Opinion
MDL 1446, CIVIL ACTION NO. H-01-3624 AND CONSOLIDATED CASES, CIVIL ACTION NO. H-01-3913 CONSOLIDATED CASES
March 27, 2003
ORDER
Pending before the Court inter alia are Lead Plaintiff the Regents of the University of California's motion for protective order (instrument #1000 in Newby) and Enron Corporation's motion for confidentiality order (#1201 in Newby, #541 in Tittile). A hearing was held on the motions on March 27, 2003.
After reviewing the briefs and the arguments of counsel at the hearing, the Court finds that the Regents' motion for protective order should be granted. The Court finds that the designation of Jeffrey Heil as the most knowledgeable individual of the Regents under Fed.R.Civ.P. 30(b)(6) is sufficient, and that the reasons why the banking Defendants wish to depose other officers, directors or agents of Lead Plaintiff the Regents of the University of California (specifically Managing Director of Fixed Income Randolph Wedding, current Treasurer David Russ, and Chair Judith Hopkinson or Vice Chair Gerald Parsky of the Committee on Investments) are not relevant to the class certification issues of the typicality of the Regents' claims or the adequacy of representation.
The Court further finds that Enron's motion for protective order should be denied because the categories asserted by Enron are so broad and the definitions of key terms so vague or undefined that they would result in a blanket protective order.
Accordingly, the Court
ORDERS the following:
(1) Lead Plaintiff's motion for protective order (#1000 in Newby)) is GRANTED as to Defendants' requests for Rule 30(b)(6) designations and notices of depositions of all Regents' officers, directors and agents other than Jeffrey Heil;
(2) Enron's overly broad motion for protective order (#1201 in Newby ; #541 in Tittle) is DENIED;
(3) Enron shall produce a privilege log identifying those documents that it seeks to keep confidential, with supporting affidavits setting forth particular and specific facts that establish good cause (specific prejudice or harm from distribution to third parties) for the issuance of a protective order as to each document;
(4) Enron's personnel files shall be produced in the spirit of General Order No. 2002-9; social security numbers, names of minor children, dates of birth, financial account numbers, drivers license numbers, unpublished addresses, types of financial accounts, individual portfolio statements, individual account statements, medical histories, sexual harassment allegations, and credit histories in the personnel files shall be deemed confidential and shall not be disclosed by any person given access to the documents in the document depository;
(5) The production of the document log and designation of documents deemed not to be confidential are to be performed on a rolling basis;
(6) The document log is to be provided to both counsel for Lead Plaintiff and to counsel for the media intervenors, which may, along with the parties, subsequently challenge any designation of documents as confidential, if appropriate;
(7) Enron shall complete its review of all documents that have previously been produced to the document depository and shall provide the document logs to counsel for Lead Plaintiff and the media intervenors within sixty days of entry of this order; and
(8) This order shall henceforth also apply to the Tittle Plaintiffs.