In re Cedar Shake & Shingle Antitrust Litigation

District Court, W.D. Washington·Decided December 10, 2019·No. 2:19-cv-00288·Unknown

Opinion

I The Honorable Marsha J. Pechman 2 3 4 5 6 7 UNITED STATES DISTRICT COURT WESTERN DISTRICT OF WASHINGTON 8 AT SEATTLE IN RE CEDAR SHAKE & SHINGLE No. 2:19-cv-00288-MJP 10 ANTITRUST LITIGATION This Document Relates to: UNOPPOSED MOTION AND ll QgunmemEES ORDER GRANTING LETTERS ROGATORY RE: 12]! All Class Actions TELEPHONE RECORDS TO TELUS 3 COMMUNICATIONS INC.

14 I. UNOPPOSED MOTION 15 Pursuant to Federal Rule of Civil Procedure 28(b)(3) and 28 U.S.C. 1781(b)(2), 16 || undersigned Plaintiffs (“Plaintiffs”) move this Court for an Order issuing the attached Letters 17 || Rogatory to the appropriate authorities in British Columbia, Canada for the telephone records of 18 || certain executives and competitors of Defendants in this case. Plaintiffs seek telephone records 19 || of telephone calls made to and from executives and competitors of Defendants in Canada. 20 || Defendants have been consulted and do not oppose this motion. 21 Courts have the inherent authority to issue Letters Rogatory and Letters of Request to 22 || foreign nations, and may request that the foreign nation order a witness to provide testimony that 23 || will aid in the resolution of a matter pending in the United States. See United States v. Reagan, 24 || 453 F.2d 165, 172 (6th Cir. 1971); United States v. Staples, 256 F.2d 290, 292 (9th Cir. 1958). In 25 || addition, federal statutes provide for the issuance of Letters Rogatory by a federal court. Under 26 || 28 U.S.C. § 1781(b)(2), a tribunal in the United States may directly transmit a Letter Rogatory or UNOPPOSED MOTION AND SE ORDER GRANTING KELLER ROHRBACK L.L.P. FOR LETTERS ROGATORY RE: TELEPHONE RECORDS (19- 1201 Third Avenue, Suite 3200 00288-MJP) - 1 TELEPHONE: (206) 623-1900 FACSIMILE: (206) 623-3384

1 || request to a foreign or international tribunal. The British Columbia Evidence Act also provides 2 || that a court outside of Canada may serve Letters Rogatory upon a Canadian court. British 3 || Columbia Evidence Act, R.S.B.C. 1996, C. 124 § 53. 4 On applications for the issuance of Letters Rogatory, the Court will not ordinarily weigh 5 || the evidence to be elicited, nor will the Court determine whether the witnesses will be able to 6 || provide the anticipated testimony. B&L Drilling Electronics vy. Totco, 87 F.R.D. 543, 545 (W.D. 7 || Okla. 1978). Rather, “good reason” must be shown for denying the issuance of a Letter 8 || Rogatory. Zassenhaus v. Evening Star Newspaper Co., 404 F.2d 1361, 1364 (D.C. Cir. 1968). 9 Here, Plaintiffs seek to obtain telephone records to provide further evidence to prove the 10 || allegations in their Second Amended Complaint filed in the above referenced case, namely that 11 |] the alleged co-conspirators furthered the conspiracy to coordinate price fixing for cedar shakes 12 || and shingles over the phone. For example, Plaintiffs allege that Mr. Dziedzic, G & R’s Sales 13 || Manager spoke on the phone with some competitors, either Brooke Meeker of Anbrook 14 || Industries or Curtis Walker of Waldun Forest Products, who asked him to raise G & R’s shake 15 || and shingle prices. Pl. Liebo’s Second Amended Complaint, § 201. 16 Plaintiffs further allege Defendants Waldun and CSSB “pressure[d] Teal to raise its prices 17 || via phone conversations.” Jd. at § 218. Plaintiffs allege that, “on multiple occasions during the 18 || last 10 years, Curtis Walker made calls to Pacific Cedar’s Vice President Kathy Klassen, in which 19 || he told her that her company’s cedar shake and shingle prices were too low and urged her to raise 20 || those prices to levels recommended by Mr. Walker.” Jd. at § 219. Plaintiffs allege that “[oJn 21 || multiple occasions ... Curtis Walker made calls to Bill Maitland of Goat Lake Cedar in which he 22 || asked Mr. Maitland to raise his company’s cedar shake and shingle prices to levels recommended 23 || by Mr. Walker. at § 220. Plaintiffs seek phone records of these and other calls to prove their 24 || case. 25 Moreover, the issuing of a Letter Rogatory will not be overly burdensome. Plaintiffs seek 26 || telephone records of only 56 telephone numbers from January 1, 2011 to the date of collection.

UNOPPOSED MOTION AND QS ORDER GRANTING KELLER ROHRBACK L.L.P. FOR LETTERS ROGATORY RE: TELEPHONE RECORDS (19- 1201 Third Avenue, Suite 3200 00288-MIP) - 2 TELEPHONE: (206) 623-1900 FACSIMILE: (206) 623-3364

1 || These documents are regularly produced by TELUS Communications Inc., as evidenced by the 2 || fact that that they have a policy for producing telephone records, i.e., one has to submit a filed 3 || Court Order in order to obtain copies of records. 4 Further, Plaintiffs have volunteered to pay reasonable fees and judicial costs associated 5 || with the requested production of telephone records. Plaintiffs have been informed by TELUS 6 || Communications Inc. that they will produce telephone records only pursuant to a filed court Order. 7\| Thus, it is necessary to compel production of telephone records through a Letter Rogatory. 8 Defendants do not oppose the issuance of Letters Rogatory compelling the phone records 9 || of the executives of defendants in this case listed in the attached Exhibit A. Defendants’ non- 10 || opposition is made without prejudice to its right to oppose the introduction of any documents or 11 || information obtained from TELUS Communications Inc. based on any objection allowed by the 12 || Federal Rules of Civil Procedure or other applicable law. Defendants expressly reserve all 13 || evidentiary and trial objections. Defendants further reserve the right to obtain from Plaintiffs 14 || copies of all documents obtained from TELUS Communications Inc. pursuant to the Letters 15 || Rogatory. 16 DATED this 3rd day of December, 2019. 7 KELLER ROHRBACK L.L.P. I8 By: /s/Karin B. Swope 19 Mark A. Griffin, WSBA #16296 Raymond J. Farrow, WSBA #31782 20 Karin B. Swope, WSBA #24015 1201 Third Avenue, Suite 3200 21 Seattle, WA 98101 Phone: (206) 623-1900 Fax: (206) 623-3384 23 meriffin@kellerrohrback.com rfarrow@kellerrohrback.com 24 kswope@kellerrohrback.com 2 LOCKRIDGE GRINDAL NAUEN 2%6 P.L.L.P. W. Joseph Bruckner (MN#0147758) UNOPPOSED MOTION AND QR ORDER GRANTING KELLER ROHRBACK L.L.P. FOR LETTERS ROGATORY RE: TELEPHONE RECORDS (19- 1201 Third Avenue, Suite 3200 00288-MJP) - 3 TELEPHON 308) 623.1900 FACSIMILE: (206) 623-3384

| Elizabeth R. Odette (MN#0340698) Brian D. Clark (MN#00390069) 2 Arielle S. Wagner (MN#00398332) 3 100 Washington Avenue S., Suite 2200 Minneapolis, MN 55401 4 Phone: (612) 339-6900 Fax: (612) 339-0981 5 wjbruckner@locklaw.com erodette@locklaw.com 6 bdclark@locklaw.com 7 aswagner@locklaw.com 8 Co-Lead Counsel for the Proposed End User Plaintiff Classes 9 10 MCNAUL EBEL NAWROT & TOUSLEY BRAIN STEPHENS ll HELGREN PLLC Kaleigh N.B. Powell, WSBA #52684 Gregory J Hollon, WSBA #26311 Kim D. Stephens, WSBA #11984 12 600 University Street, Suite 2700 Chase C.

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In re Cedar Shake & Shingle Antitrust Litigation, (W.D. Wash. 2019).

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