The Jade Farm LLC v. Mirahangiry
- Barbara Moses
- 1:22-cv-03128
- U.S. District Court · Southern District of New York
- 3
In The Jade Farm v. Mirahangiry, Judge Moses ordered production of email lists, protected proprietary material, and required defendants to pay plaintiff’s discovery expenses.
The order directly affects plaintiff The Jade Farm LLC; defendants Mario Constantini and Dream Hospitality Group LLC; plaintiff’s counsel, staff, and experts who may receive designated material; and the non-party service provider Mailchimp as the identified custodian of the requested list.
What happened
In The Jade Farm LLC v. Mirahangiry, the court addressed plaintiff’s request for email lists used to send two promotional emails on behalf of Sei Less. The opinion does not describe the underlying claims.
Judge Moses ordered defendants Mario Constantini and Dream Hospitality Group LLC to promptly produce the relevant contact lists, including portions compiled independently by Dream if used for either email. The order also allowed Dream to mark proprietary information as “Confidential-AEO,” limiting its disclosure.
Judge Barbara Moses further ordered defendants to pay plaintiff’s reasonable expenses, including attorneys’ fees, for obtaining the discovery order. The plaintiff had to file a fee application or notify the court that the parties had resolved the fee issue by December 13, 2022.
The detailed version
- The Jade Farm LLC v. Mirahangiry · No. 1:22-cv-03128
- Barbara Moses
- Nov. 29, 2022
Background
The order followed a discovery conference and enforced paragraph 3 of the court’s October 25, 2022 order. The court required defendants Mario Constantini and Dream Hospitality Group LLC (Dream) to produce lists, databases, compilations, or collections of contact information used to send two email campaigns on behalf of Sei Less. The plaintiff referred to those campaigns as the “Grand Opening flyer” and the “valentines day flyer.”
The defendants suggested that the requested list was held by their non-party service provider, Mailchimp. They nevertheless maintained that Dream had created and owned the list. The court found that the defendants had not shown they lacked the ability to obtain the list from Mailchimp. Under Federal Rule of Civil Procedure 34(a)(1), documents are within a party’s “possession, custody, or control” when the party has the legal right or practical ability to obtain them from a non-party.
Discovery Order
The court ordered Constantini and Dream to promptly produce the email lists used for either campaign. The production also had to include any list, or portion of a list, that Dream compiled independently of its work for the parties if that list or portion was used to send one or both campaigns.
To protect Dream’s proprietary interests, the order allowed Dream to designate the contents of the list, or independently compiled portions, as “Confidential-AEO.” After that designation, plaintiff’s counsel had to keep the material confidential. Unless the parties stipulated otherwise or the court granted permission, disclosure was limited to counsel’s assigned staff, experts retained for the action, and the court under provisional seal with a sealing application. Plaintiff’s counsel was responsible for ensuring compliance by staff and experts.
Fees and Other Disposition
Under Federal Rule of Civil Procedure 37(b)(2)(C), the court ordered defendants to pay plaintiff’s reasonable expenses, including attorneys’ fees, incurred in filing and litigating the November 17, 2022 letter-motion. By December 13, 2022, plaintiff had to either file a supported fee application or submit a letter stating that the parties had resolved the fee issue.
The clerk was directed to close the motions at docket entries 29, 30, 32, and 35 because the October 25 order had resolved them. The November 29 order did not describe or decide the underlying claims.
Read the full 3-page opinion on CourtListener, the free public archive maintained by the Free Law Project.