AllRounds, Inc. v. eShares, Inc.
- Vince Chhabria
- 3:20-cv-07083
- U.S. District Court · Northern District of California
- 2
In AllRounds v. eShares, Judge Ryu granted Carta’s request for a letter rogatory to seek Canadian discovery from nonparty Glenn Ballman.
eShares, Inc. doing business as Carta, Inc., may seek documents and a deposition from nonparty Glenn Ballman through a letter rogatory to the Supreme Court of British Columbia. The order did not change the discovery deadlines or decide whether they could be extended.
What happened
In AllRounds, Inc. v. eShares, Inc., defendant eShares, doing business as Carta, asked the court to request help from the Supreme Court of British Columbia in obtaining documents and a deposition from nonparty Glenn Ballman, who was believed to be living near Vancouver.
AllRounds later said it did not oppose the request, although it objected to any extension of the discovery deadlines. Ballman opposed the request through an attorney who said he was not retained as Ballman’s lawyer, but Ballman did not file an opposition or appear in the case.
Judge Donna M. Ryu granted Carta’s motion for the letter rogatory. The order did not decide whether the request would extend the discovery schedule and said any request to extend the deadline must go to Judge Chhabria.
The detailed version
- AllRounds, Inc. v. eShares, Inc. · No. 3:20-cv-07083
- Vince Chhabria
- Mar. 31, 2022
Background
This is a patent-infringement and trade-secrets case. Defendant eShares, Inc., doing business as Carta, Inc., asked the court to issue a letter rogatory to the Supreme Court of British Columbia, Canada. A letter rogatory is a request from one court to a foreign court to obtain evidence. Carta sought documents and an order requiring nonparty Glenn Ballman to appear for a deposition about his work with Genesis Exchange System.
Carta stated that it believed Ballman was residing in or around Vancouver, British Columbia. Carta had discussed the requested documents and deposition with Ballman or his counsel several times. As of March 11, 2022, Ballman appeared to object to providing additional documents or sitting for a deposition.
Positions of the Parties
The court directed the parties and Ballman to submit a joint statement about whether AllRounds and Ballman opposed the motion. AllRounds initially indicated that it opposed the motion but later filed a statement of non-opposition. AllRounds said it did not oppose obtaining discovery from Ballman through a letter rogatory, but objected to any extension of the discovery deadlines.
Ballman’s attorney communicated that Ballman opposed the motion but had not retained the attorney as counsel. Carta served the court’s order on Ballman, but Ballman did not respond, file an opposition, or enter an appearance.
Ruling
The court granted Carta’s unopposed motion for issuance of the letter rogatory. Carta was directed to promptly resubmit the letter rogatory so that it would be addressed from the undersigned judge rather than Judge Chhabria and to update the signature block accordingly.
Judge Donna M. Ryu expressly took no position on what effect issuing the letter rogatory might have on the discovery schedule. The order stated that requests to extend the discovery deadline must be directed to Judge Chhabria. The order also noted that, under Judge Chhabria’s minute order, fact discovery had closed on March 25, 2022, expert discovery was scheduled to close on June 24, 2022, and no further extensions would be granted.
Read the full 2-page opinion on CourtListener, the free public archive maintained by the Free Law Project.