Sayce v. Forescout Technologies, Inc.

Background

The court received a joint statement about the number of depositions plaintiffs could take. Plaintiffs had taken four depositions, with a fifth scheduled for that month. They requested permission to take twenty depositions.

Plaintiffs said they had received more than 50,000 documents after the court's February 13, 2024 discovery order. They asserted that more than a dozen individuals had adverse information corroborating their claims. The proposed witnesses included senior sales and finance personnel and people involved in preparing, monitoring, or carrying out defendants' sales process or preparing the alleged false statements. Plaintiffs described the case as a large, complex action involving alleged false statements over multiple quarters and poor performance in multiple sales regions.

Defendants argued that the case's scope had narrowed significantly after a Ninth Circuit decision and that the remaining challenged statements covered only two narrow areas. Defendants argued that plaintiffs should not receive permission to expand the number of depositions until plaintiffs had used the ten depositions allowed under the Federal Rules of Civil Procedure without court permission.

Legal standard

Federal Rule of Civil Procedure 30 generally requires a party to obtain the court's permission to take more than ten depositions without the other party's consent. The court explained that a party seeking additional depositions must make a particularized showing of need. Courts generally wait until the party has used the ten depositions allowed as of right, but may allow more earlier when the case's complexity clearly warrants it. The requested discovery must be relevant and must not be unreasonably cumulative, duplicative, or burdensome.

Ruling

The court found that plaintiffs had sufficiently shown a need to exceed the usual deposition limit. Given the complexity of the certified class action securities case, the court granted plaintiffs leave to take fifteen depositions at this time. The court stated that plaintiffs could seek permission for more depositions if they still believed additional depositions were necessary after taking fifteen.

Judge Susan Illston entered the order on July 10, 2024.