Judge Fallon issued an interesting ruling on a discovery dispute this week that I expect to see cited by many an attorney in high dudgeon over the coming months and years.
The issue was straightforward: Plaintiff had served a 30(b)(6) notice requesting a witness on "[t]he structure, function, and operation of the Accused Instrumentalities and the interoperation, integration, and/or interface between and among the Accused Instrumentalities.” The defendant refused, contending the topic was overbroad and unduly burdensome. Plaintiff then moved to compel.
Judge Fallon denied the motion without a hearing, holding:
Topic 1, which seeks testimony on "[t]he structure, function, and operation of the Accused Instrumentalities and the interoperation, integration, and/or interface between and among the Accused Instrumentalities," is overbroad and does not "describe with reasonable particularity the matters for examination" as required under Fed. R. Civ. P. 30(b)(6). . . . Plaintiff's proposal for narrowing Topic 1 does not meaningfully narrow the scope of the requested testimony in a manner that would enable a witness to adequately prepare for the deposition.
PerDiemCo LLC v. CalAmp Corp., C.A. No. 20-1397-GBW-SRF (D. Del. Jan. 31, 2023) (Oral Order).
(The narrowing proposal was quite a wall of text. It's attached at the bottom of the page if you're interested, or you can just take my word for it that it does not seemed to have narrowed things much).
This order is interesting because its pretty common to see 30(b)(6) topics along these lines served without much controversy. Indeed, much of the briefing on the issue focused on how the products in this case were particularly complex software "having thousands (if not millions) of lines of code, and which performs thousands (if not millions) of tasks." Def's Letter at 4. The short order, however, is not obviously limited to complex products. We'll have to see if subsequent decisions on the issue clarify the application.
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