Woldegiorgis v. NYK Ship Management
- Alex Tse
- 3:18-cv-07678
- U.S. District Court · Northern District of California
- 2
In Woldegiorgis v. NYK Ship Management, Judge Tse ordered protected disclosure of crew contact information for discovery.
The plaintiff, NYK Ship Management, and the crew members whose contact information is requested.
What happened
Woldegiorgis v. NYK Ship Management concerns a discovery dispute in a maritime slip-and-fall negligence case. The defendant refused to provide contact information for crew members aboard its vessel when the plaintiff fell.
The court found that the crew members’ names, addresses, and phone numbers could lead to relevant information and that the defendant’s privacy concerns were not compelling. The court also found that the defendant had not shown that the foreign privacy laws it cited applied to the requested information.
Judge Tse ordered the parties to agree to a protective order. After one is entered, the defendant must provide the crew members’ names, addresses, and phone numbers to the plaintiff for use in discovery.
The detailed version
- Woldegiorgis v. NYK Ship Management · No. 3:18-cv-07678
- Alex Tse
- July 1, 2021
Background
Berek(et) Woldegiorgis brought a maritime slip-and-fall negligence case against NYK Ship Management. The dispute addressed whether the defendant had to produce the names, addresses, and phone numbers of crew members who were aboard the vessel M/V NYK THESEUS when the accident occurred.
Discovery dispute
NYK Ship Management refused to produce the crew members’ addresses and phone numbers, arguing that disclosure would invade their privacy. The court concluded that the contact information could lead to relevant information. Although addresses and phone numbers are personal information, the court said they were not comparable to more sensitive information such as medical or financial records. The court also noted that the information would be provided to the plaintiff for discovery rather than placed on the public docket.
The court found the defendant’s cited cases distinguishable. One involved concerns about harassment in a highly charged dispute, circumstances the court said were not present here. The court also said that other cited cases involved federal privacy statutes that were not implicated in this maritime negligence case. The defendant referenced the European Union’s General Data Protection Regulation and the Philippines’ Data Privacy Act of 2012 but did not identify particular provisions or show that those laws applied to the requested information.
Ruling
Judge Alex G. Tse ordered the parties to agree to a protective order so the crew members’ contact information would be used only in this litigation and not disclosed publicly. The parties were encouraged to use the district’s model protective order. If they could not agree on its terms, they were directed to bring the dispute to the court. After a protective order is entered, NYK Ship Management must produce the names, addresses, and phone numbers of the crew members who were aboard the vessel at the time of the plaintiff’s accident.
Read the full 2-page opinion on CourtListener, the free public archive maintained by the Free Law Project.