City of Providence, Rhode Island v. Bats Global Markets, Inc.

Background

After a March 16, 2021 hearing, the court issued this order addressing several discovery-related letter-motions in the consolidated class action. The opinion does not decide the merits of the parties’ underlying claims. It concerns discovery connected to class certification and Defendants’ anticipated motion for summary judgment based on preclusion.

Discovery rulings

1. Nasdaq contention interrogatories. Plaintiffs had to serve objections to Nasdaq’s contention interrogatories by March 18, 2021, and substantive responses by April 2, 2021. The parties had to meet and confer about the objections and promptly bring any unresolved issues to the court.

2. NYSE privilege log. NYSE had to re-review 234 documents challenged by Plaintiffs, de-designate documents or revise redactions as necessary, and provide a revised privilege log by March 23, 2021. Plaintiffs could then challenge up to 10 documents, meet and confer with NYSE, and raise any remaining disputes with the court.

3. Nasdaq privilege log and depositions. The parties had to meet and confer by March 19, 2021, to identify a subset of the approximately 4,000 challenged Nasdaq privilege-log entries for re-review. They also had to discuss rescheduling the depositions of Mr. Hathaway and Ms. Swanstrom. The parties were then to follow a process similar to the one ordered for the NYSE privilege-log dispute.

4. NYSE deposition notice. The court denied NYSE’s letter-motion seeking to quash Plaintiffs’ notice of testimony under Federal Rule of Civil Procedure 30(b)(6), to the extent the motion sought to quash some or all topics in Plaintiffs’ Second Amended Notice. The denial was without prejudice to renewal after the parties completed their meet-and-confer process. The parties also had to meet and confer about scheduling the deposition by March 19, 2021.

5. SEC testimony and interrogatory verification. NYSE had to promptly produce the transcript of Vincent Lanzillo’s testimony. The parties had to confer about three transcripts of Joseph Mecane’s testimony, after which NYSE had to promptly produce them to the extent they were relevant to the case. The court stated that it would not consider requests for additional SEC testimony transcripts beyond those four. The court denied as moot Plaintiffs’ request to show cause why NYSE had not produced a signed interrogatory verification because NYSE had produced the verification on March 15, 2021.

6. BATS/Direct Edge documents. BATS/Direct Edge had to produce a privilege log concerning documents that were clawed back, or about which Robert Books was instructed not to testify, during his deposition. The parties had to meet and confer by March 19, 2021, and promptly submit any unresolved issues by letter-motion.

Deadlines and case management

The court extended by 45 days the deadlines in the existing case-management plan concerning discovery related to class certification and preclusion. The extension was limited to work ordered by the court in connection with the matters addressed in the order and other matters specifically identified and discussed at the March 16 hearing. The court stated that this was the final extension it would grant for that discovery and that sanctions, rather than another extension, would be the remedy for failing to meet the extended deadlines.

The parties also had to submit their next bi-monthly status letter on April 6, 2021, with later status letters due every two months unless the court ordered otherwise.

Disposition and effect

This was a procedural discovery and case-management order. It imposed discovery obligations, set procedures for resolving remaining disputes, denied one deposition-related request without prejudice to renewal, denied another request as moot, and extended specified deadlines. It did not rule on class certification, preclusion, summary judgment, or the merits of the underlying case. Judge Jesse M. Furman signed the order on March 22, 2021.