INTERVET, INC. v. MILEUTIS LTD.

CourtDistrict Court, D. New Jersey
DecidedFebruary 28, 2023
Docket3:15-cv-01371
StatusUnknown

This text of INTERVET, INC. v. MILEUTIS LTD. (INTERVET, INC. v. MILEUTIS LTD.) is published on Counsel Stack Legal Research, covering District Court, D. New Jersey primary law. Counsel Stack provides free access to over 12 million legal documents including statutes, case law, regulations, and constitutions.

Bluebook
INTERVET, INC. v. MILEUTIS LTD., (D.N.J. 2023).

Opinion

UNITED STATES DISTRICT COURT DISTRICT OF NEW JERSEY

Civil Action No. 15-1371 (ZNQ) INTERVET, INC.,

Plaintiff, MEMORANDUM OPINION AND

ORDER v.

MILEUTIS LTD.,

Defendant.

Pending before the Court is Plaintiff Intervet, Inc.’s (“Plaintiff” or “Intervet”) Motion to Strike Errata (Docket Entry No. 139) to the Deposition of Dr. Panayiotis Constantinides. Defendant Mileutis Ltd. (“Mileutis” or “Defendant”) filed an opposition to the Motion (Docket Entry No. 146), and Plaintiff replied. (Docket Entry No. 147). Oral argument was held on December 15, 2022. (Docket Entry No. 153.) Following oral argument, the parties submitted supplemental briefs. (Docket Entry Nos. 158, 161, 170, & 171.) For the reasons that follow, Plaintiff’s Motion to Strike will be GRANTED in part and DENIED in part. I. BACKGROUND

The Court presumes a familiarity with the nature and history of this litigation. As a result, not all factual details leading to the filing of this case are recited herein. Instead, the Court focuses on the facts most relevant to the pending Motion. Plaintiff commenced this action on February 23, 2015. (Docket Entry No. 1.) In the Complaint, Intervet claims to “bring this action to establish that its termination of the License Agreement was effective and proper, that it is not liable to Mileutis for any material breach of contract, and that, pursuant to the terms of the License Agreement, it is not subject to any continuing damages, any damages due to alleged negligence, or ‘any consequential or special damages, any damages for alleged loss of good will, profits, anticipated sales, or the like.’” (Id.) Mileutis claims that Plaintiff breached the License Agreement “and acted in bad faith by, among other things, performing substandard development work.” (Docket Entry No. 140.) On June 10, 2015, Defendant filed an Answer, Separate Defenses, Counterclaim and Demand for Jury Trial (“Answer”). (Docket Entry No. 8.) In the Answer, Mileutis claims that

Intervet breached the License Agreement and acted in bad faith. (Id.) Specifically, Mileutis claims that part of the development plan required Intervet to conduct safety and efficacy field trials for the prevention and cure indications in the United States. Per the development plan, Intervet was required to collaborate with Mileutis to develop protocols and assemble the final reports for these pivotal clinical trials. However, Intervet failed to collaborate with Mileutis, failed to communicate with Mileutis, represented to Mileutis that it would have employees experienced with biologics assigned to the project but assigned employees to the study who had no experience with biologics, formulated more than 100 versions of CNH without input from Mileutis, neglected to follow even standard required manufacturing processes, and ultimately, ran a poorly designed and wholly flawed study in California (the “California study”), misreported the results, and then terminated the relationship with Mileutis based on the flawed California study.

[Docket Entry No. 146.]

To support their claims, Mileutis retained Dr. Constantinides, an experienced expert witness, to address “Intervet’s bad faith actions and inactions, breach of contractual obligations, and its failed efforts at manufacturing, formulation and process development.” (Id.) Dr. Constantinides was deposed on June 29, 2021. (Id.) At the time of the deposition, Dr. Constantinides had allegedly spent between 100 and 200 hours working on this case. (Docket Entry No. 140.) On July 15, 2021, the court reporter informed Dr. Constantinides that his deposition transcript was available. (Docket Entry No. 140.) The court reporter instructed Dr. Constantinides to complete any errata and submit them to the court reporter and to Intervet within thirty-days. (Docket Entry No. 140.) Mileutis alleges that Intervet’s counsel, Mr. Charles Cohen, Esq. and Mileutis’s counsel, Ms. Jenna Gabay, Esq., agreed to an extension that allowed Dr. Constantinides additional time to review his deposition transcript and prepare his errata sheet, through September

3, 2021. (Docket Entry No. 146.) Plaintiff’s counsel does not recall this oral agreement. (Docket Entry No. 147.) On August 2, 2021, the parties met with the Court for a Telephone Conference. (Text Minute Entry dated 8/2/2021.) The parties were instructed to select a mediator and continue expert depositions. (Text Minute Entry dated 8/2/2021.) On August 19, 2021, this Court entered an Order of Designation for Mediation and administratively terminated the case. (Docket Entry No. 127.) All proceedings in this matter, except for discovery as agreed to by the mediator and counsel, were stayed until October 29, 2021. (Docket Entry No. 127.) Due to the identification of a conflict of interest of one of the parties with the selected mediator, Docket Entry No. 127 was rescinded.

(Docket Entry No. 129.) On August 23, 2021, the Court entered another Order of Designation for Mediation. (Docket Entry No. 130.) Pursuant to the Order, all proceedings in this matter, except for discovery as agreed to by the mediator and counsel was stayed until November 5, 2021. (Docket Entry No. 130.) On August 23, 2021, Dr. Constantinides signed and dated an errata sheet (the “Errata Sheet”). (Docket Entry No. 140 and 146.) The Errata Sheet was not exchanged with Plaintiff when it was obtained from Dr. Constantinides. (Id.) On October 27, 2021, the parties wrote to the Court and advised that the mediation was unsuccessful. After reviewing this correspondence, the parties were directed to confer and submit a joint proposed revised schedule to the Court by November 12, 2021. (Docket Entry No. 132.) On November 16, 2021, the Court entered a Text Order instructing the parties to complete all expert depositions by March 31, 2022. (Docket Entry No. 133.) On March 7, 2022, Mileutis served Dr. Constantinides’ Errata Sheet to Intervet. (Docket Entry No. 140.) The Errata Sheet was served in conjunction with several other errata sheets and

deposition transcripts after Mileutis finalized charts for confidentiality designations for the redacted transcripts and designations. (Docket Entry No. 146.) On July 20, 2022, Plaintiff moved to strike Dr. Constantinides’ Errata Sheet. (Docket Entry No. 139.) Defendant filed an opposition on August 23, 2022 (Docket Entry No. 146), and Plaintiff replied on August 30, 2022. (Docket Entry No. 147.) The Court held oral argument on December 15, 2022. (Docket Entry No. 153.) During oral argument, Mileutis presented legal arguments that raised novel, yet seemingly important issues from what the initial briefings had presented. Accordingly, the parties submitted supplemental briefs for the Court’s consideration. (See Docket Entry Nos. 158, 161, 170, and 171.)

II. LEGAL STANDARD Rule 30(e) governs changes to a deposition transcript, and provides: (e) Review by the Witness; Changes. (1) Review; Statement of Changes. On request by the deponent or a party before the deposition is completed, the deponent must be allowed 30 days after being notified by the officer that the transcript or recording is available in which: (A) to review the transcript or recording; and (B) if there are changes in form or substance, to sign a statement listing the changes and the reasons for making them. (2) Changes Indicated in the Officer's Certificate. The officer must note in the certificate prescribed by Rule 30(f)(1) whether a review was requested and, if so, must attach any changes the deponent makes during the 30-day period. “There are two components to this rule, which govern both the procedure and substance of this process of correcting depositions through errata.” Bartos v. Pennsylvania, No. CIV 1:08-CV- 0366, 2010 WL 1657284, at *4 (M.D. Pa. Apr. 23, 2010).

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