In re Priceline.com Inc. Securities Litigation

233 F.R.D. 83, 2005 WL 3160351
CourtDistrict Court, D. Connecticut
DecidedNovember 23, 2005
DocketNo. 3:00CV01884(DJS)
StatusPublished
Cited by11 cases

This text of 233 F.R.D. 83 (In re Priceline.com Inc. Securities Litigation) is published on Counsel Stack Legal Research, covering District Court, D. Connecticut primary law. Counsel Stack provides free access to over 12 million legal documents including statutes, case law, regulations, and constitutions.

Bluebook
In re Priceline.com Inc. Securities Litigation, 233 F.R.D. 83, 2005 WL 3160351 (D. Conn. 2005).

Opinion

MEMORANDUM OF DECISION AND ORDER

SQUATRITO, District Judge.

Now pending in the above-captioned matter is plaintiffs’ second motion to compel (dkt. # 188) discovery from defendants. For the reasons set forth herein, this motion is GRANTED in part and DENIED in part.

I. BACKGROUND

Lead plaintiffs bring this action on behalf of members of a putative class of persons who purchased or otherwise acquired securities of priceline.com Inc. (“Priceline”) between January 27, 2000 and October 2, 2000 [85]*85(“Class Period”), pursuant to Sections 10(b), 15 U.S.C. § 78j(b), and 20(a), 15 U.S.C. § 78t, of the Securities Exchange Act of 1934 (“the Exchange Act”), as amended by the Private Securities Litigation Reform Act of 1995 (“PSLRA”), 15 U.S.C. §§ 78a-78mm, and Rule 10b-5, 17 C.F.R. § 240.10b-5, promulgated thereunder, against Priceline, Jay S. Walker, N.J. Nicholas, Daniel H. Schulman, and Richard S. Braddock. Plaintiffs allege that defendants’ false and misleading statements inflated the value of Priceline’s stock to the benefit of the defendants and other company insiders and to the detriment of the plaintiffs. Specifically, plaintiffs allege that during the period from mid-July 2000 to September 26, 2000, defendants sold, in the aggregate, millions of shares of Priceline stock, allowing them to profit substantially prior to disclosing various deficiencies in Priceline’s short term economic outlook.

The gravamen of plaintiffs’ allegations is that defendants grossly overstated the utility of Priceline’s business model, and that defendants, outside the view of the investing public, spent exorbitant amounts of Priceline’s cash to keep the doomed venture called Web-House afloat primarily to bolster their statements about the utility of the business model.

II. DISCUSSION

Rule 26 of the Federal Rules of Civil Procedure governs the scope of discovery. Specifically, “[p]arties may obtain discovery regarding any matter, not privileged, which is relevant to the subject matter involved in the pending action....” Fed.R.Civ.P. 26(b)(1). As a general proposition, the Federal Rules of Civil Procedure concerning discovery are to be construed broadly. See generally 6 Moore’s Federal Practice § 26.41(1) (Matthew Bender 3d ed.1997) (citing Herbert v. Lando, 441 U.S. 153, 177, 99 S.Ct. 1635, 60 L.Ed.2d 115 (1979)). A valid discovery request need only “encompass any matter that bears on, or that reasonably could lead to other matter that could bear on, any issue that is or may be in the case.” Oppenheimer Fund, Inc. v. Sanders, 437 U.S. 340, 351, 98 S.Ct. 2380, 57 L.Ed.2d 253 (1978); see Hickman v. Taylor, 329 U.S. 495, 501, 67 S.Ct. 385, 91 L.Ed. 451 (1947); Gary Plastic Packaging Corp. v. Merrill Lynch, Pierce, Fenner & Smith, Inc., 756 F.2d 230, 236 (2d Cir.1985).

“A court can limit discovery if it determines, among other things, that the discovery is: (1) unreasonably cumulative or duplicative; (2) obtainable from another source that is more convenient, less burdensome, or less expensive; or (3) the burden or expense of the proposed discovery outweighs its likely benefit.” Chavez v. DaimlerChrysler Corp., 206 F.R.D. 615, 619 (S.D.Ind.2002) (citing Fed.R.Civ.P. 26(b)(2)). The party resisting discovery bears the burden of demonstrating that its objections should be sustained, and

pat, generic, non-specific objections, intoning the same boilerplate language, are inconsistent with both the letter and the spirit of the Federal Rules of Civil Procedure. An objection to a document request must clearly set forth the specifics of the objection and how that objection relates to the documents being demanded.

Obiajulu v. City of Rochester, 166 F.R.D. 293, 295 (W.D.N.Y.1996). The objecting party must do more than “simply intone [the] familiar litany that the interrogatories are burdensome, oppressive or overly broad.” Compagnie Francaise d’Assurance Pour le Commerce Exterieur v. Phillips Petroleum Co., 105 F.R.D. 16, 42 (S.D.N.Y.1984). Instead, the objecting party must “show specifically how, despite the broad and liberal construction afforded the federal discovery rules, each [request] is not relevant or how each question is overly broad, burdensome or oppressive by submitting affidavits or offering evidence revealing the nature of the burden.” Id. (internal citations and quotation marks omitted).

On March 1, 2005, plaintiffs served the Second Set of Requests for Production of Documents and Interrogatories upon defendants, and on April 25, 2005, defendants served responses thereto. Plaintiffs challenge the sufficiency of certain responses offered by defendants. Each specific challenge is discussed in turn.

[86]*861. Request for Production 3

Plaintiffs seek “[a]ll documents concerning the investment policies or practices of any Defendant including, but not limited to, all statements of investment policy prepared by or for any Defendant.” Defendants have objected to this request on the basis of relevance. According to plaintiffs, information regarding defendants’ ordinary trading practices is relevant to plaintiffs’ claim that defendants’ trades in Priceline stock during the Class Period are probative of defendants’ state of mind while making the statements set forth in the complaint. Defendants have since stated that they do not object to providing information about each defendant’s trades in Priceline shares, but they still maintain that information regarding their trades in other securities is not relevant to plaintiffs’ claims.

Defendants’ objection is overruled. The information requested could lead to admissible evidence regarding defendants’ state of mind while they traded in Priceline shares during the Class Period. Defendants’ proposed limitation prohibits plaintiffs from learning the context of defendants’ Priceline trades. The context could be relevant to defendants’ motivation for trading in Price-line shares during the Class Period. Plaintiffs’ motion is granted with respect to this request.

2. Document Request 8

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Bluebook (online)
233 F.R.D. 83, 2005 WL 3160351, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/in-re-pricelinecom-inc-securities-litigation-ctd-2005.