In re Dayco Corp. Derivative Securities Litigation

99 F.R.D. 616, 38 Fed. R. Serv. 2d 537, 1983 U.S. Dist. LEXIS 12506
CourtDistrict Court, S.D. Ohio
DecidedOctober 21, 1983
DocketNos. C-3-82-184, C-3-82-254, C-3-82-329 and C-3-82-405
StatusPublished
Cited by33 cases

This text of 99 F.R.D. 616 (In re Dayco Corp. Derivative Securities Litigation) is published on Counsel Stack Legal Research, covering District Court, S.D. Ohio primary law. Counsel Stack provides free access to over 12 million legal documents including statutes, case law, regulations, and constitutions.

Bluebook
In re Dayco Corp. Derivative Securities Litigation, 99 F.R.D. 616, 38 Fed. R. Serv. 2d 537, 1983 U.S. Dist. LEXIS 12506 (S.D. Ohio 1983).

Opinion

ENTRY ON DEFENDANTS’ MOTION TO DISMISS; FURTHER PROCEDURES ORDERED

RICE, District Judge.

Defendant Richard Jacob has moved (doc. # 77) to dismiss Counts 2, 3, 7 and portions of Counts 4 and 5 of the amended complaint filed by Plaintiffs Heist and Efros, for failure to comply with the verification and demand requirements of Fed.R.Civ.P. 23.1. The director defendants and Dayco have joined this motion (doc. # 83 & 97). While the motion has been fully briefed, Defendants now ask this Court to “defer further consideration of this motion until the determination of certain pending discovery motions, and if such discovery is ordered, until completion of that discovery.” Reply Memorandum, doc. # 97, at 2. In a separate entry filed this date in this case, the Court has sustained, in part, motions to compel the discovery referred to by Defendants.

It is not clear, however, how any such discovery would aid the Court in disposing of the motion. As per the language of the rule (“The complaint shall also allege .... ”), compliance with the “demand” requirement of the rule is usually tested by only examining the allegations of the complaint, as in a Rule 12(b)(6) motion. See Heit v. Baird, 567 F.2d 1157, 1159-60 n. 3 (1st Cir.1977); Leff v. CIP Corp., 540 F.Supp. 857, 868 (S.D.Ohio 1982). Cf. 7A C. Wright & A. Miller, Federal Practice and Procedure, § 1831 at 301 (Supp.1982). On the other hand, discovery may be appropriate to determine if the verification requirement of the rule has been met. Lewis v. Curtis, 671 F.2d 779, 787-88 (3d Cir.1982), cert. denied,-U.S.-, 103 S.Ct. 176, 74 L.Ed.2d 144 (1982). Cf. Brown v. Hart, [618]*618Schaffner & Marx, 96 F.R.D. 64 (N.D.Ill. 1982).

The Court, of course, will not rule on a motion if the movants, in effect, wish to withdraw it at this time. Likewise, Plaintiffs would presumably wish the Court to overrule the motion, or not rule on it at all. Accordingly, in order to clarify the record, Defendants should inform the Court (by way of a memorandum) within ten (10) days after receipt of this Entry, if they (a) wish to withdraw the motion at this time, subject to renewal, or (b) wish the motion to remain pending, subject to the proffering of information obtained in discovery. Should the latter course be followed, Plaintiffs will also be given the opportunity to submit appropriate materials, within twenty (20) days following the Defendants’ submissions.

DECISION AND ENTRY ON PENDING DISCOVERY MOTIONS; FURTHER PROCEDURES SET

Plaintiffs in these actions, consolidated for pretrial purposes, are stockholders of the Defendant Dayco Corporation. They have sued Dayco, twelve members of the board of directors of Dayco, and an employee of Dayco, alleging violations of § 14 of the Securities Exchange Act of 1934, 15 U.S.C. § 78n and Rule 14a-9, 17 C.F.R. § 240.14a-9 (1983), promulgated thereunder, violations of the duty under state law to manage the corporation with due care, and violations of the civil portions of the Racketeer Influenced and Corrupt Organizations Act (RICO), 18 U.S.C. § 1962. These allegations grow out of certain publicized events in 1982, wherein it was revealed that one Edith Reich, an officer of Foreign Transactions Corporation (FTC), had supposedly received millions of dollars in commissions from Dayco for contracts with the Soviet Union, which later turned out to be nonexistent.1 Based on these and other related events, Plaintiffs charge that Defendants defrauded the Dayco stockholders, mismanaged and wasted the assets of Dayco, and violated the federal securities laws and RICO.

Presently pending before the Court are several motions concerning discovery. They will be considered and disposed of seriatim.

I. Motions by Plaintiffs to Compel Production of Special Committee Report and Related Documents; Defendants’ Motion for a Protective Order; Plaintiffs’ Motions to Reconsider

Plaintiffs Heist and Efros (Doc. # 23) and Blumberg (Doc. # 25) have moved to compel production of a “Report of Counsel to the Special Review Committee of the Board of Directors of the Dayco Corporation” (hereinafter Special Committee report) and certain related documents. Concurrently, Defendants have moved (Doc. # 56) for a protective order to forestall production of said report and documents. In this Court’s Entry of May 11, 1983, the Court noted that the report appeared to be discoverable under Fed.R.Civ.P. 26(b)(1), but that it might be protected by both the attorney-client privilege and work-product immunity. The Court further stated that the privilege had not been waived by a Dayco press release in August of 1982, since the substance of the report was not released. Entry at 1-2. The Court set further procedures to resolve whether the privilege or immunity did apply. Id. at 5.

Initially, the Court addresses Plaintiffs’ motions (doc. # 82A & 85) to reconsider its earlier decision that the privilege, if it exists, had not been waived by the press release. Next, the Court considers whether, notwithstanding any privilege or immunity, Plaintiffs may discover the Special Committee report, and finally, whether Plaintiffs can discover the documents related to or referred to in the report.

[619]*619A. Plaintiffs’ Motions to Reconsider

In January of 1982, a “Special Review Committee” of the Dayco Board of Directors retained the Washington, D.C., law firm of Dickstein, Shapiro & Morin (currently representing the Board in the instant litigation) to conduct an investigation into Dayco’s involvement with FTC and to pursue litigation against FTC. On August 30, 1982, Dayco issued a two-page press release (attached to Doc. # 82A) which summarized the establishment of the Committee, the retention of the law firm, and the “findings” and “conclusions” of the Committee and counsel in the report completed on August 25, 1982 (which, inter alia, were that Mrs. Reich’s allegations against Defendant Richard Jacob, Dayco’s Chief Executive Officer, were “entirely unsubstantiated”). Neither the facts which led to those conclusions, nor the Report itself, were released.

Plaintiffs now ask this Court to reconsider its earlier decision that release of the findings, but not the substance, of the Report does not constitute a waiver of the privilege. They rely entirely on the recent decision in Westmoreland v. CBS, Inc., 97 F.R.D. 703 (S.D.N.Y.1983). That case involved a libel action against CBS based on statements in a CBS television documentary. CBS conducted an internal investigation regarding the making of the documentary, which culminated in a written report and a public statement regarding the report. The public statement summarized the investigation, contained both the findings of the Report and CBS officials, and “also went on to criticize certain aspects of the broadcast.” Id. at 705.

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Bluebook (online)
99 F.R.D. 616, 38 Fed. R. Serv. 2d 537, 1983 U.S. Dist. LEXIS 12506, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/in-re-dayco-corp-derivative-securities-litigation-ohsd-1983.