse its discretion in holding that the estate failed to show “exceptional circumstances” needed to reopen discovery and that there is “no basis” to overturn the order granting summary judgment.

  • March 27, 2024

    Spyware Suit Judge Partly Denies Issuing Letter Rogatory On Canadian Lab

    OAKLAND, Calif. — An Israeli spyware firm that is fending off computer fraud and trespass allegations by WhatsApp Inc. saw its motion to issue a letter rogatory on a third-party Canadian watchdog lab partly denied March 26 by a California federal judge who deemed some of the information sought to be duplicative of discovery already received from the plaintiff.

  • March 27, 2024

    Justice: Defendant May Obtain Plaintiff’s Medical Record Of Drug Use, But Not Of HIV

    BRONX, N.Y. — A New York state court justice has ruled that a realty company sued for causing lead-paint poisoning injuries is entitled to the infant plaintiffs’ mother’s medical records related to her use of drugs and alcohol, but he determined that the realty company cannot access her medical history pertaining to HIV.

  • March 26, 2024

    Auto Insurer’s Claims File Is Discoverable, Ohio Panel Says In Affirming Ruling

    CINCINNATI — A trial court did not err in ordering an auto insurer to produce its claims file because pursuant to Ohio precedent, an insurer’s claims file is discoverable up until the date of payment when insureds allege that the insurer acted in bad faith in handling a claim, the First District Ohio Court of Appeals said in affirming the trial court’s ruling.