Tampa Bay Fisheries has formally objected to many of National Fish and Seafood’s requests to produce evidence in NFS’s trade secrets lawsuit against the company and a former employee.
NFS alleges that its former executive, Kathleen Scanlon, stole information on NFS’s clam production process for its Matlaw’s brand and funneled the information to her new employer, Tampa Bay. In the latest volley in the ongoing legal battle over the issue, Tampa Bay said it should not be required to supply volumes of documents that NFS is requesting - either because they don’t pertain to the case or because the company does not have them in its possession.
Tampa Bay also recently filed documents with the U.S. District Court in Boston, Massachusetts, asking that Red Chamber be left out of the case. NFS added Red Chamber to its complaint earlier in October due to the fact that Red Chamber (owner of Tampa Bay) was in talks to buy NFS last year.
In its most recent court filings, Tampa Bay challenged NFS’ request for all documents regarding NFS and Tampa Bay’s bids to supply Whole Foods Market with frozen seafood products.
“Tampa Bay objects that this request calls for the disclosure of trade secrets not essential to the proper prosecution of this action. Tampa Bay further objects that the request is not relevant nor reasonably calculated to lead to the discovery of admissible evidence,” the company wrote in its court filing.
Tampa Bay also should not have to produce documents regarding NFS and Tampa Bay’s bids to supply High Liner Foods, Inc. with frozen seafood products for the same reasons, the supplier said.
Additionally, Tampa Bay said it could not supply a host of documents on NFS’s proprietary clam production process because it is “not aware of any responsive documents.”
And, while NFS is asking Tampa Bay to produce “all documents provided to Tampa Bay by Scanlon,” Tampa Bay says the quest is “overly broad” and that it has produced all responsive documents provided by Scanlon from 1 June, 2018, to the present.
