Government of Ghana v. ProEnergy Services, LLC, et al., No. 11-2714 (8th Cir. 2012)
Annotate this CaseThis case stemmed from a dispute between Ghana and Balkan Energy Company where Balkan contracted with Ghana to refurbish and recommission a 125 megawatt power barge. Ghana filed an application for discovery pursuant to 28 U.S.C. 1782, seeking documents exchanged in a separate lawsuit between the current defendants. The district court granted Ghana's application and ordered the Missouri companies (collectively ProEnergy) to produce documents. ProEnergy produced some documents and discovery materials from its lawsuit with Balkan, but it refused other documents related to the settlement of that lawsuit. Because ProEnergy had already produced most of the documents, depositions, and interrogatory answers from its lawsuit with Balkan, and because ProEnergy was not party to the foreign litigation, the court was not persuaded that any fundamental unfairness was caused by the district court declining to compel production of the settlement documents. Accordingly, the court affirmed the decision.
Court Description: Civil Case - 28 U.S.C. sec. 1782. Decision which documents must be produced in application under 28 U.S.C. sec. 1782 is governed by Federal Rules. Thus, district court's discovery ruling will not be reversed absent a gross abuse of discretion resulting in fundamental unfairness. District court's refusal to order discovery of settlement documents was not a gross abuse of discretion, as use of documents would be prohibited at trial and fundamental unfairness would not result.
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