Palmieri v. East Coast Power & Gas, LLC

Background

The order followed a discovery conference concerning interrogatories, document requests, and subpoenas. The opinion states that Vincent Palmieri had previously answered that he might have approved additional discounts for East Coast Power & Gas customers and that some information might appear in East Coast Power & Gas’s records. The dispute also involved an interrogatory seeking information related to the passcode for an iPhone that Palmieri turned in.

Orders Regarding Interrogatories

The court ordered Palmieri to supplement his answers to Interrogatories Nos. 1 and 3 by November 13, 2020. He also had to sign those answers, and any previously unsworn answers, under oath as required by Federal Rule of Civil Procedure 33(b)(3).

For Interrogatory No. 1, Palmieri had to confirm that he had identified all East Coast Power & Gas customers whom he authorized to receive “friends and family” discounted or “zero rate” products or services, whether or not the information appeared in East Coast Power & Gas’s records. If he could not identify all such customers after a diligent inquiry, he had to describe his efforts in detail.

Before supplementing his answer to Interrogatory No. 3, Palmieri had to make a good-faith effort to locate the iPhone’s passcode, including by reviewing documents or databases where he customarily stored passwords. If he still could not produce the passcode, he had to describe his efforts in detail. If he had used other methods to unlock the iPhone, such as touch identification or face identification, he had to identify all those methods.

Subpoenas and Further Discovery Proceedings

The court concluded that the dispute over subpoenas Palmieri served on East Coast Power & Gas’s accounting firms under Rule 45 was secondary to the dispute over the proper scope of party document discovery under Rule 34. The parties therefore had to promptly meet and confer about the defendants’ objections to both the Rule 34 document requests and the Rule 45 subpoenas.

Judge Moses scheduled another discovery conference for November 24, 2020, at 10:00 a.m. By November 19, 2020, the parties had to file a joint letter of no more than six pages describing any disputes remaining after the meet-and-confer process and briefly stating each party’s position. After meeting and conferring in good faith, the parties could also include unresolved document-production disputes arising from requests that the defendants served on Palmieri.

The deadline to respond to the subpoenas served on East Coast Power & Gas’s accounting firms was extended to a date to be determined at or after the November 24 conference. The deadline for completing all fact discovery, including fact depositions, was extended to February 26, 2021. The deadline for completing all expert discovery, including expert depositions, was extended to April 30, 2021.

Disposition

This was a discovery order. It did not resolve the merits of the parties’ underlying claims.