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Civil Procedure — discovery

By: WISCONSIN LAW JOURNAL STAFF//November 4, 2011//

Civil Procedure — discovery

By: WISCONSIN LAW JOURNAL STAFF//November 4, 2011//

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United States District Court

Civil

Civil Procedure — discovery

A foreign party to a lawsuit must comply with the federal rules of discovery, notwithstanding foreign law.

“JCI is correct. In Societe Nationale Industrielle Aerospatiale v. U.S. Dist. Court for Southern Dist. of Iowa, the Supreme Court held that the French blocking statute does not require a party seeking discovery from a party that is a French national to use the Hague Convention. 482 U.S. 522, 544 n.29 (1987). The Court held that this is so even though the French national’s act of producing the discovery outside of the Hague Convention will result in a violation of the statute. Id. Although the Court did not say that the blocking statute could never justify use of the Hague Convention rather than the Federal Rules of Civil Procedure, the Court made clear that a party who wishes to proceed under the Hague Convention must do more than simply point to the blocking statute. That party must identify the specific French interests that would be undermined if the court permitted discovery to be taken pursuant to the Federal Rules and then show that, under the facts of the case before the court, those interests outweigh the interest of the United States in allowing discovery in its courts to proceed under its own rules. Id.”

10-C-0951 Metso Minerals Industries, Inc., v. Johnson Crushers International, Inc.

E.D.Wis., Adelman, J.

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