Meritless Bill of Discovery Defeated in Superior Court

A Connecticut Superior Court recently granted Kenny, O’Keefe & Usseglio’s motion to strike a bill of discovery filed by two former employees against their former employer, a large national corporation.  The two employees, unhappy with their terminations, filed an extensive bill of discovery against the employer, seeking to obtain the company’s entire investigative file concerning an investigation into its Hartford Office and the employees’ behavior, along with many other internal documents.  The employees claimed that they had potential defamation and negligent infliction of emotional distress claims for which they needed the requested materials.

Kenny, O’Keefe & Usseglio challenged the bill of discovery on several fronts arguing, among other things, that based upon Connecticut law, the employees had not established that they had probable cause to assert either a defamation claim or a negligent infliction of emotional distress claim. Kenny, O’Keefe & Usseglio contended that much of the requested information, particularly the investigative file, was protected from discovery under the law.

The Superior Court agreed with the arguments and upheld the employer’s objection to the bill of discovery.