ECB USA, Inc. v. Savencia, S.A.

District Court, D. Delaware·Decided July 11, 2024·No. 1:19-cv-00731·Unknown

Opinion

IN THE UNITED STATES DISTRICT COURT FOR THE DISTRICT OF DELAWARE

ECB USA, INC., et al., Plaintiffs, v. SAVENCIA, S.A. et al., C. A. No. 19-cv-731-GBW-CJB Defendants.

Thomas G. Macauley, MACAULEY LLC, Wilmington, DE; Stephen G. Harvey, STEVE HARVEY LLC, Philadelphia, PA; Joel S. Magolnick, John E. Kirkpatrick, MARKO & MAGOLNICK P.A., Miami, FL Counsel for Plaintiffs David W. Marston Jr., Jody C. Barillare, Brian Morris, MORGAN LEWIS & BOCKIUS LLP, Wilmington, DE; Troy S. Brown, Margot G. Bloom, Su Jin Kim, MORGAN LEWIS & BOCKIUS LLP, Philadelphia, PA; Michael J. Ableson, MORGAN LEWIS & BOCKIUS LLP, New York, NY Counsel for Defendants

MEMORANDUM OPINION

July 11, 2024 Wilmington, Delaware

AE Wn U.S. DISTRICT JUDGE

Pending before the Court are Plaintiffs ECB USA, Inc., Atlantic Ventures Corp., and G.LE. C2B’s (“Plaintiffs”) and Defendants Savencia S.A., Zausner Foods Corp., Alain Voss, and others (“Defendants”) Objections to Judge Burke’s Orders and Reports and Recommendations. See D.I. 579.

I. LEGAL STANDARD — ‘

The Court reviews a Magistrate Judge’s findings of fact for clear error and reviews a Magistrate Judge’s legal conclusions de novo. 28 U.S.C. § 636(b)(1)(A); Cornell Univ. v. Mlumina, Inc., 2017 WL 89165, at *8 (D. Del. Jan. 10, 2017). The Court reviews discretionary decisions for abuse of discretion. Quantum Loyalty Sys. Inc. vy. TPG Rewards Inc., 2012 WL 1134779, at *1 (D. Del. Apr. 4, 2012). “This deferential standard of review is especially appropriate where the Magistrate Judge has managed this case from the outset and developed a thorough knowledge of the proceedings.” /d. (internal citations omitted) (citing Cooper Hospital/University Med. Ctr. v. Sullivan, 183 F.R.D. 119, 127 (D.N.J.1998)). II. DISCUSSION A. Plaintiffs’ Objections to Judge Burke’s Order on Clawbacks. Plaintiffs object to Judge Burke’s Order finding that Plaintiffs waived their right to challenge Defendants’ assertion of privilege with respect to certain clawed back documents by failing to abide by the requirements of the Protective Order. D.I. 320. The Court has reviewed Judge Burke’s Order (D.I. 298) (the “Clawback Order’), Plaintiffs’ Objections (D.I. 320), and

Defendants’ Response (D.I. 329). Because this objection involves the construction of the parties’ Protective Order, the Court considers whether Judge Burke’s Order is “contrary to law.”

The Protective Order that was entered in this action includes a clause that allows a party to “clawback” inadvertently produced privileged documents and sets up a procedure for doing so (the “Clawback Clause”). The parties dispute whether the Protective Order requires a party who has received a clawback notice to challenge that clawback notice within five (5) days if it seeks to contest the assertion of privilege. For the reasons stated by Judge Burke in the Clawback Order, the Court agrees with Defendants that the proper construction of the Clawback Clause requires a party who seeks to challenge a clawback notice to do so within five (5) days of its receipt of the clawback notice. D.I. 298. Thus, the Court finds that the Clawback Order was not “contrary to law.” Accordingly, the Court, ADOPTS Judge Burke’s Clawback Order (D.I. 298), and OVERRULES Plaintiffs’ Objections.

B. Plaintiffs’ Objections to Judge Burke’s Order on Deduplication. Plaintiffs object to Judge Burke’s Order that granted Defendants’ request for a supplemental document production by Plaintiffs with respect to certain documents that Defendants contend were not properly de-duplicated and are missing custodian-related and date- related metadata. The Court has reviewed Judge Burke’s Order (D.I. 307) (the “Deduplication Order’), Plaintiffs’ Objections (D.I. 324), and Defendants’ Response (D.I. 344). Because this objection involves the construction of the parties’ Protective Order, the Court considers whether Judge Burke’s Order is “contrary to law.”

The parties dispute whether the Protective Order requires a party producing ESI to deduplicate its production, and whether the Protective Order requires a party that produces a deduplicated production to include certain metadata fields. Judge Burke agreed with Defendants that Plaintiffs’ document production was insufficient. The Court finds that the Deduplication Order was not “contrary to law.”

Section VIII(B)(1) of the Protective Order requires the parties to produce deduplicated documents. See Protective Order, § VIII(B)(1) (“Email and Non-Email: the Parties agree to ‘ search for and produce ‘unique, responsive records from sources of hard topy and ESI to the □□

extent a custodian reveals that such locations may contain responsive information and such data is within the possession, custody or control of the Producing Party.”) (emphasis added). Duplicate documents are not “unique.” Jd.

The Court also finds that Plaintiffs’ production was deficient for failure to produce documents that included the necessary fields under the Protective Order. Section III of the Protective Order requires the parties to produce documents “with a delimited, database load file that contains the metadata fields listed in Appendix 1.” Protective Order, §III. Appendix | indicates that the parties should produce documents that contain fields for the custodian, the secondary (duplicate) custodian, and the date. Jd., Appx. 1. Plaintiffs concede that its deduplicated production “no longer included the fields ‘Custodian,’ and, in some instances, ‘date.’” D.I. 324. Considering that Plaintiffs’ entire production lacked the requisite “custodian” field, the Court is not convinced that Plaintiffs’ production is the type of production that Section VII(E) contemplates supplementing only if such a field “become[s] relevant.” Protective Order, §VII(E). Accordingly, the Court finds that Judge Burke properly ordered the parties to meet and confer to determine an appropriate procedure for Plaintiffs to supplement its deficient

production. Thus, the Court ADOPTS Judge Burke’s Order on Deduplication and OVERRULES Plaintiffs’ Objections.

C. Plaintiffs’ Objections to Judge Burke’s Order on Certain of Plaintiffs’ Discovery Disputes Plaintiffs object to Judge Burke’s Order denying Plaintiffs’ discovery requests for (1) certain emails between alleged co-conspirators Alex Bongrain (Savencia’s Chairman) and Alain Voss (the president and CEO of SFI), and (2) certain documents in the possession of Defendants’ subsidiaries or affiliates. The Court has reviewed Judge Burke’s Order (D.I. 353) (the “Discovery Order”), Plaintiffs’ Objections OL. 368), and Defendants’ Rees (D.I. 374). The Discovery Order denied The Court addresses each in turn.

The Court reviews Judge Burke’s denial of Plaintiffs’ request for production of the emails between alleged co-conspirators Alex Bongrain (Savencia’s Chairman) and Alain Voss for an abuse of discretion. Judge Burke did not abuse his discretion in denying Plaintiffs’ request for production. Plaintiffs sought “[a]ll Documents evidencing communications between Alex Bongrain and Alain Voss, VEI, Bertrand Proust, ECB-USA, and/or Atlantic Ventures” for a four-year period. Judge Burke correctly found that Plaintiffs’ request was overly broad because it was not limited to a specific, relevant topic. D.I. 353. Further, to the extent that Plaintiffs’ request did seek relevant, non-privileged information, Defendants contend that they have produced that information. D.I. 374 at 6. (“Defendants [] advised that they searched Mr. Bongrain’s email communications and produced the documents responsive to Plaintiffs’ requests that pertain to the claims and defenses in the case.”) Accordingly, the Court ADOPTS Judge Burke’s Order denying Plaintiffs’ request for production of these emails.

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ECB USA, Inc. v. Savencia, S.A., (D. Del. 2024).

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