Ceglia v. Zuckerberg

287 F.R.D. 152, 2012 WL 5381665, 2012 U.S. Dist. LEXIS 156193
CourtDistrict Court, W.D. New York
DecidedOctober 31, 2012
DocketNo. 10-CV-00569A(F)
StatusPublished
Cited by5 cases

This text of 287 F.R.D. 152 (Ceglia v. Zuckerberg) is published on Counsel Stack Legal Research, covering District Court, W.D. New York primary law. Counsel Stack provides free access to over 12 million legal documents including statutes, case law, regulations, and constitutions.

Bluebook
Ceglia v. Zuckerberg, 287 F.R.D. 152, 2012 WL 5381665, 2012 U.S. Dist. LEXIS 156193 (W.D.N.Y. 2012).

Opinion

DECISION and ORDER

LESLIE G. FOSCHIO, United States Magistrate Judge.

JURISDICTION

This action was referred to the undersigned by Honorable Richard J. Arcara on May 27, 2011 for pretrial matters. The action is presently before the court on Plaintiffs motion to strike Defendants’ expert witness report (Doc. No. 499), filed August 22, 2012.

BACKGROUND and FACTS1

In this action, Plaintiff Paul D. Ceglia (“Plaintiff’), alleges that a “Work for Hire” contract (“the purported contract”), purportedly executed on April 28, 2003 by Plaintiff and Defendant Mark Elliot Zuckerberg (“Zuckerberg”), established a partnership for the development and commercialization of two separate internet business ventures including “The Face Book,” the social-networking website now known as Defendant Face-book, Inc. (“Facebook”), and StreetFax (“StreetFax”), a project which Plaintiff was developing and hoped to market for profit. The purported contract provides, as relevant here, Plaintiff would assist in funding Face-book’s development in exchange for “a half interest (50%) in the software, programming language and business interests derived from the expansion of that service to a large audience.” First Amended Complaint (Doc. No. 39) (“Amended Complaint”) ¶ 1. Plaintiff asserts seven claims for relief alleging breach of fiduciary duty, actual and constructive fraud, and breach of contract. Defendants contend the purported contract is a forgery, and that the real contract executed on April 28, 2003, is a two-page document titled “StreetFax” (“the StreetFax document”), containing the entire agreement reached by Plaintiff and Zuckerberg on April 28, 2003, which provided that Zuckerberg, in exchange for monetary payment from Plaintiff, would perform programming work for Plaintiffs StreetFax project. A copy of the StreetFax document was located as an attachment to an email within the memory of one of Plaintiffs computers during a forensic examination per[154]*154formed by Defendants’ digital forensics and electronic evidence experts Stroz Friedberg, LLC (“Stroz Friedberg”), in July 2011 in connection with this action.2

On March 26, 2012, Defendants filed two dispositive motions, including a motion to dismiss (Doe. No. 318) (“Motion to Dismiss”), and for judgment on the pleadings (Doc. No. 320) (“Motion for Judgment”) (together, “Defendants’ Dispositive Motions”), and also moved to stay discovery pending resolution of the Dispositive Motions (Doe. No. 322) (“Motion to Stay”). In a Minute and Order entered on April 4, 2012 (Doc. No. 348) (“April 4, 2012 Order”), the undersigned granted the Motion to Stay in part, gave Plaintiff 60 days in which to file expert reports opposing Defendants’ Motion to Dismiss, after which both Plaintiff and Defendants had two months in which to depose the experts, following which Plaintiff was given two months in which to file his opposition to Defendants’ Dispositive Motions, and Defendants thereafter had 30 days in which to file any reply. On August 3, 2012, all parties joined in a motion (Doc. No. 468) requesting a ten-day extension of the deadline set by the April 4, 2012 Order. By Text Order dated August 6, 2012 (Doc. No. 471) (“August 6, 2012 Order”), the joint motion was granted, and the deadline to conclude expert depositions was extended from August 4, 2012 to August 14, 2012, with the other deadlines also extended by 10 days.

The Motion to Dismiss is predicated on Defendants’ argument that the purported contract is a forgery, such that Plaintiff, by filing and litigating the instant action, has perpetrated a fraud on the court, and that Plaintiff has engaged in litigation misconduct including, inter alia, the willful destruction of critical and relevant evidence. Defendants’ Motion to Dismiss relies in large part on the reports of Defendants’ experts including, as relevant to the instant motion, a report prepared by forensic document examiner and handwriting expert Gus R. Lesnevich (“Lesnevich”), dated March 25, 2012. Expert Report of Gus R. Lesnevich, Forensic Document Examiner (“Initial Report”), filed March 26, 2012, as Exh. E (Doe. No. 329), to Defendants’ Motion to Dismiss. In his Initial Report, Lesnevich concluded that during the course of this litigation, Plaintiff has proffered at least two different versions of the purported contract, including one that was attached to the original complaint, and a different one produced to Plaintiffs expert for examination in January 2011, and then to Defendants’ experts for examination in July 2011. This conclusion was reached after Lesnevich analyzed four separate electronic images of the purported contract, including (1) an image in TIF file format3 sent by Plaintiff to his attorney, Paul A. Argentieri, Esq. (“Argentieri”), on June 27, 2010 (“Q-l”); (2) an image attached to the original complaint filed June 30, 2010 (“Q — 2”); (3) an image taken by Plaintiffs expert, Valerie Aginsky (“Aginsky”), during Aginsky’s January 13, 2011 examination of the purported contract (“Q — 3”); and (4) an image taken by Defendants’ forensic document examiner expert Peter V. Tytell (“Tytell”), during Defendants’ July 14, 2011 examination of the purported contract presented by Argentieri (“Q-4”).4 In his Initial Report prepared based on his analysis of the four images, Lesnevich identified 20 dissimilarities among the four images, all found on page 1 of the purported contract. The types of dissimilarities Lesne-vich observed include dissimilarities as to (1) slant/slope of individual letters and numbers, Initial Report at 3-10; (2) letter formation or design of the letters, id. at 11-14; (3) letter spacing or placement on the document, id. at 15-20; (4) beginning/ending strokes, id. at 21-22; (5) height-relationship, id. at 23-26; and (6) alignment of the handwritten interlin-eations with certain typeface letters, id. at 27-29. Both Q-l and Q-2 contained the [155]*155same dissimilarities on page 1 as Q-3 and Q-4, leading Lesnevich to conclude two different versions of the purported contract had been proffered, with Q-l and Q-2 being different images of the version attached as an exhibit to the original complaint (“first version”), and Q-3 and Q-4 being different images of the version proffered for examination by Plaintiffs expert Aginsky and Defendants’ experts (“second version”).

For example, one of the “slant/slope dissimilarities” Lesnevich observed was that in “the word ‘May’ in the questioned handwritten interlineations ... the legs of the letter “M” run parallel to each other on Exhibits Q-l and Q-2. However, on Exhibits Q-3 and Q-4, the legs of the letter “M” do not run parallel to each other.” Initial Report at 3-4 and Fig. 2 at 6. With regard to letter spacing or placement on the document, Lesnevich “examined the number ‘2003’ in the questioned handwritten interlineations and found that the space between the numeral ‘2’ and the numeral ‘0’ on Exhibits Q-l and Q-2 is significantly smaller than the space between the numeral ‘2’ and the numeral ‘0’ on Exhibits Q-3 and Q-4.” Initial Report at 15 and Fig. 12 at 18.

In accordance with the April 4, 2012 Order, on June 4, 2012, Plaintiff filed his expert reports with exhibits, including Plaintiffs expert witness reports (Doe. No. 415) (“Doc. No. 415”). On June 19, 2012, Plaintiff moved to strike Doc. No. 415 and all related exhibits, requesting permission to refile Doc. No. 415 with redacted exhibits, and the motion was granted by a text order entered June 20, 2012 (Doc. No. 450).

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Bluebook (online)
287 F.R.D. 152, 2012 WL 5381665, 2012 U.S. Dist. LEXIS 156193, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/ceglia-v-zuckerberg-nywd-2012.