Thani A.T. Al Thani v. Hanke

Background

The plaintiff’s counsel wrote to the court about the alleged failure of Alan J. Hanke and IOLO Global LLC—the “Hanke Defendants”—to complete document discovery under earlier court orders and a case-management order. The case-management order set May 18, 2021, as the deadline for substantial completion of written discovery. According to the plaintiff’s letter, the Hanke Defendants obtained extensions to May 21 and then May 24.

Plaintiff’s Request

The plaintiff’s counsel stated that the Hanke Defendants produced only 161 documents on May 24, despite previously indicating that their search had identified roughly 4,000 emails and attachments. Counsel further stated that a June 4 supplemental production consisted of a single 60-page PDF, lacked required metadata, and omitted attachments from some potentially relevant emails. These were assertions in the plaintiff’s letter, not findings that the court made in this order.

The plaintiff asked the court to order the Hanke Defendants to immediately complete their production. Counsel also stated that the defendants’ conduct warranted sanctions under Federal Rule of Civil Procedure 37(a), which addresses failures involving discovery requests and court-ordered discovery. The letter argued that Hanke should not personally make relevance decisions without appropriate supervision by counsel and alleged that documents concerning other transactions could be relevant to the plaintiff’s fraud claims.

Court’s Action

Judge John P. Cronan did not decide the request to compel production or the request for sanctions. Instead, the court ordered the Hanke Defendants to file a response to the plaintiff’s letter by June 10, 2021, and directed the parties to appear for a telephone conference on June 11, 2021, at 11:00 a.m. The order therefore addressed the next steps concerning the discovery dispute rather than resolving the requested relief.