Cerveceria Modelo de Mexico, S. de R.L. de C.V. v. CB Brand Strategies, LLC

Background

The defendants moved to exclude any effort by the plaintiffs to introduce previously withheld evidence concerning the formulation, recipes, and brewing processes of the plaintiffs’ alcohol beverage products. They also sought to exclude arguments or references concerning that material beyond publicly available ingredients and documents produced about the products.

The plaintiffs argued that they were entitled to offer rebuttal evidence if the defendants introduced evidence about ABI’s products. But, in opposing the defendants’ earlier motion to compel the evidence at issue, the plaintiffs had argued that the evidence was irrelevant. The court had denied the defendants’ motion to compel.

Reasoning

The court applied judicial estoppel, a rule that can prevent a party from taking a position inconsistent with one it previously presented and relied on in the same litigation. The court held that the plaintiffs could not first argue that the evidence was irrelevant and later seek to use the undisclosed evidence as rebuttal to evidence the defendants might introduce at trial.

Ruling

Judge Lewis A. Kaplan granted the motion. The plaintiffs were limited to publicly available or produced documents and materials if and when the subject became relevant at trial. The order did not exclude all evidence about the products; it specifically restricted the previously undisclosed formulas, recipes, brewing processes, and related arguments or references beyond the permitted materials.