AVX Corp. v. Cabot Corp.

251 F.R.D. 70, 2008 U.S. Dist. LEXIS 49293, 2008 WL 2566778
CourtDistrict Court, D. Massachusetts
DecidedJune 18, 2008
DocketCivil Action No. 04-10467-RGS
StatusPublished
Cited by9 cases

This text of 251 F.R.D. 70 (AVX Corp. v. Cabot Corp.) is published on Counsel Stack Legal Research, covering District Court, D. Massachusetts primary law. Counsel Stack provides free access to over 12 million legal documents including statutes, case law, regulations, and constitutions.

Bluebook
AVX Corp. v. Cabot Corp., 251 F.R.D. 70, 2008 U.S. Dist. LEXIS 49293, 2008 WL 2566778 (D. Mass. 2008).

Opinion

MEMORANDUM AND ORDER RE: DEFENDANT CABOT CORPORATION’S MOTION TO STRIKE AVX’S FURTHER SUPPLEMENTAL RESPONSES TO CABOT CORPORATION’S FIRST SET OF INTERROGATORIES (DOCKET ENTRY # 124)

BOWLER, United States Magistrate Judge.

Pending before this court is a motion to strike an untimely supplemental answer to a [72]*72damages interrogatory served by plaintiffs AVX Corporation and AVX Limited (“AVX”) on defendant Cabot Corporation (“Cabot”) after the close of fact and expert discovery. (Docket Entry # 124). The motion is fully briefed and therefore ripe for review.

BACKGROUND

This action is one of several other actions involving a five year supply agreement under which AVX agreed to purchase certain minimum annual quantities of flake and non-flake tantalum. With sufficient market power in flake tantalum powder, Cabot purportedly conditioned AVX’s purchase of flake tantalum upon AVX’s purchase of non-flake tantalum in violation of section one of the Sherman Act, 15 U.S.C. § 1. AVX alleges a per se tying case with flake tantalum being the tying product and non-flake nodular tantalum and a material known as KTaf being the tied product[s]. (Docket Entry # 115; Docket Entry # 120, n. 3). AVX submits that Cabot used its monopoly on flake tantalum to force AVX into the long term supply agreement that required AVX to purchase both flake and non-flake tantalum.

According to the complaint, Cabot is one of four companies in the world that processes tantalum for sale to companies such as AVX. As alleged in the complaint, the three other companies are H.C. Starek, NEICC and, notably, Showa Cabot (“Showa”), a Japanese company and wholly owned subsidiary of Cabot.1 (Docket Entry # 1).

The parties have a long and equally contentious litigation history. The remains of that history consist of this action and an ongoing state court action in which AVX asserts that Cabot breached the most favored nation provision in the long term supply agreement. To support its position, AVX attaches a February 2008 opinion in the state court action imposing sanctions on Cabot because of the late presentation of a new theory of loss after the close of discovery. After reciting conduct on the part of both AVX and Cabot, the associate justice in the state court action reopened discovery to allow AVX an opportunity to explore the right of first refusal provision in the agreement that was implicated by the new theory.

Discovery in this action was hard fought on both sides and involved numerous delays in the discovery schedule. To briefly summarize the background, on December 7, 2005, the parties filed a joint statement setting out proposed deadlines for fact and expert discovery. The joint statement proposed, with certain exceptions, the application of the default deadline for expert disclosure set forth in Rule 26(a)(2)(B), Fed.R.Civ.P. It also set December 31, 2005, as the date for the initial Rule 26(a)(1) disclosures. The court approved the schedule on December 7, 2005, thereby establishing December 31, 2005, as the deadline to provide Rule 26(a) disclosures, including a computation of damages. See Rule 26(a)(1)(A)(iii), Fed.R.Civ.P.

On October 5, 2006, the parties jointly requested an extension of “all deadlines.” (Docket Entry # 43). The court allowed the motion the following day thereby extending the deadlines for a period of 120 days. Accordingly, to the extent the order impacted the December 31, 2005 deadline, the new deadline for Rule 26(a) disclosures became May 1, 2006. Meanwhile, Cabot continued to delay responding to interrogatories and requests for production served by AVX.2

On January 30, 2007, Cabot filed a joint motion to extend various deadlines. The motion did not address the deadline for Rule 26(a)(1) initial disclosures thereby leaving the May 1, 2006 deadline in place. Instead, the motion only “requested] that the Scheduling Order be extended” with respect to expert disclosures, fact and expert discovery, submission of expert reports and filing of dispositive motions. The court allowed the motion the following day and set out the deadlines on the docket. As a result, the following deadlines went into effect: (1) February 28, [73]*732007, as the deadline for AVX to serve expert disclosures; (2) March 30, 2007, as the deadline to complete fact discovery; (3) April 30, 2007, as the deadline for AVX to submit expert report(s); (4) May 31, 2007, as the deadline for Cabot to submit expert reportes); (5) July 16, 2007, as the deadline to complete expert discovery; and (6) August 16, 2007, as the deadline to file dispositive motions.

On July 10, 2007, the parties again filed a joint motion to amend the schedule. Like the January 30, 2007 request to amend the schedule, the July 10, 2007 motion did not address or otherwise effect the deadline for Rule 26(a)(1) initial disclosures. On July 17, 2007, the court allowed the July 10, 2007 motion with the caveat that, “No further extensions will be granted.”

An additional extension resulted from the unfortunate death of the mother of plaintiffs counsel. Cabot did not oppose the motion filed by AVX to extend the deadlines.3 On August 21, 2007, the court allowed the motion and, to make certain that the docket accurately reflected the new deadlines, the courtroom clerk set out all of the deadlines on the docket. All parties therefore had ample notice of the revised deadlines. The court thus set October 31, 2007, as the deadline for fact discovery; December 15, 2007, as the deadline for AVX to submit expert report(s); January 15, 2008, as the deadline for Cabot to submit expert report(s); March 1, 2008, as the deadline to complete expert discovery; and March 31, 2008, as the deadline to file dispositive motions.

On November 7, 2007, the court extended fact discovery to December 15, 2007. The court did not otherwise alter the existing schedule. The foregoing extensions and delays resulted from requests on the part of both AVX and Cabot.

On October 18, 2007, the court allowed AVX’s motion to designate a new expert, Steven Schwartz (“Schwartz”), in lieu of a prior expert who, because of medical issues, was unable to travel to view AVX’s manufacturing facility in the United Kingdom. Cabot opposed the motion by proposing that AVX be bound to the prior expert’s affidavit testimony. The court dismissed the concern as “quibbling over an otherwise meritorious motion.” Cabot’s failure to designate a Rule 30(b)(6) deponent to address three topics in a deposition notice also resulted in a further deposition and payment of reasonable expenses on the part of Cabot.

On the other hand, AVX’s motion for sanctions (Docket Entry # 105) was filed without good faith negotiations to resolve the dispute. On January 17, 2008, the court summarily denied AVX’s motion to extend case management deadlines including the deadline to file AVX’s expert report. AVX’s February 8, 2008 motion (Docket Entry # 97) seeking to avoid the December 15, 2007 deadline for filing expert report[s] was also not well taken. (Docket Entry # 104; “[tjhis motion is the latest effort by [AVX] to circumvent the discovery schedule ordered by the court”). The court also denied AVX’s February 2, 2008 motion to stay, i.e., extend, the March 1, 2008 deadline for expert depositions. (Docket Entry # 98, Feb. 15, 2008 Order).

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251 F.R.D. 70, 2008 U.S. Dist. LEXIS 49293, 2008 WL 2566778, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/avx-corp-v-cabot-corp-mad-2008.