Merits Incentives, LLC v. The Eighth Judicial District Court of the State of Nevada

Merits Incentives and its business partners (petitioners) had contracted with Bumble & Bumble to distribute salon products; Bumble later sued them for breach of contract. One petitioner had earlier fired an employee accused of stealing confidential information and obtained an injunction against him. After Bumble sued, its attorney John Mowbray received an anonymous package containing a disk of electronic files with information relevant to the case. Mowbray repeatedly disclosed the disk's existence and contents to the petitioners through supplemental discovery filings and a request for authentication, identifying it as coming from an anonymous source. The petitioners did not object or claim privilege for eight months, then moved to dismiss Bumble's case, exclude the disk's contents, and disqualify Mowbray, arguing the documents were misappropriated and privileged. The trial court found the disk was sent by an unsolicited anonymous source, held Mowbray had met his ethical obligations by disclosing it, and denied disqualification.