Nypl v. JP Morgan Chase & Co.

Background

The order addressed discovery disputes after the July 20, 2020, deadline for completing fact discovery. During a September 10, 2020, conference, the Court ruled that Plaintiffs could not take the depositions they proposed because the individuals were primarily in-house lawyers who learned information through privileged communications. The Court stated that document discovery was the more proportional and effective approach in this situation.

The Court then directed the parties to meet and confer about additional documents or information concerning Defendants’ communications with the United States Department of Justice related to plea agreements referenced in an earlier stipulation. Plaintiffs later submitted letters asking the Court to revisit the deposition ruling, compel documents identified in an earlier joint letter, and compel UBS to produce letters written by its counsel to the Government.

Rulings

The Court construed Plaintiffs’ request to revisit the deposition ruling as a motion for reconsideration. Reconsideration is a request to change an earlier ruling based on an intervening change in controlling law, newly available evidence, or a need to correct clear error or prevent serious injustice. The Court denied Plaintiffs’ motion for reconsideration because Plaintiffs had not identified any of those grounds.

The Court denied without prejudice Plaintiffs’ motion to compel documents identified in the August 21, 2020, letter because Plaintiffs had not complied with the September 10, 2020, order. The denial allowed Plaintiffs to renew the request. The Court required any renewed motion by October 8, 2020, to identify each unresolved document dispute after the parties had met and conferred.

The Court denied Plaintiffs’ motion to compel production of the UBS letters. It found that the letters contained no information about foreign-exchange fines or fine calculations, concerned LIBOR rather than foreign exchange, and therefore were not relevant to the action.

The Court ordered Defendants to complete document production, including related privilege logs, by October 22, 2020. Plaintiffs were required to produce their final expert report supporting class certification within 30 days after that date, or by November 23, 2020.

Finally, the Court denied Plaintiffs’ request for permission to serve a deposition notice on JPMorgan Chase & Co. and JPMorgan Chase Bank, N.A., for substantially the reasons stated in JPMorgan’s response.