In re Perrier Bottled Water Litigation

Numerous plaintiffs sued Source Perrier, S.A. (Source Perrier) and others (defendants) in various districts after benzene was identified in Perrier-brand water products. The Perrier lawsuits were consolidated and transferred to the District of Connecticut by the Judicial Panel on Multidistrict Litigation for pre-trial purposes, and the parties initiated discovery. Plaintiffs submitted voluminous, broadly worded interrogatories and requests for production of documents to Source Perrier, but Source Perrier did not respond. Source Perrier was a French corporation and resident of France. The judicial system of France, like other civil-law countries, treated the discovery of evidence in lawsuits as a function of the courts rather than a broad entitlement of private parties. To that end, France signed on to the Hague Evidence Convention (convention) and further amended its civil and penal codes to incorporate the convention’s evidence-request procedures and preclude the use of any other nation’s more permissive procedures by foreign litigants. Plaintiffs filed a motion to compel Source Perrier to answer the discovery requests, and Source Perrier opposed the motion to compel and moved for a protective order requiring any discovery requests made of Source Perrier be subject to the convention’s procedures instead of the U.S. Federal Rules of Civil Procedure. The plaintiffs asserted discovery should proceed as allowed under the Federal Rules of Civil Procedure. The district court considered the plaintiffs’ and Source Perrier’s motions.