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Mealey's Discovery

  • March 21, 2025

    Asbestos Pipe Maker Settles Delaware Case, Resolves Adverse Instruction Spat

    WILMINGTON, Del. — An asbestos pipe maker in the process of seeking reargument of a ruling granting an adverse instruction about the company’s destruction of corporate documents moved to dismiss the case, saying it resolved the case and a host of others.

  • March 21, 2025

    Expedited Discovery Order Reaffirmed In Union’s Suit Over DOGE Access To DOL

    WASHINGTON, D.C. — A federal judge in Washington, D.C., denied reconsideration of a limited expedited discovery order in a lawsuit by labor unions and nonprofits challenging access to U.S. Department of Labor (DOL) records by personnel from U.S. Digital Service and the U.S. DOGE Service Temporary Organization (together, DOGE) and granted an amended motion for expedited discovery filed by the plaintiffs, opining that new evidence that the DOGE personnel are now also employed by the DOL “presents further reason that [DOGE’s] reporting structure needs clarifying.”

  • March 20, 2025

    Claim For Forfeited Cash Properly Struck For Discovery Failures, 9th Circuit Says

    SAN FRANCISCO — A Ninth Circuit U.S. Court of Appeals panel majority affirmed a trial court’s decision to strike a man’s claim opposing forfeiture of more than $1 million, which was seized by the Drug Enforcement Administration (DEA), in light of his refusal to comply with repeated orders to provide additional responses to discovery interrogatories to establish his standing.

  • March 20, 2025

    Insureds’ Failure To Provide Proof Of Loss Forms Relieves Insurer Of Coverage Duty

    NEW YORK — A property insurer does not owe coverage to its insureds for a missing boat dock because the insureds’ failure to provide requested proof of loss forms within 60 days of receiving the request from the insurer constitutes a violation of the insurance policy’s terms and relieves the insurer of its duty to pay the insureds’ claim, the Second Circuit U.S. Court of Appeals said March 19 in affirming a district court’s ruling on the insureds’ breach of contract and bad faith claims.

  • March 20, 2025

    Discovery Violations Lead To Default, $16.2M Verdict In Washington Asbestos Case

    TACOMA, Wash. — A Washington judge hit Canadian mining outfit Asbestos Corp. Ltd. (ACL) with a $16.2 million verdict after entering default judgment against the company for failure to comply with discovery rulings.

  • March 19, 2025

    Magistrate Denies Motion To Compel Production Of Source Code In Patent Dispute

    WASHINGTON, D.C. — A California federal magistrate judge denied in part a motion to compel discovery in a digital rights patent infringement suit, denying the motion to compel production of ground server source code and finding that the patent holder’s “one-sentence argument” “as to relevance does not satisfy its burden.”

  • March 19, 2025

    Canadian Asbestos Miner Seeks Judge’s Removal After $1,000 Discovery Sanction

    LOS ANGELES — Asbestos Corp. Ltd. (ACL) filed a brief in a California court arguing that its peremptory challenge to the judge overseeing an asbestos case was timely after informing the court that it could not receive a fair hearing from the judge, who previously found that it “willfully and intentionally” failed to comply with court-ordered discovery.

  • March 18, 2025

    Company Urges Review Of Genetic Testing Ruling In California Asbestos Case

    SACRAMENTO, Calif. — A trial court evaluated a motion to compel simple and potentially conclusive genetic testing in a mesothelioma case under the standard for admissibility when it should have done so under the standard for relevance, a company told the California Supreme Court in a petition for review.

  • March 13, 2025

    Judge Allows States Discovery Into DOGE’s, Musk’s Authority In Firings, Data Access

    WASHINGTON, D.C. — Fourteen states that sued over purported violations of the appointments clause of the U.S. Constitution were given the opportunity to take expedited discovery on actions taken by the Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE), its personnel and Elon Musk, with a District of Columbia federal judge on March 12 finding that their discovery requests were, largely, narrowly tailored and pertinent to their forthcoming preliminary injunction motion.

  • March 13, 2025

    DOL, DOGE, Others Ask Court To Rethink Expedited Discovery In Unions’ APA Suit

    WASHINGTON, D.C. — The Department of Labor (DOL), the Department of Health and Human Services (DHHS), the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau (CFPB) and other parties accused of improperly providing access to citizens’ confidential information to the Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE) filed a motion asking a District of Columbia federal judge to reconsider his recent grant of expedited discovery to the plaintiff labor unions and nonprofits, asserting that changes to the “factual predicates” have “obviate[d] the need” for such discovery.

  • March 12, 2025

    Federal Circuit Affirms Invalidity Of Wearable Tech Patents, Moots ITC Proceedings

    WASHINGTON, D.C. — A Federal Circuit U.S. Court of Appeals panel rejected a wearable technology patent holder’s argument that the U.S. Patent Trial and Appeal Board (PTAB) violated its discovery obligations before holding that all challenged claims in the company’s patents were invalid during inter partes review (IPR) proceedings brought by Apple Inc., affirming the invalidity finding.

  • March 11, 2025

    Expedited Discovery, Dismissal Sought In States’ Suit To Halt DOGE’s Actions

    WASHINGTON, D.C. — Elon Musk, President Donald J. Trump and the U.S. Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE) moved in District of Columbia federal court to dismiss a lawsuit brought by a group of 14 states opposing Musk’s involvement in DOGE’s activities, asserting that because Musk is an adviser, not an officer of the United States, the plaintiffs’ claim under the appointments clause of the U.S. Constitution is doomed.

  • March 11, 2025

    Vermont High Court Affirms Quash Of Insurer Subpoena In J&J Talc Coverage Suit

    MONTPELIER, Vt. — An insurer trying to escape liability for a verdict against Johnson & Johnson (J&J) in an asbestos-talc bodily injury mass tort litigation improperly served an out-of-state subpoena on a regulatory department for information filed by the company’s captive insurance company without first establishing that the information it sought was not available from other nonconfidential sources, the Vermont Supreme Court found, upholding a trial court's decision to quash the subpoena.

  • March 10, 2025

    California Court Won’t Review Ruling Limiting Genetic Testing In Asbestos Case

    OAKLAND, Calif. — A California appellate court on March 7 denied a writ petition challenging a trial court’s ruling limiting genetic testing, which the petitioner claimed “undermines the search for truth” by improperly restricting discovery to only potentially admissible evidence and by eliminating the possibility that the testing could produce dispositive evidence of causation, according to a docket entry.

  • March 10, 2025

    Tornado Cash Developer Denied Certiorari Over Expert Witness Disclosure Procedures

    WASHINGTON, D.C. — Two questions over expert witness disclosures that were raised by a cryptocurrency software protocol developer will go unaddressed by the U.S. Supreme Court, which denied Roman Storm’s petition for certiorari in its March 10 order list.

  • March 10, 2025

    Company Defends Claim As Parties Set Discovery Rules In Asbestos Expert Dispute

    NEWPORT NEWS, Va. — A Johnson & Johnson subsidiary opposed reconsideration of a ruling allowing a single claim to proceed against three experts it accuses in a lawsuit of disparagement and false advertising based on their article linking mesothelioma to exposure to talc, while the parties asked a federal judge in Virginia to permit bifurcated discovery, with the first phase involving fact questions and the second involving damages, which the subsidiary also opposed.

  • March 10, 2025

    Asbestos Defendant Denied Robust Genetic Testing Seeks Appellate Review

    OAKLAND, Calif. — A state trial court ruling limiting genetic testing “undermines the search for truth” by improperly restricting discovery to only potentially admissible evidence and by eliminating the possibility that the testing could produce dispositive evidence of causation, a company defending a California asbestos action tells an appellate court in a petition for writ of mandate.

  • March 07, 2025

    5th Circuit Affirms Refusal To Impose Statutory ERISA Penalty In Plan Documents Row

    NEW ORLEANS — In an unpublished March 6 per curiam opinion saying in part that the appellant didn’t “establish that the district court abused its discretion in” determinations made following a bench trial, a Fifth Circuit U.S. Court of Appeals panel affirmed discovery and other rulings for the sponsor and administrator of an Employee Retirement Income Security Act medical benefits plan in a documents dispute.

  • March 05, 2025

    J&J Subsidiary, Experts Move For Bifurcated Discovery In Asbestos Study Suit

    NEWPORT NEWS, Va. — A Johnson & Johnson subsidiary and three experts it accuses of disparagement and false advertising based on an article they published linking mesothelioma to exposure to talc asked a federal judge in Virginia to bifurcate discovery, with the first phase involving fact questions and the second involving damages.

  • March 05, 2025

    11th Circuit Affirms Summary Judgment, Discovery Rulings Against STD Claimant

    ATLANTA — Upholding discovery and summary judgment rulings for a disability insurer in a March 4 unpublished per curiam opinion, an 11th Circuit U.S. Court of Appeals panel rejected the claimant’s arguments that the lower court “did not properly apply [the appellate court’s] framework for evaluating” claims asserted under the Employee Retirement Income Security Act and should not have denied her request for “discovery outside the administrative record.”

  • March 03, 2025

    Mass. High Court Upholds Procedural Rulings In Rape, Murder Case, Denies New Trial

    BOSTON — Nine years after a jury convicted Philip Chism for the rape and murder of his teacher, the Massachusetts Supreme Judicial Court denied his quest for a reduced sentence and a new trial, upholding most of a trial court’s discovery and expert witness rulings and finding that any errors that occurred were not prejudicial to Chism.

  • February 28, 2025

    Judge Won’t Let AI Copyright Plaintiffs Set Search Terms

    SAN FRANCISCO — Plaintiffs’ efforts at relitigating issues they lost undermines rulings designed to prevent delays, and the parties appear to be “taking turns to simply conjure up something about which to fight,” a judge overseeing consolidated federal copyright litigation in California involving artificial intelligence said Feb. 27 in denying requested discovery.

  • February 28, 2025

    Iowa High Court: Psych Tests May Be Disclosed Only To Licensed Psychologists

    DES MOINES, Iowa — A trial court erred in granting an insurance company’s motion to compel production of a plaintiff’s psychological test materials in a dispute over uninsured and underinsured motorist (UM) benefits, the Iowa Supreme Court ruled, finding that state law unambiguously holds that discovery of such materials may be made only from one licensed psychologist to another.

  • February 28, 2025

    2nd Circuit Affirms Quashing Of New York Discovery Subpoenas For German Suit

    NEW YORK — The plaintiff in a German lawsuit over purported securities violations did not establish her right to subpoena her opponent in that suit for discovery in New York federal court under U.S. Code Title 28 Section 1782, a Second Circuit U.S. Court of Appeals panel ruled, finding that the necessary factors of Intel Corp. v. Advanced Micro Devices Inc. had not been satisfied.

  • February 28, 2025

    3rd Circuit Panel Upholds Dismissal Of Vaccine Refusal Case For Discovery Defiance

    PHILADELPHIA — A panel of the Third Circuit U.S. Court of Appeals has affirmed the dismissal with prejudice — as a sanction for refusing to cooperate with discovery requests and comply with discovery orders — by a Pennsylvania federal court of a former employee’s lawsuit alleging that her employer failed to accommodate her religious objection to being vaccinated for COVID-19 in violation of Title VII of the Civil Rights Act.