PSEG Power NY v. Aberici Constructors Inc.

Summary from The New York Law Journal: Sept. 21 2007, Magistrate Judge Treece.

DEFENDANT CONSTRUCTION firm was the principal contractor for plaintiff power company's $25 million power plant outside Albany, New York. In plaintiff's 2005 action seeking $4.4 million for defendant's improper performance of - and failure to complete - work and defendant's $11.4 million countersuit both parties made complex documentary discovery requests.

Despite producing more than 3,000 e-mails and 211,000 pages of documents, the magistrate judge ruled that plaintiff failed to comply with defendant's request. Although the e-mails that plaintiff delivered through an information materials vendor were produced, attachments - at times up to 12 per e-mail - were not. Repeated efforts to "remarry" the attachments and e-mails failed, and plaintiff argued that the $206,000 cost to do so should be shifted to defendant. Noting potentially lower-cost alternatives to the document retrieval estimate, the magistrate judge concluded that the burden of production and the assumption of the cost remained with plaintiff.

Read full opinion here. Sept. 20 news story, "E-Discovery Fiasco Stalls Case, Hikes Costs,"  by NYLJ's Joel Stashenko here.  (Subscription req'd).

Renew Data's E-Discovery Source commentary here. Roger Matus' Death by E-mail. On the Mark (Mark Reichenbach). Post Process.  Alberici website.  PSEG website.