District of Utah Orders Production of Client Relations Management Database

On May 4, 2018 in Entrata, Inc. v. Yardi Sys., No. 15-cv-00102-CW-PMW, 2018 U.S. Dist. LEXIS 76148 (D. Utah) Magistrate Judge Paul Warner granted the pkaintiff’s motion for production of the Yardi client relations management database. The court rejected the defendant’s position that reports generated by the database satisfy its obligations under FRCP 34.

The production of the data was proportional to the needs as the case as per the requirements of FRCP 26(b). Judge Warner cited the Advisory Committee’s notes to FRCP 34 which state that not all discoverable ESI fits within the concept of a traditional document, specifically mentioning dynamic databases.

Entrata also sought the re-production of documents that the defendant clawed back arguing that it had not done so in a reasonable period of time. The court rejected this motion. “While Entrata obviously takes issue with the number of days that Yardi waited to claw back the documents, the court cannot say, and Entrata has failed to demonstrate, that Yardi did not act within a reasonable time after discovering that the documents were inadvertently or unintentionally produced.” Id. at 9. A motion for an in camera review by a special master of all documents withheld for privilege on the basis of one improperly withheld email, additional documents only allegedly improperly withheld , and the sheer number of documents on the log was also denied.