In a petition brought under 28 U.S.C § 1782, petitioner sought discovery of documents outside the United States. Recognizing the Second Circuit had not ruled on whether such discovery was authorized by Section 1782, the Court looked to precedent from the Eleventh Circuit, which had previously allowed such discovery abroad. “Section 1782 imposes no geographical limit on the production of documents” and to the extent courts have done so, it was “for reasons of legislative history and policy.” The Court found that the factors discussed by the Eleventh Circuit favored petitioner’s application with respect to documents relating to a criminal proceeding in Monaco, and permitted some – but not all – of petitioner’s discovery requests.
The petition also sought discovery in aid of criminal proceedings in Switzerland. Finding the petitioner satisfied the statutory requirements with respect to the Monaco proceedings, the Court found Section 1782 did not require the petitioner to “satisfy the statutory requirements for each foreign proceeding for which he or she wishes to use the requested discovery.”
In re Application of Accent Delight Int’l Ltd and Xitrans Finance Ltd., 16-MC-125 (USDC S.D.N.Y. June 11, 2018)
This post written by Nora A. Valenza-Frost.
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