Retzlaff Grain Company, Inc. v. Eggli

CourtDistrict Court, D. Nebraska
DecidedJanuary 24, 2023
Docket8:20-cv-00289
StatusUnknown

This text of Retzlaff Grain Company, Inc. v. Eggli (Retzlaff Grain Company, Inc. v. Eggli) is published on Counsel Stack Legal Research, covering District Court, D. Nebraska primary law. Counsel Stack provides free access to over 12 million legal documents including statutes, case law, regulations, and constitutions.

Bluebook
Retzlaff Grain Company, Inc. v. Eggli, (D. Neb. 2023).

Opinion

IN THE UNITED STATES DISTRICT COURT FOR THE DISTRICT OF NEBRASKA

RETZLAFF GRAIN COMPANY, INC., Plaintiff, 8:20CV289

vs. ORDER JORDAN EGGLI, CHAD NEEDHAM, CRYSTAL KONECKY, ROBB KIGER, and NORAG LLC, Defendants.

This matter is before the Court following a telephone conference held with counsel for the parties on January 24, 2023. Defendants requested that the Court order Plaintiff to identify the confidential information and trade secrets that it asserts Defendants improperly retained and utilized with more specificity. The parties’ arguments and documents submitted to the Court in advance of the conference are attached to this Order. After review of the parties’ submissions and after hearing arguments from counsel, the Court overruled Defendants’ request on the record and found Plaintiff’s answers to the disputed interrogatories was sufficient under Federal Rule of Civil Procedure 33(d).

IT IS SO ORDERED.

Dated this 24th day of January, 2023.

BY THE COURT:

s/Michael D. Nelson United States Magistrate Judge IN THE UNITED STATES DISTRICT COURT FOR THE DISTRICT OF NEBRASKA RETZLAFF GRAIN COMPANY, INC. ) D/B/A RFG LOGISTICS, INC. ) Case No. 8:20-cv-00289-RFR-MDN ) Plaintiff, ) ) vs. ) ) JORDAN EGGLI, et al., ) ) Defendants. ) DEFENDANTS’ POSITION STATEMENT REGARDING INSUFFICIENT IDENTFICATION OF CONFIDENTIAL INFORMATION AND TRADE SECRETS

Plaintiff Retzlaff Grain Company, Inc. (“RFG”) brought this action against four of its former employees (Eggli, Needham, Konecky, and Kiger) and NORAG, LLC (“NORAG”), which is the company that now employs them. See generally, Doc. #89 Second Amended Complaint. The crux of Plaintiff’s claims is that the individual Defendants retained and utilized Plaintiff’s confidential information and trade secrets to the benefit of Defendant NORAG. Id. Defendants issued interrogatories to Plaintiff which asked Plaintiff to identify the confidential information and trade secrets that Plaintiff asserts Needham, Eggli, Kiger, and Konecky retained and utilized in order to solicit customers and employees away from RFG or that benefitted NORAG. Plaintiff’s response regarding Kiger and Konecky is attached here as Exhibit 1. It largely parrots the allegations in the Second Amended Complaint. Plaintiff’s response regarding Eggli and Needham is attached as Exhibit 2. It provides a few “categories” and states, “specific identification of trade secrets misappropriated from the above-mentioned categories are provided pursuant to Federal Rule of Civil Procedure 33(d), by reviewing documents produced by Plaintiff from which this answer can be ascertained . . . [t]hese documents will be produced on a rolling basis.” Plaintiff has now produced 49,624 documents totaling 139,487 pages, or even more pages if excel spreadsheets are counted as more than one page.1 When receiving the bulk of the production, counsel for Defendants reviewed a sample and could not decipher any relevance or responsiveness for documents produced. Correspondence regarding defense counsel’s attempts to reconcile this issue is attached as Exhibit 3. Plaintiff’s counsel has now provided a spreadsheet

identifying what request for production the documents are responsive to which does not appear to resolve any issue pertaining to the identification of confidential information or trade secrets. Given the breadth of the production, the interrogatory responses require more specificity. See e.g., Bancorp Servs., L.L.C. v. Hartford Life Ins. Co., 2002 WL 32727076, at *3 (E.D. Mo. Feb. 25, 2002). (A party cannot rest on document dumps with corresponding discovery responses that simply “describe[ ] the documents that they contend contain trade secret information.” This is especially true when “it is evident that the documents . . . do not all contain trade secret information.”); Porous Media Corp. v. Midland Brake Inc., 187 F.R.D. 598, 600 (D. Minn. 1999) (“Ordering the listing of trade secrets at the outset of the litigation is a common requirement.

Failure to identify the trade secrets with sufficient specificity renders the Court powerless to enforce any trade secret claim.”). Counsel for Defendants requested that Plaintiff supplement its interrogatory responses to identify by bates number, or information within the document where necessary, the Confidential Information or trade secrets it asserts Defendants improperly retained and utilized. Plaintiff maintains that no supplementation is warranted.

1 Over 98% of the documents were produced over two years after the initial discovery responses were served, in the Fall of 2022. IN THE UNITED STATES DISTRICT COURT FOR THE DISTRICT OF NEBRASKA RETZLAFF GRAIN COMPANY, INC. d/b/a Case No. 8:20-cv-00289-LSC-MDN RFG LOGISTICS, INC. Plaintiff, PLAINTIFF’S SUPPLEMENTAL vs. ANSWERS AND OBJECTIONS TO DEFENDANTS’ SECOND NORAG, LLC, et al., INTERROGATORIES TO PLAINTIFF Defendants. TO: Defendants Jordan Eggli, Chad Needham, Crystal Konecky, Robb Kiger, and NORAG, LLC, by and through their counsel of record. Plaintiff Retzlaff Grain Company, Inc. d/b/a RFG Logistics, Inc. (“RFG” or “Plaintiff”), by and through its attorneys, hereby serves its supplemental written responses to Defendants Jordan Eggli (“Eggli”), Chad Needham (“Needham”), Crystal Konecky (“Konecky”), Robb Kiger (“Kiger”), and NORAG, LLC (“NORAG”) (jointly “Defendants”) Second Interrogatories to Plaintiff pursuant to Fed. R. Civ. P. 33 and the Court’s Order [Doc. #129] dated September 2, 2022. Discovery is ongoing and Plaintiff reserves the right to supplement or amend these answers. GENERAL OBJECTIONS 1. Plaintiff generally objects to all Interrogatories referring to the “Amended Complaint” to the extent such references refer to the First Amended Complaint on the grounds that that the First Amended Complaint has been superseded by the Second Amended Complaint. The First Amended Complaint and the allegations set forth therein are a nullity and Interrogatories directed to the First Amended Complaint are therefore not reasonably calculated to lead to the discovery of admissible evidence nor proportional to the needs of the case. All answers set forth herein are made without reference to the First Amended Complaint. 2. Plaintiff objects to the Interrogatories to the extent they seek information and documents that are protected from disclosure by the attorney-client privilege or other applicable legal privileges. Privileged information will not be disclosed. In the event any attorney-client

privileged communication or document is disclosed, such disclosure or production is purely inadvertent and not a knowing or intentional waiver of the attorney-client privilege and shall not be deemed to be a waiver. 3. Plaintiff objects to the Interrogatories to the extent they seek information or documents prepared in anticipation of litigation or for trial by Plaintiff or their representatives, and that contain the work product, mental impressions, conclusions, opinions, or legal theories of Plaintiff’s legal counsel or other representatives. Such information will not be disclosed or produced. In the event any information or document protected by the work product doctrine is disclosed or produced, such disclosure or production is purely inadvertent and not a knowing or

intentional waiver of such privilege and shall not be deemed to be a waiver. CONFIDENTIAL – SUBJECT TO PROTECTIVE ORDER INTERROGATORIES INTERROGATORY NO. 1: Identify the person(s) providing information or answers to these interrogatories.

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Related

Porous Media Corp. v. Midland Brake Inc.
187 F.R.D. 598 (D. Minnesota, 1999)

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