Hornbeam Corporation v. Halliwell Assets, Inc.

Case: 18-12990 Date Filed: 01/14/2020 Page: 1 of 3 [DO NOT PUBLISH] IN THE UNITED STATES COURT OF APPEALS FOR THE ELEVENTH CIRCUIT ________________________ No. 18-12990 ________________________ D.C. Docket No. 1:14-cv-24887-PAS In re: Application of Hornbeam Corporation’s Request for Discovery Pursuant to 28 U.S.C. 1782 HORNBEAM CORPORATION, BRACHA FOUNDATION, VADIM SHULMAN, Intervenors-Appellees, versus HALLIWELL ASSETS, INC., PANIKOS SYMEOU, Intervenors-Appellants. ________________________ No. 18-14104 ________________________ D.C. Docket No. 1:14-cv-24887-LFL In re: Application of Hornbeam Corporation’s Request for Discovery Pursuant to 28 U.S.C. 1782 Case: 18-12990 Date Filed: 01/14/2020 Page: 2 of 3 HORNBEAM CORPORATION, BRACHA FOUNDATION, VADIM SHULMAN, Intervenors-Appellees, versus CC METALS AND ALLOYS, LLC, FELMAN PRODUCTIONS, LLC, FELMAN TRADING, INC., GEORGIAN AMERICAN ALLOYS, INC., MORDECHAI KORF, OPTIMA FIXED INCOME, LLC, OPTIMA GROUP, LLC, OPTIMA INTERNATIONAL OF MIAMI, INC., OPTIMA VENTURES, LLC, Interested Parties - Appellants, HALLIWELL ASSETS, INC., PANIKOS SYMEOU, Intervenors - Appellants. ________________________ Appeals from the United States District Court for the Southern District of Florida ________________________ (January 14, 2020) Before JORDAN and NEWSOM, Circuit Judges, and WRIGHT, * District Judge. * Honorable Susan W. Wright, Senior United States District Judge of the United States District for the Eastern District of Arkansas, sitting by designation. 2 Case: 18-12990 Date Filed: 01/14/2020 Page: 3 of 3 PER CURIAM: Halliwell Assets, Inc. and Panikos Symeou appeal from the district court’s order permitting and modifying discovery sought by Hornbeam Corp. under 28 U.S.C. § 1782. After we heard oral argument in this appeal, Hornbeam stated—in a filing submitted to a district court in New York—that it had changed its litigation strategy and now would not be instituting legal proceedings in the British Virgin Islands. See Hornbeam Corp.’s Mot. to Amend Second Am. Protective Order, D.E. 187 at 1–2, 4–5, in In re Application of Hornbeam, Corp., No. 1:14-mc-00424 (VSB) (S.D.N.Y.). The appellants moved to supplement the record with this filing, and we granted that motion without objection from Hornbeam. We can “take judicial notice of subsequent developments in cases that are a matter of public record and are relevant to the appeal.” Rothenberg v. Sec. Mgmt. Co., Inc., 667 F.2d 958, 961 n.8 (11th Cir. 1982) (citing cases). Given Hornbeam’s recent concession that legal proceedings in the British Virgin Islands will not be instituted, the discovery allowed by the district court is not for use in a foreign proceeding. See In re Clerici, 481 F.3d 1324, 1331–32 (11th Cir. 2007). We therefore vacate the § 1782 order being appealed, see D.E. 209, and remand for the district court to decide in the first instance whether the discovery already obtained should be destroyed as the appellants request. VACATED AND REMANDED. 3