Rhee v. Sante Ventures

Background

Youngjoo Rhee moved before trial to prevent Sante Ventures from offering documents that had not been produced in discovery and from calling witnesses who had not been deposed. Trial was scheduled for September 19, 2023.

Sante Ventures did not oppose barring either side from offering documents that were not produced in discovery. It opposed barring witnesses who had not been deposed.

Court’s Analysis

The court discussed Federal Rule of Civil Procedure 26(a)(1), which requires parties to identify individuals likely to have discoverable information, and Rule 37(c)(1), which permits sanctions for failing to make required disclosures. The court noted that excluding evidence is a harsh remedy generally reserved for rare situations.

Sante Ventures identified four potential trial witnesses in the joint pretrial order: Kevin Lalande, Jason Brandt, Brooke Jones, and Alfred Macdaniel. Rhee had deposed Lalande and Brandt. Sante Ventures had identified all four people in its initial disclosures, served on April 7, 2022. Macdaniel also appeared in Rhee’s responses to Sante Ventures’s first set of interrogatories.

The court found no basis to bar the identified witnesses from testifying simply because Jones and Macdaniel had not been deposed. The court noted that the case-management plan allowed the parties until July 21, 2022, to complete fact discovery and depositions, and that both parties later represented that they did not anticipate conducting further discovery.

Ruling

The court granted in part and denied in part Rhee’s motion. Neither side may offer, in its case-in-chief, documents that were not produced in discovery. The motion was denied to the extent it sought to prevent Sante Ventures from calling trial witnesses who had not been deposed.