Supreme Court Denies Petition for Cert In Discovery Dispute

The Supreme Court recently denied a petition to review a discovery dispute in a complex, multi-district case concerning allegations that pharmaceutical manufacturers engaged in a price-fixing conspiracy.  The petition for certiorari, which was filed by a group of generic drug manufacturers, requested that the Court overturn the district court’s discovery order. Under this order, the drug manufacturers were required to produce all documents containing pre-agreed search terms from select custodians.  The drug manufacturers could then claw-back documents that they believed were not relevant or nonresponsive.  As such, the drug manufacturers were forbidden from provisionally withholding discovery materials merely because they believed they were not relevant or nonresponsive.  The respondents, representatives for attorney generals from 54 different states and territories and numerous private plaintiff classes, argued that the district court’s order was proper because the district court had properly exercised its broad judicial discretion in “declining to give petitioners that third relevance screen.”  In declining the drug manufacturer’s petition, the Supreme Court permitted the district court’s discovery order to stand.