SM Kids, LLC v. Google LLC
- Lorna Schofield
- 1:18-cv-02637
- U.S. District Court · Southern District of New York
- 2
In SM Kids v. Google, Judge Aaron granted in part and denied in part discovery motions concerning website data, documents, and a deposition.
SM Kids, LLC, Google LLC, the other defendants, and Jared Lader were affected by the discovery orders.
What happened
SM Kids, LLC, successor to Stelor Productions, LLC, was involved in a discovery dispute with Google LLC and other defendants. The defendants asked for website traffic records, an unredacted discovery letter from an earlier related proceeding, and additional discovery about 16,789 files.
The court ordered the parties to discuss producing additional Google Analytics and GoDaddy records, required SM Kids to produce the unredacted letter and exhibits by April 13, 2021, and ordered a limited reopening of Jared Lader’s deposition to address the 16,789 files.
The court granted in part and denied in part the defendants’ discovery motions. Magistrate Judge Stewart D. Aaron also required the parties to submit a joint letter by April 30, 2021, if they could not resolve the website-record dispute.
The detailed version
- SM Kids, LLC v. Google LLC · No. 1:18-cv-02637
- Lorna Schofield
- Apr. 6, 2021
Background
SM Kids, LLC, as successor-in-interest to Stelor Productions, LLC, was the plaintiff. The defendants filed two letter motions to compel discovery. The first sought reports from SM Kids’ Google Analytics account for the website at www.googles.com, comparable GoDaddy records, and an unredacted discovery letter from the earlier Ganz v. SM Kids proceeding. The second sought additional discovery concerning 16,789 files that SM Kids had produced.
Court’s Orders
The court granted in part and denied in part the defendants’ letter motions.
For the website records, the court ordered SM Kids to meet and confer with the defendants about producing additional Google Analytics and GoDaddy web-traffic reports and related information. The parties were directed to seek relevant information without imposing undue burden on SM Kids. If they could not reach an agreement, they had to submit a joint letter by April 30, 2021, so the court could resolve the remaining dispute.
The court ordered SM Kids to produce the defendants, by April 13, 2021, an unredacted copy of the discovery letter and exhibits filed in the earlier Ganz proceeding. The court also ordered that Jared Lader’s deposition be reopened by April 27, 2021, for no more than two hours and only to examine him about the 16,789 files produced after his deposition. The reopened deposition was to occur remotely at a reasonable time consistent with Lader’s class and work schedules.
Additional Observations and Disposition
The court stated that it was not making rulings on certain website-data issues before the parties met and conferred. It observed that the requested disaggregated data and data dictionary appeared relevant and proportional to the needs of the case, and that the defendants appeared reasonably entitled to an explanation about certain missing data. The court also observed that post-alleged-breach web-traffic data should appear to be produced unless SM Kids agreed not to use that evidence in briefing or at trial.
Magistrate Judge Stewart D. Aaron entered the order granting in part and denying in part both defendants’ letter motions.
Read the full 2-page opinion on CourtListener, the free public archive maintained by the Free Law Project.