Preview
FILED: NEW YORK COUNTY CLERK 06/28/2021 05:17 PM INDEX NO. 657193/2020
NYSCEF DOC. NO. 139 RECEIVED NYSCEF: 06/28/2021
SUPREME COURT OF THE STATE OF NEW YORK
COUNTY OF NEW YORK
YASEMIN TEKINER,
in her individual capacity, as a beneficiary
and a Trustee of The Yascmin Tekiner
2011 Descendants Trust and derivatively as Index No.: 657193/2020
a holder of equitable interests in a
shareholder or a member of the Company STIPULATION AND ORDER
Defendants, FOR THE PRODUCTION AND
EXCHANGE OF ELECTRONICALLY
Plaintiff, STORED INFORMATION
-against-
BREMEN HOUSE INC., BREMEN HOUSE
TEXAS, INC., GERMAN NEWS COMPANY,
INC., GERMAN NEWS TEXAS, INC., 254-258
W. 35TH ST. LLC, BERRIN TEKINER, GONCA
TEKINER, and BILLUR AKIPEK, in her capacity
as a Trustee of The Yasemin Tekiner 2011
Descendants Trust,
Defendants.
This matter having come before the Court by stipulation of Plaintiff, YASEMIN TEKINER
("Plaintiff"), and Defendants, BREMEN HOUSE INC., BREMEN HOUSE TEXAS, INC.,
GERMAN NEWS COMPANY, INC., GERMAN NEWS TEXAS, INC., 254-258 W. 35TH ST.
LLC, BERRIN TEKINER, GONCA TEKINER, and BILLUR AKIPEK ("Defendants") (each of
"Party,"
Plaintiff and Defendants, a and collectively, the "Parties") for the entry of an order
governing the production of electronically stored information ("ESI") and hard copy documents
the parties during the of this litigation; and the parties, by, between and among their
by pendency
respective counsel, stipulated and agreed to the terms set forth herein, and good cause
having
having been shown;
IT IS hereby ORDERED that:
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1. The procedures and protocols set forth in this Stipulation shall govern the
productión of ESI and hard copy documents in this matter, unless the Parties agree in writing to
change them or they are changed by the Court.
DUTY OF COOPERATION
2. The Parties shall meet and confer in good faith on any disputed issue regardiñg ESI.
In the event the Parties cannot reach an agreement on a disputed matter, the Parties shall submit
the matter to the Court.
DEFINITIONS
3. As used herein:
"Document(s)"
a) is used in the broadest sense permissible under the CPLR
and includes, without limitation, allobjects tangible or intangible, from which information may be
derived, however reproduced, including any recording in any tañgible form of any information,
whether handwritten, typed, stored electronically, stored on computer disks, tapes, or databases,
or otherwise stored or reproduced, whether sent or received or neither, whether within the actual
or constructive possession, custody, or control of any agent, employee, consultant, accouñtañt or
any other person, including drafts and copies bearing notations and marks not found in the original.
For the avoidance of doubt, this includes emaik, text messages, writings, drawiñgs, graphs, charts,
photographs, sound recordings, voicemails, images, and other data or data compilations, posts or
messages from social media platforms including, but not liinited to, Facebook, Instagram,
LinkedIn, and Twitter, and messages sent through applications such as Instagram, Facebook,
LinkedIn, and WhatsApp.
information" "ESI,"
b) "Electronically stored or means and refers to
computer-generated information or data, stored in or on storage media located on computers,
any
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iPads, mobile phone, hard drives, share drives, file servers, disks, tapes, USB drives, or any other
real or virtualized devices or media, as such information is defined in Article 31 of the CPLR,
Commercial Division Rules Appendix A (22 NYCRR § 202.70(g)).
Document"
c) "Hard-Copy means Documents existing in paper form at the
time of collection.
Format"
d) "Native means and refers to the format of ESI in which it was
generated and/or as used by the Producing Party in the usual course of its business and in its
regularly c0ñducted activities. For example, the native format of an Excel workbook is an .xis or
.xslx file.
"Metadata"
e) means(i) information embedded in or associated with a native
file when it is generated, edited, or modified that describes the characteristics, origins, usage,
and/or validity of the electronic file; (ii)information generated automatically by the operation of
a c0ñrputer or other information technology system when a native file is created, modified,
transmitted, deleted, or otherwise mañipulated by a user of such system, (iii)information, such as
Bates numbers, created during the course of processing documents or ESI for production, and (iv)
information collected during the course of collecting documents or ESI, such as the name of the
media device on which itwas stored, or the custodian or non-custodial data source from which it
was collected.
"Media"
f) means an object or device, real or virtual, including but not limited
to a dise, tape, computer, or other device on which data is or was stored.
Text"
g) "Extracted means the text extracted from a Document, and includes
all header, footer, and documeñt body information when reas0ñably available.
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Recognition" "OCR"
h) "Optical Character or means the process of
recognizing, and creating a file containing, visible text within an image.
Value"
i) . "Hash is a unique numerical identifier that can be assigned to a file,
a group of files, or a portion of a file, based on a standard mathematical algorithm applied to the
characteristics of the data set. The most commonly used algorithms, known as MD5 and SHA,
will generate numerical values so distinctive that the chance that any two data sets will have the
similar "Hashing"
same Hash Value, no matter how they appear, is less than one in one billion. is
used to guarantee the authenticity of an original data set and can be used as a digital equivalent of
the Bates stamp used in Hard-Copy Documêñt productions.
Designation"
j) "Confidentiality means the legend affixed to Documents for
"Confidential,"
Protected Information, including as defined by, and subject to, the terms of the
Stipulation and Order for the Production and Exchange of Confidential Information, entered
February 23, 2021 (Dkt. No. 91) ("Confidentiality Stipulation").
Text"
k) "Searchable means the native text extracted from an Electronic
Document or any Optical Character Recognition text ("OCR text") generated from a Hard-Copy
Document or electronic image.
file"
1) "Load/Unitization means an electronic file provided with a
production set of documents and images used to load that prnduction set into a Receiving Party's
document review platform, and correlate itsdata within that platform. A Load/Unitization filewill
also contain data relevant to the individual Documents, including extracted and user-created
metadata.
Party"
m) "Pradacing means or refers to a Party in the above-captioned matter
from which production of ESI or hard copy documents are sought.
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Party"
n) "Requesting means or refers to a Party in the above-captioned
matter seeking production of ESI or hard copy documents.
PRODUCTION
A. Identification of Responsive ESI
4. The parties will meet and confer to discuss whether and, if so, to what extent search
parties'
terms will be utilized for producing all electronic documents
B. De-Duplication of Production
5. The Producing Party may de-duplicate by MD5 or SHA-1 hash within the materials
of a unique custodian or data source. Where any such documents have attaclññcats, hash values
must be ideñtical for both the document-plus-attachment (iñcludiñg associated metadata) as well
as for any attachment (including associated metadata) standing alone. The Producing Party will
maintaiñ references to all removed duplicate files,and shall provide the names of all original file
locations, etc. of the duplicates of a particular document in the relevant load file. The Producing
custodians"
Party agrees that the presence of a custodian's name contained in "all in the metadata
for a particular documeñt is evidence that the custodian possessed that document in his/her
custodial file.
6. . No Party shall identify and/or eliminate electronic duplicâtes by manual review or
some method other than by use of the technical compãrison using MD5 or SHA-1 hash values
outlined above. The Produciñg Party can either de-duplicate documents within custodians, or
across custodians, provided they comply with the followiñg:
a) If the Producing Party is de-duplicating across the custodiãñs, the Producing
Party shall populate a field of data that identifies each custodian who had a of the produced
copy
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document (the "duplicate custodian field") in addition to a separate field of data identifying the
custodian whose document is produced.
b) If the Produciñg Party is de-duplicating within custodians only, there is no
need to create or provide the duplicate custodian field.
C. Hard-Copy Document Production Format
7. Hard-Copy Documents may be produced as static images: The images will be in
IV* .TIFF .TXT format and standard load
black-and-white, single page, 300 DPI, Group images,
files, which can be used with commercially available litigation software packages, and the Default
"DPF"
Production Fields ("DPF") as described and designated with a in Exhibit A. Hard-copy
color paper documeñts will be produced in grayscale in TIFF format. Producing Hard-Copy
Documents in such form does not change their character from Hard-Copy Documcats into ESI.
8. If a documeñt is more than one page, to the extent possible, the unitization of the
document and any attachments or affixed notes should be maintained as it existed when collected
by the Producing Party. Parties may unitize their documêñts using either physical üñitization (i.e.,
based on physical binding or organizational elements present with the original paper documents
like staples, clips and binder inserts) or logical unitization ( i.e.,a mañüâl review of the paper to
determine what logically constitutes a document like page numbers or headers). If unitization
cannot be reasonably maintained, the original unitization should be documented in the data load
file or otherwise electronically tracked if reasonably possible.
9. Hard-Copy Documents will be produced as they are kept. For documents found in
folders or other containers with labels, tabs, or other identifying information, such labels and tabs
shall be scaññcd. Pages with Post-It notes shall be seãññed both with and without the Post-it, with
the image of the page with the Post-It note preceding the image of the page without the Post-It
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note. Parties will use best efforts to maintain document relationships, i.e.,attachment status.
Original document orientaticñ (i.e.,portrait v. landscape) should be maintained.
D. ESI Production Format
10. The following provisions shall generally govern the production format and
procedure for ESI and are subject to the other provisions contamM herein.
11. Production of ESI (both Native and Non-Native). All responsive ESI, except that
which is produced in Native Format pursuant to paragraph 12, should be produced as TIFF images
with correspõñdiñg extracted full text and affiliated metadata as identified below in paragraph 19.
All productions will include these additional specifications:
a) a load file for images;
b) delimited load files (.dat, .dii, .lfp and .opt) containing a field with the full
path and filename to native files produced and the metadata fields Identified below (for ESI);
c) document-level .txtfiles for allnative documents containing extracted full
text or OCR text (OCR only if the document has been redacted);
d) Bates number branding and Confidentiality designation (if any) on the face
of the image;
e) all hidden text (e.g., track changes, hidden columns, comments notes,
markups, etc.) will be expanded, extracted, and reñdered in the TIFF file;this specifically iñcludes,
but is not limited to, the inclusion of any notes or comments contained within PowerPoint
any
slides/presentations that are produced in TIFF format; and
f) Each of the Metadata and coding fields set forth in Exhibit A which can be
extracted from a Document shall be produced for that Documeñt. The Parties are not obligated to
populate manually any of the fields in Exhibit A ifsuch fields cannot be reasonably extracted from
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a Document, with the exception of Default Production Fields ("DPF") that are generated in the
course of collection, review and production.
12. Production of Native Format ESI. Responsive spreadsheets and Presentation files
(e.g., Excel, Lotus, PowerPoint, etc.) shall be produced in Native Format, except where such files
are redacted. A TIFF placeholder embossed with the corresponding confidentiality designation
and Bates number shall be produced for all ESI produced in Native Format. Responsive ESI
produced in Native Format shall be produced with all Metadata contained in or associated with
that file to the extent technologically possible. Extracted Text taken from native files will be
provided at a document level. There will be one text file per dociiment, using the same name as
the beginning Bates number (Document ID) of the document. The extracted text file for a
document will reside in the same location (file directory) as the images for that document. The
text fileassociated with any redacted documeñt will exclude redacted text (i.e.,the Producing Party
can OCR the redacted image of the unstructured ESI and replace the original extracted text). No
Party may attach to any pleading or any correspondêñce addressed to the Court, Special Master,
or any adverse or third Party, or submit as an exhibit at a deposition or any other judicial
proceeding, a copy of any native format decümeñt produced by any Party withóüt ensuring that
either the corresponding slip sheet is attached to the document or the corresponding Bates ñümber
and confidentiality legend, as designated by the Producing Party, appears on or with the document.
13. Request for Documents in Native Format. If a reasonably concludes that
Party
production in Native Format of any document(s) initially produced in TIFF format is necessary
(e.g., to decipher the complete meaning, context, or content, to determine ifthere is relevant
any
text"
"hidden in the document, to determine ifthere is important use of color in the
any document,
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etc.),such Party may request production of the original document in Native Format. The Parties
agree to meet and confer in good faith with respect to any such request.
14. Embedded Objects. Embedded objects will be preserved by assigning sequential
Bates numbers to allfiles within a parent-child group, and by providing accurate attachment ranges
for those files in the metadata fields required.
15. Foreign Language Docuincats. Hard-copy documents and ESI that contains
lãñgnages other than English, in whole or in part, shall be produced in the original language(s).
16. Text Files. A single text file shall be provided for documents with extracted text in
itsnative format. The text file name shall be the same as the Bates number of the first page of the
".txt"
document with the document extension suffixed. Files names shall not have any special
characters or embedded spaces. The text file for a dec=1cnt will reside in the same location (file
directory) as the Image file for that document. The extracted text file associated with any redacted
document will be replaced with an OCR text file which excludes redacted text. Electroilic text
must be extracted directly from the native electronic file unless the document requires redaction,
is an image or is other native electronic filethat does not contain text to extract non-
file, any (e.g.,
searchable PDFs). Extracted text shall be provided in UTF-16LE or UTF-8 with Byte Order Mark
format text. Extracted text shall include allcom1ñctits, revisions, tracked changes, speaker's notes
and text from documents with w......ents or tracked changes, and hidden worksheets, slides,
columns and rows that have not been redacted from the documerit.
17. OCR. Machine generated OCR created from sca2med images of redacted
documerits will be provided at a document level (to the extent that document otherwise had
electrcliic text in itsunredacted form). There will be one OCR text (.txt) fileper document, named
the same as the begilliiizig Bates number (Document ID) of the document. The OCR text file for
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a document will reside in the same location (file directory) as the images for that document. The
OCR text file associated with any redacted document will exclude redacted text. OCR software
should be set to the highest quality setting during processing. Documents contaiñiñg foreign
lañguage text will be OCR'ed using the appropriate settings for that lañguage, e.g., OCR of
German documents will use settings that capture umlauts. Settings such as "auto-
properly
skewing" "auto-rotation"
and should be turned on during the OCR process.
18. Text Extracted from Emails. Text extracted from emails shall include all header
information that would be visible ifthe email was viewed in Outlook including: (1) the individuals
to whom the communication was directed ("To"), (2) the author of the email communication
("CC"
("From"), (3) who was copied and blind copied on such email and "BCC") (to the extent
("RE"
itsavailable in the text or metadata), (4) the subject line of the email or "Subject"), (5) the
date and time of the email, and (6) the names of any attachments.
19. Text Messages. The producing party shall provide all responsive text messages
(Chat, SMS, MMS, iMessage or any other message format) in UFDR file format. To the extent
the production of text messages in UFDR file format is not available, the producing party shall
provide a load file (CSV or DAT - tab or standard Concordance separator of the
pipe, delimited)
responsive text messages and include attachments. All load files shall also include relative paths
to any attachments to responsive text messages and the following metadata fields, to the extent
such metadata is available. Specific metadata associated with radacted documeñts may be
withheld from the production if the metadata field is likely to contain privileged or protected
information, subject to the requesting party's right to seek production.
Field Name Description
Original Sent / Received Date of the Message or Date related to the
MASTER DATE TIME STAMP activity
ORIGINAL TIMEZONE Original Time Zone of the collected device
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MASTER UTC DATE TIME STAMP Previded as a UTC offset (e.g. -5:00) or standard time zone identifier
The criginal custodian, and allother custodians, separated with a
multi-value delimiter, from whom the Document was collected and
who possessed the document. For documents from centralized
repositories where custodian name is unavailable, identifying source
Custodian/Source/Düplicate Custodian information should be provided.
of the - if multiplca related to a single
Name(s) anach-eñt(s) item,
ATTACHMENT NAMES they should be provided as a semicolon delirsted list
ATTACHMENT PATH Relative path to the attachment(s) _
Identifieron type of message (e.g. SMS, MMS or messaging service
COMMUNICATION TYPE format)
DATE TIME LAST ACCESSED Date and Time File was Last Accessed
DATE TIME LAST MODIFIED Date and Time File was Last Modified
DATE TIME SENT Date and Time File was Sent
A True / False flag indicating ifthe message was found to be flagged
"deleted"
DELETED as
Identifier from the chat application showing message direction (e.g.
FOLDER "Incoming", "Outgoing", "Sent", "Received")
IMEI International Mobile Eyüipment code (ifavailable)
Identity
IMSI International Mobile Subscriber Identity code (ifavailable)
RECIPIENTS All recipients of a com2manication, email or textmessage
SENDER Sender of a ces-z-±:ation, email or text message
STATUS Read/Unread status of a cos-2nications email or text message
Owner Phone Number Phone number associated with device
The content of the SMS, MMS, Chat, iMessage or other message
MESSAGE BODY format
Geographical location of a device, message or conversation
Locations/Geolocation specifying both latitude and longitude values when available
SUBJECT (ifapplicable) Subject Line of the text message
20. TIFFs. All TIFFs produced by any Party in this matter will be single page Group
IV TIFF format, 300 dpi quality or better. Image filenames will be identical to the corresponding
".tif"
bates numbered images, with a file extemion. All images of redacted documents which
contain emmonts, deletions and revision marks the of the person the
(including identity making
deletion or revision and the date and time thereof), speaker notes, or other user-entered data that
the source application can display to the user will be processed such that all that data is visible in
the image. The Producing Party will brand all TIFF images in the lower right-hand corner with its
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corresponding bates number, usmg a consistent font type and size. The Bates number must not
obscure any part of the underlying image. If the placement in the lower right-hand corner will
result in obscuring the underlying image, the Bates number should be placed as near to that position
as possible while preserving the underlying image.
21. TIFFs of Redacted ESI. TIFFs of redacted ESI shall convey the same information
and image as the original document, including all non-redacted elements and formatting which are
visible in any view of the document in itsnative application, and each redacted area must bear a
label contaiñiñg the reason for the redaction.
22. Bates Numbers. All bates numbers will consist of an Alpha Prefix, followed
immediately by an 8-digit numeric: AAA#mm###. There must be no spaces in the Bates number.
Any ñümbers with less than 8 digits will be front padded with zeros to reach the required 8 digits.
23. Date Fields Time Zone. All documeñts shall be processed so as to show fielded
dates and times in Eastern Standard Time.
24. Native File Image Placeholders. A Bates-stamped placeh ider TIFF, bearing the
format"
legend "This document has been produced in native shall be provided for ESI produced
in native format; these placehelders will be Bates numbered in the same way as any other TIFF,
and the Bates number of that single page shall be used as the BegBates and EndBates of the
associated document.
25. Confidentiality Treatment.
a) The confidentiality treanneñt level for any item will be provided with the
"CONFIDENTIALITY."
metadata for that item, in the field entitled For items with no
confidentiality requirements, the field will be leftblank.
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b) If the Producing Party is producing ESI in TIFF Format subject to a claim
that itis protected from disclosure under any protective agreement or confidentiality order, or any
"CONFIDENTIAL"
agreement entered into or Order issued in this matter, the word shall be
burned electronically on each page of such document. The Producing Party should also include in
the flat file (.txtor .dat) a designation that the document is protected and the level of protection, as
required by any protective order or agreement.
c) If the Produciñg Party is producing ESI in Native Format subject to a claim
that itis protected from disclosure under any protective agreement or confidentiality order, or any
agreemcñt entered into or Order issued in this matter, then the designation shall be included in the
fileñame as well as the TIFF placeholder or where not produced with a TIFF placeholder, the
storage device (e.g.,CD, USB, or hard drive) containing such native ESI data shall be labeled with
"CONFIDENTIAL."
the designation The Producing Party should also include in the flat file(.txt
or .dat) a designation that the document is protected and the level of protection, as required by the
Protective Order.
26. Redactions. Any redactions shall be clearly indicated on the face of the document
and each page of the document from which information is redacted shall bear a designation that it
has been redäcted. The basis for each such redaction shall be provided in a Redactioñ Log in
accordance with paragraphs 36 to 40. For redacted items which were all non-
originally ESI,
redacted metadata fields will be provided. Redacted documents shall be identified as such in the
load file provided with the production. A document's status as redacted does not relieve the
Producing Party from providing all of the non-redacted metadata required herein.
27. Color. Paper documents or redacted ESI that contain color to decipher
ñccessary
the mcãñing, context, or content of the document or ESI shall be produced as 300 DPI
single-page,
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JPG images with JPG compression and a high-quality setting as to not degrade the original image.
The Parties will also accommodate requests made in good faith for the production of a color image
of specific documêñts originally prõduced in greyscale TIFF format where reasonably necessary
to decipher the complete meaning, context, or content of the documents. Such responsive ESI
shall be produced in a manner that preserves, to the maximum extent possible, the integrity of
multi-page groups of documents.
28. Encrypted or Password-Protected ESI. For any ESI that exists in encrypted format
or is password-protected, such ESI will be decrypted ifpossible and produced in unencrypted form.