The primary subject matter of this blog is Eclipse Aviation Corporation v. John Doe et al., No. D-202-CV-2008-02624, New Mexico Second Judicial District Court, Bernalillo County, filed March 18, 2008.
I'm not sure that there will ever be more than one or two entries in this blog. I created it mostly just to have a place to post some documents I had obtained that I wanted to share with anyone else who was interested in the case. I first threw them into a directory under my petrofsky.org domain, but I thought I should also make them available through an URL that's easier to spell and remember. A blogspot URL seemed appropriate for this case.
I would like to start by giving a summary of the plaintiff's complaint. Unfortunately, the complaint is sealed, and all I really know about it is that the case information from the court's website lists the causes of action as "Breach of Contract" and "Injunction - Not Contract/Tort". I believe the order sealing the complaint is a public document, and I imagine it gives at least a cursory reason for the sealing, but I have not seen that order yet.
The main document that I have seen is the "Deposition Subpoena for Production of Business Records" that was issued on April 14, 2008 from California Superior Court, Santa Clara County, under case number 1-08-CV-110380.
The subpoena seeks:
Subscriber, Poster or Member information and details from the Web Log (BLOG) account of ECLIPSE AVIATION CRITIC NG (HTTP://WWW.ECLIPSECRITICNG.BLOGSPOT.COM/) for the individual or individuals using the posting identity/identities of [... a list of twenty-eight different aliases ...] including, but not limited to: first name, last name, zip code, and email address given when registering the account and also any and all records pertaining to user login information including, but not limited to: all remote IP addresses with corresponding dates and times logged by your system on each occurrence of the account being accessed, and remote IP address, date and time logged by your system when the account was created and all other information pertaining to the account in the custody of Google, Inc. and/or Blogger.com.
(Deposition subpoena, at attachment 3)
Oddly, the deponent at whom the subpoena is directed is not the well-known legal person named Google Inc. (Delaware corporation #3582691), but is, instead, "Google Legal Support, Blogger CMCA [sic] Complaints":
This wording is apparently traceable to the page at google.com/blogger_dmca.html, which says that Digital Millennium Copyright Act notices (a category of documents to which this subpoena clearly does not belong) should be sent to "Google, Inc., Attn: Google Legal Support, Blogger DMCA Complaints".
The other documents on file in Santa Clara are the "Declaration of Angela F. Storey in Support of Order to Issue Subpoena in California For Action Outside State" (dated April 14) and the attached "Commission to Issue and/or Obtain Subpoena in California" (dated April 10) from the New Mexico Court.
There was almost a month's delay from when the case was opened (on March 18) until the California subpoena was issued (on April 14), and you can see that this was partly because Eclipse's New Mexico counsel first served Google with a New Mexico subpoena and was apparently surprised to learn that that wasn't going to get him anywhere. As Eclipse's California counsel declares:
3. On or about March 21, 2008 ECLIPSE'S New Mexico attorney, David T. Thuma of Jacobvitz, Thuma & Walker, P.C., issued a subpoena to Google, Inc. located in Mountain View, California, Santa Clara County.
4. On or about March 26, 2008, Google, Inc. objected to the above subpoena on the grounds that said subpoena [was] not valid as it was not issued from the Santa Clara County Court.
5. ECLIPSE thereafter retained this law firm as local counsel to assist in obtaining a subpoena from the Santa Clara County Superior Court.
(Storey Declaration, at page 2)
Documents:
- New Mexico case: ECLIPSE AVIATION CORPORATION, a Delaware Corporation vs. JOHN DOE; JANE DOE; And various other unknown individuals designated VARIOUS DOES, No. D-202-CV-2008-02624, SECOND JUDICIAL DISTRICT COURT, COUNTY OF BERNALILLO, STATE OF NEW MEXICO
- Docket listing, as of May 1, 2008
- "Commission to Issue and/or Obtain Subpoena in California", filed April 10, 2008
- California case: ECLIPSE AVIATION CORPORATION, a Delaware Corporation vs. JOHN DOE; JANE DOE; and various other unknown individuals designated VARIOUS DOES, and DOES 1 through 500, No. 1-08-CV-110380, SUPERIOR COURT OF CALIFORNIA, SANTA CLARA COUNTY
- "Civil Case Cover Sheet", dated April 14, 2008
- "Declaration of Angela F. Storey in Support of Order to Issue Subpoena in California For Action Outside State", dated April 14, 2008
- "Deposition Subpoena for Production of Business Records", dated April 14, 2008
Links:
- Plaintiff: Eclipse Aviation (
eclipseaviation.com) - Subpoena recipient: Google Inc. (
google.com) - Blog specified in the subpoena: Eclipse Aviation Critic NG (
eclipsecriticng.blogspot.com) - New Mexico counsel for Plaintiff: Jacobvitz Thuma & Walker PC (
jtwlawfirm.com);- David Tenbroeck Thuma (first bar admission: Indiana, #2200-49, admitted 1984)
- Robert H. Jacobvitz (New Mexico Bar, admitted 1979)
- California counsel for Plaintiff: Miller Morton Caillat & Nevis (
millermorton.com)- Angela Foster Storey (California Bar #217942, admitted 2001)
- Florida counsel (according to news reports) for potential movants whose aliases are listed in the subpoena: Norman Malinski (Florida Bar #182344, admitted 1974)
- Judge assigned to New Mexico case: Hon. Linda M. Vanzi (
votevanzi.com) (New Mexico Bar, admitted 1995; appointed to bench in 2004) - New Mexico court case information:
http://www.nmcourts.gov/caselookup - California court case information:
http://sccaseinfo.org/pa5.asp?full_case_number=1-08-CV-110380http://sccaseinfo.org/pa5.asp?process_name=
process_calendar_case_number&end_date=3000&case_number=108CV110380
http://www.sccsuperiorcourt.org/civil/Dept7rulings.htm.) Two years ago, Judge Manoukian heard a motion to quash a subpoena in a case that had several similarities to Eclipse vs. Does. He denied the motion, but the subpoena was ultimately withdrawn anyway. You can find most of the story of that case in the published opinion H.B. Fuller v. Doe, 151 Cal.App.4th 879 (May 31, 2007). I've put some other documents from that case in the directory athttp://petrofsky.org/misc/legal-docs/H-B-Fuller-vs-Doe/. I'll try to write another blog entry here sometime with more information about the Fuller case.
