New York (ESI) Related Cases

Case Citation: City of New York v. Beretta U.S.A. Corp., 222 F.R.D. 51 (E.D.N.Y. 2004) Nature of Case: City and families of shooting victims sued manufacturers, distributors and retailers of weapons Electronic Data Involved:  Database maintained by Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives E-Discovery Issue: Court denied BATF’s motion to quash subpoenas since firearms tracing and licensing data maintained by BATF in federal databases was relevant and would be subject to a confidentiality order, and disclosure of the data was not precluded by appropriations statute or by law enforcement privilege Case Summary: Not Available Attributes: Motion for Protective Order; Third Party Discovery

Case Citation: Columbus McKinnon Corp. v. HealthNow New York, Inc., 2006 WL 2827675 (W.D.N.Y. Sept. 29, 2006) Nature of Case: Breach of contract Electronic Data Involved:  Billing records, backup tapes, DVDs E-Discovery Issue: Court rejected defendant’s excuses for extended delay in producing itemization of withdrawals in a format usable by plaintiff, and ordered defendant to reimburse plaintiff for the reasonable cost of attorneys’ fees incurred in moving for contempt of court’s prior order Case Summary: Not Available Attributes: Motion for Sanctions; Backup Tapes; Format of Production

Case Citation: Floyd v. City of New York, 2008 WL 4179210 (S.D.N.Y. Sept. 10, 2008) Nature of Case: Class action alleging defendants sanction a policy and practice of stop and frisks by the New York Police Department on the basis of race and ethnicity Electronic Data Involved:  NYPD database E-Discovery Issue: Where all information in particular NYPD database was relevant to plaintiffs’ claims and not subject to law enforcement privilege, court granted plaintiffs’ motion to compel production of data with exception of names of suspects and police officers and subject in part to protective order to be negotiated by parties or imposed by court Case Summary: Not Available Attributes: Motion to Compel; Motion for Protective Order

Case Citation: Karim v. Natural Stone Indus., Inc., 2008 WL 429627 (N.Y. Sup. Ct. Jan. 18, 2008) Nature of Case: Injured construction worker sued for violations of New York Labor Law and for common law negligence Electronic Data Involved:  Plaintiff’s home computer E-Discovery Issue: Where computer hard drive was not relevant and material to plaintiff’s ability to return to employment, evidence regarding plaintiff’s employability was ascertainable by other means, and it would be impossible to discern plaintiff’s computer usage beyond the use testified to at deposition given that several members of plaintiff’s household also used the computer, court denied as improperly invasive third-party defendant’s request for a “clone” of plaintiff’s home computer hard drive Case Summary: Not Available Attributes: Motion to Compel; Mirror Image

Case Citation: Lipco Elec. Corp. v. ASG Consulting Corp., 2004 WL 1949062 (N.Y. Sup. Ct. Aug. 18, 2004) (Unpublished) Nature of Case: Claims based on breach of contract and for an accounting Electronic Data Involved:  Computer data E-Discovery Issue: Noting differences between federal law and New York law regarding cost-shifting in discovery, court stated it did not have sufficient information about the costs associated with the requested discovery, but concluded that until plaintiffs indicated a willingness to pay for the requested electronic discovery (whatever its cost), court would not order its production Case Summary: Not Available Attributes: Motion to Compel; Motion for Protective Order; Cost Shifting; Format of Production

Case Citation: MacNamara v. City of New York, 2006 WL 3298911 (S.D.N.Y. Nov. 13, 2006) Nature of Case: Litigation arising from arrests during 2004 Republican National Convention Electronic Data Involved:  Worksheets underlying database E-Discovery Issue: Court ordered production of handwritten worksheets used to compile database in light of demonstrated data entry errors that made accuracy of database printouts suspect; court also sustained objection to request for “all electronic data concerning RNC arrests” as impermissibly vague Case Summary: Not Available Attributes: Motion to Compel; Records Retention Policy

Case Citation: MBIA Ins. Corp. v. Countrywide Home Loans, Inc., 2010 WL 447051 (N.Y. Sup. Ct. Jan. 14, 2010) Nature of Case:   Electronic Data Involved:  ESI E-Discovery Issue: Upon defendant’s motion for a protective order to require plaintiff to bear the cost of defendant’s production of electronically stored information (“ESI”), the court declined to follow the purportedly “well settled rule” in New York that the party seeking discovery should bear the cost and denied defendant’s motion Case Summary: Not Available Attributes: Local Rule; Motion for Protective Order; Cost Shifting

Case Citation: MBIA Ins. Corp. v. Countrywide Home Loans, Inc., 2010 WL 447051 (N.Y. Sup. Ct. Jan. 14, 2010) Nature of Case:   Electronic Data Involved:  ESI E-Discovery Issue: Upon defendant’s motion for a protective order to require plaintiff to bear the cost of defendant’s production of electronically stored information (“ESI”), the court declined to follow the purportedly “well settled rule” in New York that the party seeking discovery should bear the cost and denied defendant’s motion Case Summary: Available Attributes: Local Rule; Motion for Protective Order; Cost Shifting

Case Citation: Papyrus Tech. Corp. v. New York Stock Exchange, Inc., 2005 WL 1606059 (S.D.N.Y. July 7, 2005) Nature of Case:   Electronic Data Involved:  Computer files E-Discovery Issue: Plaintiff’s motion to compel production of additional computer files denied where plaintiff offered no basis either for excusing delay or for deeming the files in question to be so significant as to justify reopening discovery more than five months after its close Case Summary: Not Available Attributes: Motion to Compel

Case Citation: PSEG Power New York, Inc. v. Alberici Constructors, Inc., 2007 WL 2687670 (N.D.N.Y. Sept. 7, 2007) Nature of Case: Construction litigation Electronic Data Involved:  Email and their attachments E-Discovery Issue: Where technical glitch experienced by party’s e-discovery vendor resulted in thousands of emails being “divorced” from their attachments at time of production, and various potential solutions attempted by the parties proved unsuccessful, court found that re-production of such emails was warranted and that producing party should bear full cost of such re-production Case Summary: Available Attributes: FRCP 26(b)(2)(B) “Not Reasonably Accessible”; Motion to Compel; Cost Shifting; Spoliation; Format of Production

Case Citation: T.A. Ahern Contractors Corp. v. Dormitory Auth. of State of N.Y., 875 N.Y.S.2d 862 (N.Y. Sup. Ct. 2009) Nature of Case:   Electronic Data Involved:  ESI E-Discovery Issue: Court granted both parties’ motions to compel production of electronically stored information but declined to shift the cost of production to the producing party and “overturn the well settled rule in New York State that the party seeking discovery bear the cost incurred in its production” Case Summary: Available Attributes: Local Rule; Motion to Compel; Cost Shifting

Case Citation: Tri-County Motors, Inc. v. Am. Suzuki Motor Corp., 2007 WL 1932917 (E.D.N.Y. July 3, 2007) Nature of Case: Breach of contract and violation of the New York State Franchised Motor Vehicle Dealer Act Electronic Data Involved:  Email E-Discovery Issue: Court denied motion for spoliation sanctions where moving party did not proffer “a scintilla of evidence” that allegedly missing emails ever existed in the first place but simply speculated that they may have existed, and even assuming arguendo that such emails did exist, moving party could not establish any of the three required elements of spoliation, i.e., 1) that the party with control over the evidence had a duty to preserve it when it was lost or destroyed; 2) that the evidence was lost or destroyed with a “culpable state of mind”; and 3) that the evidence was relevant Case Summary: Not Available Attributes: Motion for Sanctions; Spoliation

Case Citation: Weiller v. New York Life Ins. Co., 2004 WL 3245345 (N.Y. Sup. Ct. Mar. 16, 2005) (Unpublished) Nature of Case: Class action alleging bad faith denial of disability insurance benefits Electronic Data Involved:  Databases, electronic material, tape media, electronic media, hard drives, computer disks and documents E-Discovery Issue: Despite some overlap with existing federal court preservation orders, state court entered its own preservation order since it could “envision one or more scenarios in which the federal preservation orders might not be sufficient protection for plaintiff in this state action” Case Summary: Available Attributes: TRO; Motion for Preservation Order; Data Preservation; Cost Shifting; Backup Tapes

Case Citation: Williams, Cohen & Gray, Inc. v. CPS Group, Inc., 2006 WL 3316783 (S.D. Tex. Nov. 14, 2006) Nature of Case: Breach of contract Electronic Data Involved:  Database E-Discovery Issue: Where defendant objected to providing hard copies of payment data and offered instead to make its database available to plaintiff in New York, court questioned prudence of offer and ordered production to take place in Houston, adding that parties should attempt to arrange for materials to be produced electronically and directing them to confer on method of production Case Summary: Not Available Attributes: FRCP 26(b)(2)(B) “Not Reasonably Accessible”; Motion to Compel; Inspection; Format of Production

Case Citation: Yu v. New York City Hous. Dev. Corp., 2008 WL 2152138 (S.D.N.Y. May 20, 2008) Nature of Case: Employment litigation Electronic Data Involved:  Email, laptop E-Discovery Issue: Ruling on various discovery matters, court noted plaintiff’s belated complaint that documents were not produced in ESI format and defendants’ offer to convert their document production into OCR files, “a more searchable form than the PDF format it originally provided,” and ordered plaintiff to advise defense counsel within three days if he desired such conversion; court further noted that plaintiff’s request for email was overbroad and that he had failed to justify requiring defendants to undertake a large-scale search of their backup tapes; court further ordered plaintiff to return employer-issued laptop computer to defendant Case Summary: Not Available Attributes: Motion to Compel; Backup Tapes; Format of Production