Koch Materials Co. v. Shore Slurry Seal, Inc.

208 F.R.D. 109, 59 Fed. R. Serv. 249, 2002 U.S. Dist. LEXIS 13427, 2002 WL 993576
CourtDistrict Court, D. New Jersey
DecidedMay 1, 2002
DocketNo. 01-CV-2059(SMO)
StatusPublished
Cited by15 cases

This text of 208 F.R.D. 109 (Koch Materials Co. v. Shore Slurry Seal, Inc.) 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
Koch Materials Co. v. Shore Slurry Seal, Inc., 208 F.R.D. 109, 59 Fed. R. Serv. 249, 2002 U.S. Dist. LEXIS 13427, 2002 WL 993576 (D.N.J. 2002).

Opinion

ORDER

ROSEN, United States Magistrate Judge.

Presently before the court are three motions: (i) the motion of Neil C. Schur, Esquire, counsel for Defendant Shore Slurry Seal, Inc. (“Shore Slurry”), to compel discovery of Plaintiff Koch Materials Company (“Koch”), pursuant to Fed.R.Civ.P. 37 (Doc. No. 64-1), (ii) the cross-motion of Stephen B. Nolan, Esquire, counsel for the plaintiff, for a protective order pursuant to Fed.R.Civ.P. 26 (Doc. No. 68-1), and (iii) the motion of Shawn J. Lau, Esquire, counsel for non-party E.J. Breneman, to quash a subpoena (Doc. No. 87-1), pursuant to Fed.R.Civ.P. 45(c)(3), and for the admission pro hac vice of John J. Speicher, Esquire and Kevin A. Moore, Esquire, pursuant to L. Civ. R. 101.1 (Doc. No. 86-1); and the court having considered the submissions of the parties; and the court having further considered the argument of counsel conducted on the record on April 5, 2002; and

THE COURT NOTING that Shore Slurry seeks to: (1) reproduce a witness to testify about his handwriting on documents produced by Koch; (2) produce for in camera review documents related to that same subject matter; (3) produce complete and unredacted attachments to certain documents already produced; and (4) produce in unredacted form certain other allegedly improperly redacted documents. (See Defendant’s Brief, Page 2). The plaintiff opposes production of any of this information. In opposition, the plaintiff asserts that all categories of documents identified are protected either by the attorney-client privilege or the attorney work product doctrine. The plaintiff has also cross-moved for the return of certain documents authored by it’s in-house counsel, Ronald Hull, Esquire, asserting that it inadvertently disclosed these documents; and

THE COURT FURTHER NOTING the following relevant factual and procedural background. In April of 2001, Koch filed a complaint against Shore Slurry containing three counts: (1) breach of an Exclusive Supply Agreement; (2) breach of the Nova-chip Sublicense Agreement; and (3) breach of implied covenant of good faith and fair dealing. (See Complaint). Koch’s claims derived from three contracts between Koch and Shore Slurry, entered into and signed on February 18, 1998. The first contract was a Sale and Purchase Agreement in which Koch purchased emulsion plant assets from Shore Slurry and purchased the right to utilize Novachip. The second contract was an Exclusive Supply Agreement in which Shore Slurry agreed to purchase all of its emulsion products from Koch and Koch agreed to charge a price that was no higher than the price charged to a competitor purchasing similar volumes during the time periods. The third contract was the Novachip Subli-cense Agreement by which Shore Slurry had an exclusive license to use the Novachip in a limited geographical region consisting of New Jersey, Delaware, and Pennsylvania, and North Carolina. (See Defendant’s Brief, at 2, 3).

On May 18, 2001, Shore Slurry filed an answer and asserted a number of affirmative defenses. On October 24,2001, Koch amended its complaint and added the following claims against Shore Slurry: (1) failure to provide adequate assuranees-Exclusive Supply Agreement; (2) failure to provide adequate assurances-Sublieense Agreement; (3) breach of contract-Exclusive Supply Agreement; and (4) breach of implied covenant of good faith and fair dealing. (See Amended Complaint, Counts I, II, III, IV). Koch also added Asphalt Paving Systems as a defendant and asserted the following claims against that entity: (1) tortuous interference with contractual relations; and (2) breach of contract-Exclusive Supply Agreement. (Amended Complaint, Counts V, VI). On November 16, 2001, Shore Slurry filed an answer to the amended complaint, which contained affirmative defenses, a cross claim against Asphalt Paving Systems, and a counterclaim against Koch. Shore Slurry’s counterclaim asserted claims of breach of the Exclusive Supply Agreement and violations of the Robinson-Patman Act. Both claims were based upon Koch’s alleged discriminatory price of products sold to Shore Slurry [112]*112under the Exclusive Supply Agreement from 1998 to the present. (Defendant’s Brief, Page 3).

Notwithstanding the apparent variety of document categories requested, the disclosure of three handwritten documents forms a causal nexus for all categories in the request. The three documents are hand written comments by Ronald Hull, Esquire, in-house counsel for Plaintiff Koch. The defendant essentially contends that these documents contradict earlier representations made by the plaintiff on matters relevant to this law suit. This perception of the contents of these Hull documents appears to have tainted other document production by the plaintiff, thus resulting in a bevy of requests, all of which presuppose improper withholding of information by the plaintiff. Consequently, to better understand the defendant’s request, the court shall first review the circumstances under which the Hull documents were disclosed.

a. The Handwritten Documents of Ronald Hull, Esq.

An aura of distrust between the parties has surrounded this litigation from its inception. The complaint, filed on April 27, 2001, was followed quickly with the plaintiffs motion for expedited discovery. The basis for this motion was the plaintiffs belief that the defendant would not properly maintain documents; indeed, the plaintiff represented that it feared the destruction of documents important to the litigation. The court heard oral argument on the motion on May 18, 2001, and by order dated May 21, 2001, the court granted both parties the opportunity to conduct expedited discovery and shortened the time within which to respond to the discovery requests served to twenty days.

On May 25, 2001, Shore Slurry served its first set of requests for production of documents and its first set of interrogatories upon Koch. (D’s Brief, at 3). In June 2001, Koch produced more than six thousand documents in response to Shore Slurry’s request for documents. (P’s Opp., at 4). Included within these documents were numerous handwritten pages with no indication of the scrivener’s identity. (D’s Brief, at 3). After Shore Slurry inquired about the author of the handwritten documents, Koch’s counsel sent a letter identifying the authors. Significantly, Koch identified Ronald Hull, Esquire, Koch’s in-house counsel, as the author of six of the handwritten documents. In a letter dated November 28, 2001, counsel for Koch requested that three of those six documents written by Mr. Hull be returned to the plaintiff. (See Letter of Neil C. Schur, Esq., at 4, citing Documents numbered 1489, 3414, and 3760 as privileged, attached as Ex. B to D’s Brief). Koch asserted that the three documents were protected by the attorney-client privilege and/or the work product doctrine. (See id.). The defendant refused to return the documents.

On December 5, 2001, Mr. Hull underwent a deposition during which he was questioned, inter alia, about the six documents which contained his handwriting. (D’s Brief, at 5). With respect to the process of the documents’ production, Mr.

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Bluebook (online)
208 F.R.D. 109, 59 Fed. R. Serv. 249, 2002 U.S. Dist. LEXIS 13427, 2002 WL 993576, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/koch-materials-co-v-shore-slurry-seal-inc-njd-2002.