Judge: Stephen I. Goorvitch, Case: 21STCV13314, Date: 2022-08-01 Tentative Ruling

Case Number: 21STCV13314    Hearing Date: August 1, 2022    Dept: 39

Cannaco Research Corporation v. Shauneen Militello

Case No. 21STCV13314

[TENTATIVE] Order

            A.        Order Staying Discovery

The Court previously ordered a stay of discovery pending this hearing because Cannaco had not complied with the Court’s order to file its discovery requests.  The Court’s tentative order is that discovery shall be stayed given that Case Number 21SMCV00789 has been stayed.

B.        Motion for Disqualification of Plaintiff’s Counsel

Militello has filed a motion to disqualify the law firm of Spertus Landes and Umhoffer LLP as counsel-of-record for Cannaco Research Corporation “due to a concurrent, unwaivable conflict of interest in that Spertus is representing the corporation Cannaco, as well as its individual directors, Ann Lawrence Athey and Raj Manek, whose interests are directly adverse to Cannaco.”  Militello has reserved a hearing date for a motion to disqualify counsel (November 8, 2022) in Case Number 21SMCV00789.  Therefore, the Court’s tentative order is to continue the hearing on the motion until after Judge Young rules on this issue.

C.        Motion for Reconsideration

            On June 7, 2022, the Court denied Militello’s motion to stay the instant case pending the disposition of Case Number 21SMCV00789.  The Court intends to notice its own motion for reconsideration and tentatively issues an interim stay of Case Number 21STCV13314. 

            D.        Motion to Compel Further Responses to Request for Production #1

            Plaintiff served the following Request for Production (“RPD”) Number One upon Defendant: “All documents evidencing any activity on the G Suite, including all administrative and audit logs accessible via https://admin.google.com and Google Vault reports accessible via https://vault.google.com, from September 3, 2020, through the present.”  The Court held an informal discovery conference on June 7, 2022.  Plaintiff’s counsel stipulated to exclude calendar logs, meeting logs, and contacts from any production, in order to address Defendant’s concerns that Plaintiff may obtain confidential  information concerning her business activities.

            The Court expressed concern that the phrase “all documents” would result in a voluminous production of documents, and that only the access logs are relevant to this case.  The Court ordered Orbital Consulting to provide the following documents to the Court: “All administrative and audit logs accessible via https://admin.google.com and Google Vault reports accessible via https://vault.google.com, from September 3, 2020, through the present.”  The Court conducted an in-camera review of these documents. 

            The Court received a “thumb drive” with two folders: Google Vault Logs and Screen Captures (“Folder #1”) and GSuite Admin Logs (“Folder #2”).  Folder #1 contained three Excel spreadsheets—titled “auditlog” and “legal_hold_cross_matter_records” and “org_units_holds”—and one JPG file, which is titled “Screenshot 2002-05-27 102012.  None appears to contain proprietary or confidential information. 

            Folder #2 contains three sub-folders, which are titled “Pre-Collection Logs” and “Post-Collection Logs” and “Screen Captures of Available and Collected Accounts.”  The folder titled “Pre-Collection Logs” contains ten Excel spreadsheets with logs of activity on the G-Suite.  However, these Excel spreadsheets do not contain the content of any communications.  For example, there is an Excel spreadsheet titled “chat_logs,” but the logs demonstrate only the following information: “Event Name, Event Description, User, and Date.”  The first entry is “Message Posted” and “GBC Contact posted a message” and “contact@gbclab.com” and “April 1, 2021, 1:22:41 PM CST.”  The folder titled “Post-Collection Logs” contains 12 of the same types of Excel spreadsheets. 

The folder titled “Screen Captures” has photos of screens with email addresses of people affiliated with “Cannacocorp” and “CRC Distro” and “Rose Collective” and “Shauneen” and “WestWoodFarmacy.”  However, these do not appear to be business contacts.  Rather, these are the email addresses of personnel affiliated with those companies.  For example, the file “Shauneen” contains Militello’s email addresses at CRCdistro.com and Cannacocorp.com.  Similarly, the file “Rose Collective” contains four generic email addresses for RoseCollective.com titled “orders@” and “records@” and “store@” and “info@.”  These files do not appear to have proprietary or confidential information, like Militello’s business contacts. 

            Based upon the foregoing, the Court grants the motion in part and denies the motion in part.  The Court orders that all of the documents that were provided to the Court for an in-camera review may be produced to both parties except for the following files:

            1.         In the “GSuite Admin Logs” folder, “Pre-Collection Logs” subfolder, the following Excel spreadsheets shall not be produced: (a) any spreadsheet titled “calendar_logs” including “calendar_logs_1621283265018,” and (b) any spreadsheet titled “meet_logs” including “meet_logs_1621283384764.”

            2.         In the “GSuite Admin Logs” folder, “Post-Collection Logs” subfolder, the following Excel spreadsheets shall not be produced: (a) any spreadsheet titled “calendar_logs” including “calendar_logs_1621611231550,” and (b) any spreadsheet titled “meet_logs” including “meet_logs_1621611160014.

            Orbital Consulting shall provide the responsive documents to each party within ten (10) days of notice of this order. 

            E.         Migration Work

            At the hearing on June 7, 2022, William F. Odom III from Orbital Consulting represented that he had completed his extraction/preservation work of the email accounts, logs, and other data on the G-Suite, and the next step is to “migrate,” (i.e., segregate) Plaintiff’s accounts/data from Defendant’s account/data.  The Court ordered the parties to prepare and file a joint statement.  The Court set an informal discovery conference to address this issue.

            The Court’s tentative order is to order that Orbital Consulting shall maintain a copy of all data.  The Court’s tentative order is to order that the CRCDistro.com and CannacoCorp.com accounts (except for those identified in Exhibit C to the joint statement) shall be migrated to a new platform for Plaintiff.  There does not appear to be a serious question of ownership.  The Court has no tentative with respect to the email accounts for RoseCollective.com and WestWoodFarmacy.com, as it is unclear whether Plaintiff is entitled to access to these accounts. 

            F.         Order to Show Cause why the Court should not modify the preliminary injunction

            The Court’s tentative order is to modify the preliminary injunction and order that Orbital Consulting, having completed the preservation work, shall return super administrative privileges to Militello.