Quaak v. Klynveld Peat Marwick Goerdler Bedrijfsrevisoren
United States Court of Appeals for the First Circuit
361 F.3d 11 (2004)
- Written by Sara Adams, JD
Facts
Klynveld Peat Marwick Goerdler Bedrijfsrevisoren (KPMG-B) (defendant) was a Belgian auditing firm that audited for the publicly traded company Lernout & Hauspie Speech Services, Inc. (Lernout). After Lernout collapsed, many securities-fraud cases were brought in the United States against KPMG-B. KPMG-B became the subject of a Belgian criminal investigation. Plaintiffs in an American case (the American litigants) (plaintiffs) initiated pretrial discovery and served requests for KPMG-B’s auditing work records. KPMG-B refused to turn over the records and asserted that complying would violate Belgian secrecy law. The American litigants sought and received an order from the magistrate court compelling KPMG-B to produce the requested documents. KPMG-B filed an action in Belgian court asking that the court enjoin the American litigants from advancing the discovery process and impose high penalties for violation of the injunction. The American litigants requested an antisuit injunction in federal district court to bar KPMG-B from proceeding with the Belgian claim. The district court granted the antisuit injunction. KPMG-B appealed.
Rule of Law
Issue
Holding and Reasoning (Selya, J.)
What to do next…
Here's why 805,000 law students have relied on our case briefs:
- Written by law professors and practitioners, not other law students. 46,300 briefs, keyed to 988 casebooks. Top-notch customer support.
- The right amount of information, includes the facts, issues, rule of law, holding and reasoning, and any concurrences and dissents.
- Access in your classes, works on your mobile and tablet. Massive library of related video lessons and high quality multiple-choice questions.
- Easy to use, uniform format for every case brief. Written in plain English, not in legalese. Our briefs summarize and simplify; they don’t just repeat the court’s language.
