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Mealey's Discovery

January 09, 2024
Illinois Court Reverses Live Witness Testimony Requirement After Asbestos Verdict

CHICAGO — A trial court improperly required in-person testimony from a witness whose testimony regarding work conditions at a facility appears crucial to the case when a remote appearance could just as easily have been accommodated, an Illinois appeals court said in partly reversing and granting a new trial.
January 08, 2024
Magistrate: Summary Judgment Not ‘Ideal Vehicle’ For Insurer’s Damages Argument

FORT MYERS, Fla. —A federal magistrate judge in Florida on Jan. 5 denied an insurer’s motion for partial summary judgment in a condominium insured’s bad faith lawsuit seeking coverage for property damage caused by Hurricane Irma, finding that “summary judgment is not the ideal vehicle” for addressing the insurer’s arguments against the insured’s claim for damages.
January 08, 2024
Pet Brush Maker May Subpoena Meta To Obtain Online Counterfeiters’ Identities

SAN FRANCISCO — A group of website operators accused of selling and advertising counterfeit goods lost their bid to quash a discovery subpoena on Meta Platforms Inc., with a California federal judge finding that the plaintiff demonstrated that good cause exists to obtain the defendants’ identifying information for the purpose of serving them with its complaint for intellectual property infringement and unfair competition.
January 04, 2024
Judge Affirms Quashing Of Asbestos Media Subpoenas, Certifies Stock Class

TRENTON, N.J. — Johnson & Johnson’s motion seeking reconsideration of a ruling quashing subpoenas to lawyers, law firms and experts over their media contacts is untimely but would fail anyway because it offers no new information, and even supplemental information produced in opposition does not require denying a motion to certify a securities class action, a federal judge in New Jersey said in denying reconsideration and certifying the class.
January 03, 2024
Magistrate Judge: List Of Litigation Suffices, No Corporate Deposition Needed

NEW ORLEANS — A shipyard need not produce a corporate representative to identify the types and number of asbestos claims it faces because producing a list it likely already has will provide the same information in a less burdensome manner, a federal magistrate judge in Louisiana said Jan. 2 in partly denying plaintiffs’ motion to compel.
January 03, 2024
Company Seeks To Compel Insurers To Produce Documents In AFFF Litigation

CHARLESTON, S.C. — A company that makes firefighting products filed a motion on Jan. 2 in South Carolina federal court seeking to compel insurance companies to produce documents in a coverage dispute related to injuries from the firefighting substance aqueous film forming foam (AFFF) in the multidistrict litigation for AFFF, arguing that the insurers have refused to produce basic categories of documents that are directly related to the issues in dispute and are “plainly subject to discovery.” The company contends that the insurers’ objections to discovery requests are not valid, especially considering that the insurers are “seeking to escape up to $1 billion in coverage.”
January 03, 2024
11th Circuit Upholds Denial Of Vacation In ERISA Row With Recusal Violation

MONTGOMERY, Ala. — Saying in part that “we see no risk of injustice to the parties absent vacatur” despite a recusal violation, an 11th Circuit U.S. Court of Appeals panel issued an unpublished per curiam opinion upholding denial of a motion to vacate final judgment in a dispute over termination of retiree life insurance benefits.
January 02, 2024
Judge Says Cosmetics Companies Must Produce Foreign Materials In Hair Relaxer Case

CHICAGO — A federal judge in Illinois has partially granted plaintiffs’ request for the production of numerous items in discovery in a lawsuit against Revlon Inc. and its affiliates regarding allegations that their hair relaxer products increase the risk of uterine and ovarian cancer because they contain phthalates, ruling that all of the defendants must produce foreign regulatory materials, product labels and usage instructions, scientific studies articles in scientific journals related to hair relaxer products sold outside the United States.
January 02, 2024
Committee Gets OK For Vote On Liquidation Plan In Vesttoo Chapter 11 Cases

WILMINGTON, Del. — A Delaware federal bankruptcy judge who is allowing the Official Committee of Unsecured Creditors to put its Chapter 11 plan of liquidation for Vesttoo Ltd. and 48 affiliates to a vote also granted its motions for leave to conduct discovery against two banking organizations.
December 22, 2023
Former Governor, Others Sever, Transfer, Dismiss Portions Of AI Copyright Suit

NEW YORK — Former Arkansas Gov. Mike Huckabee and other copyright holders who filed suit over the use of their works to train artificial intelligence told a federal judge in New York that they reached an agreement to dismiss one defendant and sever and transfer their claims against Microsoft Corp. and Meta Platforms Inc. to a federal court in California and said they would not oppose a fourth defendant’s motion to stay discovery while the court resolves pending motions.
December 21, 2023
Reinsurer Wins Summary Judgment In Securities Suit Involving Loss Ratios

CAMDEN, N.J. — Citing findings including evidence of “a complex actuarial process to set loss reserves,” a New Jersey federal judge granted summary judgment to a reinsurer and some of its former executives after finding that shareholders used a “falsity-by-omission” theory of liability in alleging that the defendants violated federal securities laws.
December 21, 2023
Group: Government’s Bid To Compel Disclosure Of Personal Data Is ‘Baseless’

RALEIGH, N.C. — The Plaintiffs’ Leadership Group (PLG) in the Camp Lejeune Water crisis litigation has filed a response brief in North Carolina federal court arguing that the court should deny as “premature and baseless” the government’s motion to compel disclosure of plaintiffs’ dates of birth and Social Security numbers.
December 20, 2023
Magistrate: Fracking Operators Must Produce Documents In Royalty Dispute

COLUMBUS, Ohio — A federal magistrate judge in Ohio has granted leaseholders’ motion to compel hydraulic fracturing companies to produce documents in a long-running royalty dispute, ruling that the leaseholders’ requests were “technically timely” and that the information sought is “relevant to damages” and is not unduly burdensome for the fracking companies to produce.
December 19, 2023
Magistrate Judge Finds Motion For Protective Order Over Talc Bottles Moot

NEW YORK — A federal magistrate judge in New York denied as moot a motion seeking a protective order governing the return and use of talc bottles submitted as evidence in a pair of asbestos cases after a state court plaintiff asked the judge in his case to modify an order mandating that the defendants return the bottles to the plaintiffs.
December 19, 2023
Unsecured Creditors Update Proposed Liquidation Plan In Vesttoo Chapter 11 Cases

WILMINGTON, Del. — The Official Committee of Unsecured Creditors on Dec. 18 filed an amended proposed combined disclosure statement and Chapter 11 plan of liquidation for the jointly administered cases of Vesttoo Ltd. and 48 affiliates in Delaware federal bankruptcy court.
December 15, 2023
Vice Chancellor Issues Final Order In Hedge Fund’s Suit Over Nonpublic Info

WILMINGTON, Del. — A vice chancellor of the Delaware Chancery Court has issued a final order specifying the circumstances under which a public holding company would be required to produce certain nonpublic information to a hedge fund regarding a captive reinsurer that issued dividends totaling approximately $1.2 billion.
December 15, 2023
Presiding Arbitrator Dissents From Production Order In ICSID Claim Against Qatar

WASHINGTON, D.C. — The International Centre for Settlement of Investment Disputes (ICSID) published a split tribunal’s order on document production issued in a French-Algerian investor’s pending claim against the state of Qatar, with the presiding arbitrator dissenting from the denial of the claimant’s requests for business records he says were seized from him when he was detained by Qatar for six months.
December 15, 2023
Asbestos-Talc Company: With Little Burden, Crucial Third-Party Subpoena Allowable

RICHMOND, Va. — Producing a single document listing the 75 participants in a study on asbestos-talc causation imposes essentially no burden on a third-party medical provider, but the resulting information could provide “critical” evidence rebutting a man’s case, a talc company tells the Fourth Circuit U.S. Court of Appeals in an opening brief.
December 15, 2023
Plaintiffs’ Group Seeks To Compel Government To Produce Camp Lejeune Documents

RALEIGH, N.C. — The plaintiffs’ leadership group (PLG) in the multidistrict litigation over water contamination at U.S. Marine Corps Base Camp Lejeune on Dec. 14 filed a brief in North Carolina federal court arguing that it should compel the U.S. government to produce documents pertaining to housing at the base, files held by a federal agency regarding the water at Camp Lejeune and reports indicating the identities of the personnel at the base. The PLG says the defendant’s “dilatory efforts threaten to upend the Court’s schedule.”
December 14, 2023
Musk Tells High Court SEC Violated 1st Amendment Rights In Consent Decree

WASHINGTON, D.C. — In a petition for a writ of certiorari, Elon Musk tells the U.S. Supreme Court that the Second Circuit U.S. Court of Appeals erred when it affirmed that a consent order between him and the Securities and Exchange Commission could not be changed after he agreed to it, arguing that the SEC demanded that he waive his First Amendment rights as part of the agreement.
December 14, 2023
Journalist Says Government Can’t Defend Withholding FOIA AI Documents

WASHINGTON, D.C. — No statutory or logical basis prevents the Department of Defense (DOD) from releasing 5,000 documents it concedes are responsive to a Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) inquiry about Google Inc.’s role in the Project Maven artificial intelligence program, a journalist tells a federal judge in the District of Columbia in a cross-motion and opposition to summary judgment.
December 14, 2023
Israeli Law Raised In Feedback On Liquidation Plan For Vesttoo And Its Affiliates

WILMINGTON, Del. — In two Dec. 13 filings citing Israeli law and other issues, Vesttoo Ltd. and its affiliated debtors and a venture capital organization and individual that report significant related interests urge a Delaware federal bankruptcy court not to approve a Chapter 11 plan of liquidation and related arrangements as currently proposed.
December 14, 2023
New York Justice Orders Production Of Plaintiff’s Talc Bottle Evidence

NEW YORK — A defendant must immediately produce and return to the plaintiff bottles of talc produced in discovery and cease any additional testing of the evidence, a New York justice said in an order granting a motion to compel.
December 12, 2023
Magistrate Grants Motion To Compel In Bad Faith Suit Over $4M STOLI Policy

LINCOLN, Neb. — A Nebraska federal magistrate judge granted an insurer’s motion to compel the production of documents in a breach of contract and bad faith suit filed against the insurer by Wells Fargo Bank, the securities intermediary for an account holder of a purported stranger originated life insurance (STOLI) policy, finding that even if the insurer’s “conduct was inequitable,” the insurer is “entitled to discover evidence of” purported “inequitable conduct” by Wells Fargo.
December 12, 2023
Revlon Says Discovery Request In Hair Relaxer Case Constitutes ‘Wasteful Conduct’

CHICAGO — Revlon Inc. and its affiliates, which were sued by women who say their hair relaxer products increase the risk of uterine and ovarian cancer because they contain phthalates, on Dec. 11 filed a response brief in Illinois federal court arguing that the court should deny the plaintiffs’ request to compel the production of materials shared with foreign regulators about non-U.S. hair relaxer products, contending that the request is “the latest example of Plaintiffs’ disorganized, wasteful conduct in these proceedings.”