Opinion
MASTER FILE 02 Civ. 3288 (DLC)
January 30, 2004
DISCOVERY COORDIATION ORDER
WHEREAS on May 28, 2003, the United States District Court for the Southern District of New York entered an order consolidating for pretrial purposes the securities class actions (the "Class Action") relating to WorldCom, Inc. ("WorldCom") and the lawsuits that allege individual rather than class claims (the "Individual Actions") that have been assigned to it (collectively, the "Consolidated Actions"); and
WHEREAS there are actions pending in state courts (the "State Court Actions") that share questions of law and fact, and defendants with the Consolidated Actions; and
WHEREAS there currently are pending more than sixty Individual Actions, and six State Court Actions; and
WHEREAS the United States District Court for the
Southern District of New York has entered two Scheduling Orders (Annexed hereto as Exhibit A) setting certain pre-trial discovery rules and deadlines for the Consolidated Actions, and has set the Class Action for trial to begin on January 10, 2005; and
WHEREAS, in the interests of justice and judicial efficiency, the United States District Court for the Southern District of New York and the State Courts in the State Court Actions that have entered orders substantially in the form annexed hereto as Exhibit B (the "State Court Coordination Order") have determined to coordinate the pre-trial discovery in connection with the pending WorldCom litigation in the Consolidated Actions and the State Court Actions;
IT IS HEREBY ORDERED:
Principles of Coordination
The United States District Court for the Southern District of New York and the State Courts in the State Court Actions that have entered State Court Coordination Orders agree to conduct coordinated discovery pursuant to the following principles:
1. Discovery and trial in the Individual Actions and the State Court Actions shall not delay or interfere with discovery in and trial of the Class Action. Accordingly, the first trial in the WorldCom securities litigation shall be the Class Action trial, which is scheduled to commence on January 10, 2005.
2. The stays of discovery or proceedings imposed by the Court in the Consolidated Actions as to one or more parties shall be effective in the State Court Actions.
3. Discovery in the State Court Actions shall be coordinated so that it is not more expedited than the expert and fact discovery schedule in the Consolidated Actions, the current schedule for which is set forth in the Scheduling Orders annexed hereto as Exhibit A.
4. The parties in the State Court Actions will use documents, interrogatory responses and responses to requests for admission made or produced in the Consolidated Actions, provided however that no discovery produced in the Consolidated Actions may be used in any State Court Action until all counsel for any party in a State Court Action executes and agrees to be bound by a confidentiality order that is substantially similar to the Stipulated and Agreed Confidentiality Order entered by the United States District Court for the Southern District of New York on October 24, 2003, so long as such order is permitted by relevant state law. The parties in the State Court Actions may serve non-duplicative supplemental document requests, interrogatories, and requests for admission in the State Court Actions after reviewing the production of documents, interrogatory responses and responses to requests for admission made in the Consolidated Actions to determine that such supplemental requests are necessary.
5. Every effort shall be made to depose witnesses common to one or more of the Consolidated Actions and State Court Actions only once. To that end, there shall be coordination as to time and place of depositions so that an individual noticed for deposition in both the Consolidated Actions and the State Court Actions is deposed once. The party responsible for providing notice of deposition in the Consolidated Actions or State Court Actions, as the case may be, shall include all parties in both the Consolidated Actions and the State Court Actions in any notices of deposition. For coordinated depositions of defense witnesses, representatives for the plaintiffs in the State Court Actions shall each have the right to conduct additional examination following any examination by Lead Counsel for the Plaintiffs in the Class Action and Liaison Counsel for the Individual Actions or his designee so long as the additional examination is non-repetitive and meets any conditions imposed in the State Court Actions. Where there are issues or claims in a State Court Action that are not present in the Consolidated Actions, the plaintiff in such State Court Action shall have such additional deposition time as may be ordered by the Court in the State Court Action to conduct non-repetitive questioning on topics not covered by Lead Counsel, Liaison Counsel, or plaintiffs' counsel in other State Court Actions. In the event plaintiffs in one or more of the State Court Actions conduct examination of witnesses in addition to the examination of Lead Counsel and Liaison Counsel, counsel for the defendants shall have an equal time to examine such witnesses without counting such time against their allotted time under the Scheduling Order in the Consolidated Actions. Absent consent of the parties or leave of the Court for good cause shown, no single witness shall be required to sit for deposition for a period longer than three eight-hour deposition days.
6. In the event any party in a State Court Action wishes to participate in settlement discussions that may be taking place in the Consolidated Actions, the parties in the State Court Action may contact the Court in the Consolidated Actions to gain such participation. Limitations on Scope of this Order
7. Nothing herein shall operate to lift or interfere with any stay of discovery or proceedings that may apply in any of the Consolidated Actions or the State Court Actions by virtue of the provisions of the Private Securities Litigation Reform Act of 1995, 15 U.S.C. § 77z-l(b)(1), Court order in the Consolidated Actions or in the State Court Actions, or otherwise.
8. Nothing herein shall have the effect of making any person, firm or corporation a party to any action in which the person or entity has not been named, served, or added as such;
9. Nothing herein shall affect the defenses of the parties in the Consolidated Actions or the State Court Actions, including any defenses for lack of jurisdiction.
10. Nothing herein or in any order entered in any State Court Action shall be construed as (a) limiting the ability of Lead Plaintiff to conduct discovery in the Class Action or (b) imposing any obligation on Lead Plaintiff.
SO ORDERED.