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Mealey's Discovery

  • 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that will allegedly now show connections to Connecticut has been in the plaintiff’s possession the entire time; an unpublished and not final South Carolina court ruling finding fraud does not warrant reopening the case; and arguments to the contrary are “hollow and legally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.”

  • December 05, 2024

    Judge: OpenAI Must Produce Social Media; Company Disputes Discovery Destruction

    NEW YORK — OpenAI Inc. and various news entities that accuse it of using their copyrighted works to train artificial intelligence briefed a federal judge in New York over whether discovery evidence was deleted or merely reformatted and presents no obstruction to ongoing searches of the training material.  In a separate ruling, the judge concluded that the New York Times Co.’s knowledge and use of AI tools are not relevant or proportional to the needs of the defendants’ fair use defense and denied a motion to compel.  In another ruling, the judge said California labor law does not preclude OpenAI Inc. entities and Microsoft Corp. from producing work-related communications conducted through social media.

  • December 05, 2024

    OpenAI Disputes Claim It Ruined Discovery; Judge Denies Motion To Compel

    NEW YORK — OpenAI Inc. and various news entities that accuse it of using their copyrighted works to train artificial intelligence briefed a federal judge in New York over whether discovery evidence was deleted or merely reformatted and presents no obstruction to ongoing searches of the training material.  In a separate ruling, the judge concluded that the New York Times Co.’s knowledge and use of AI tools are not relevant or proportional to the needs of the defendants’ fair use defense and denied a motion to compel.

  • December 05, 2024

    Fracking Company Insists Discovery Order Should Be Stayed In Mineral Rights Case

    CLARKSBURG, W.Va. — A hydraulic fracturing operator filed a reply brief in West Virginia federal court on Dec. 4 contending that it should grant the company’s motion for a stay of an opinion and order that the court issued granting a motion to compel the production of documents sought by the plaintiffs in a long-running mineral rights class action.  The fracking operator argues that the plaintiffs are not entitled to such information prior to certification of a class and that the order poses a greater hardship to the company than it does to the plaintiffs.

  • December 05, 2024

    Judge Awards Plaintiffs Almost $60,000 For Discovery Row In Dialysis Case

    COLUMBUS, Ohio — Awarding a little more than half of the amount the plaintiffs requested, an Ohio federal judge has ordered a hospital and its health plan to pay $59,629.38 in attorney fees and costs in connection with a discovery dispute in an Employee Retirement Income Security Act case over dialysis payment rates.

  • December 04, 2024

    Judge Grants Contempt Hearing In Asbestos Dispute Over Expert Moline, Northwell

    NEW YORK — A New York justice on Dec. 3 issued an order scheduling a show-cause hearing on a motion seeking to hold an asbestos expert and her employer in contempt of court for “brazenly” ignoring court rulings after the state’s high court denied leave to appeal a decision compelling production of the identities of participants in expert Jacqueline Moline’s asbestos-talc studies.

  • December 04, 2024

    PBMs File Objection To Special Master’s Discovery Ruling In Opioid MDL

    CLEVELAND — Two pharmacy benefit managers (PBM) in the opioid multidistrict litigation filed an objection to a special master’s ruling that 14 documents prepared by a legal department as part of an internal investigation are not privileged.

  • December 03, 2024

    Discovery Rulings Issued In FCA Suit Over Alleged Cyber-Distracted Anesthesiologists

    SALT LAKE CITY — A Utah federal magistrate judge granted in part motions to stay depositions filed by defendant anesthesiologists and their practices in a qui tam suit asserting that they violated the False Claims Act (FCA) and a similar Nevada law by submitting for payment to government insurers claims for anesthesiology services when they were instead allegedly “immersed in the Internet” rather than providing care to their patients during surgery.

  • December 03, 2024

    South Dakota High Court: Subpoena For Rape Victim’s Journals Lacked Specificity

    PIERRE, S.D. — Relying heavily on a South Dakota victims’ rights law and United States v. Nixon, the South Dakota Supreme Court ruled that a trial court should have granted a purported rape victim’s motion to quash a subpoena from her alleged attackers that sought production of her journals and diaries, reversing the quash denial and remanding the case.

  • November 27, 2024

    OpenAI Disputes Claim It Ruined News Plaintiffs AI Search Results

    NEW YORK — OpenAI Inc. and various news entities that accuse it of using their copyrighted works to train artificial intelligence briefed a federal judge in New York over whether discovery evidence was deleted or merely reformatted allowing the plaintiffs to rerun searches of the training material.

  • November 27, 2024

    5th Circuit Again Sidesteps Subpoena Appeal, Dismisses Airport Management Suit

    NEW ORLEANS — Considering discovery and standing issues in an eight-year-old legal fight over management of a Mississippi airport, which is on its fourth time before the Fifth Circuit U.S. Court of Appeals, a panel quipped that “Groundhog Day has come to an end,” as it again remanded the repetitively appealed suit to the trial court for dismissal for lack of standing.

  • November 26, 2024

    Assignee Entitled To Move For Discovery On Insured’s Cooperation With Auto Insurer

    LAS VEGAS — A Nevada federal judge determined that an insured’s assignee is entitled to move for additional discovery to determine if the insured cooperated with her auto insurer in its investigation of an auto accident because the information would be helpful in the claimant’s attempt to oppose the auto insurer’s motion for summary judgment.