Judge Eddie C. Sturgeon, Case 37-2022-00018260-CU-BT-CTL 2023-09-08 Tentative Ruling

Judge: Eddie C. Sturgeon, Case: 37-2022-00018260-CU-BT-CTL, Date: 2023-09-08 Tentative Ruling

SUPERIOR COURT OF CALIFORNIA,

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HALL OF JUSTICE

TENTATIVE RULINGS - September 07, 2023

09/08/2023 09:00:00 AM C-67 COUNTY OF SAN DIEGO

JUDICIAL OFFICER:Eddie C Sturgeon

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Civil - Unlimited Business Tort Discovery Hearing 37-2022-00018260-CU-BT-CTL FATE THERAPEUTICS INC VS SHORELINE BIOSCIENCES INC [IMAGED] CAUSAL DOCUMENT/DATE FILED: Motion to Compel Discovery, 08/16/2023

The court finds that a discovery referee is appropriate for this case and orders these motions and all future discovery motions to be heard by a discovery referee with costs to be split equally between the parties.

With respect to ESI search terms, the court finds the additional terms to be uniformly overbroad and that the court is not equipped to negotiate between the parties to craft narrower terms that would necessarily be appropriate for the purposes of this litigation. As guidance to the parties and referee, the court agrees with the Shoreline Defendants that 'Fate AND (Dan or Kaufman)' is a more reasonable term than 'Fate' alone and suggests that such documents be reviewed, if the Shoreline Defendants have not already done so.

As for the various investor and 'press release' terms, the court also finds these terms to be overbroad and instead suggests that each and every investor search term be limited by (Dan or Kaufman) between April 1, 2020 and June 30, 2021. For example: (Kite or Gilead) and (Dan or Kaufman) between April 1, 2020 and June 30, 2021 Those limiters in bold would apply to all investor and 'press release' terms.

As for the documents targeting Fotiadis, Kaufman, Xanthopoulos, Kleanthis, Sandborn, and Holtzman, the court agrees with the Shoreline Defendants that these appear to contravene the ESI Order's bar on using the producing party's name as a search term 'unless combined with narrowing search criteria that sufficiently reduce the risk of overproduction.' (ROA 289, ¶ 8.) This is in part because taken together, the names and terms would necessarily implicate all emails by these individuals since the email addresses themselves would generate responsive hits. Accordingly, all such documents should be limited to the period between April 1, 2020 and June 30, 2021 and exclude searching to/from/cc/bcc lines, if possible.

However, the court declines to formally order the above changes to the ESI terms and leaves any final determination to the referee.

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