Mount Sinai School of Medicine v. American Tobacco Co.
United States Court of Appeals for the Second Circuit
880 F.2d 1520 (2d Cir. 1989)
Tobacco companies including American Tobacco (defendant), defending against product-liability suits alleging deaths from smoking combined with asbestos exposure, believed the plaintiffs would rely on a well-known Mount Sinai School of Medicine (plaintiff) study on tobacco use and asbestos exposure, and issued a broad first subpoena (the Page subpoenas) demanding all underlying study documents. Mount Sinai successfully moved to quash those subpoenas as overbroad and oppressive in In re R.J. Reynolds Tobacco Co., but the tobacco companies then issued a second, more precise set of subpoenas in connection with two additional similar lawsuits, allowing redaction of confidential information; Mount Sinai again moved to quash on res judicata, collateral estoppel, and scholar/expert-privilege grounds and sought a protective order, and the court granted the protective order but denied the motion to quash.
Whether, under New York law, when a broad subpoena is quashed but a second, narrower and more specific subpoena is issued, the fact that the first subpoena was quashed has a preclusive effect on the second.