Preview
FILED: NEW YORK COUNTY CLERK 01/31/2023 03:24 AM INDEX NO. 657193/2020
NYSCEF DOC. NO. 1149 RECEIVED NYSCEF: 01/31/2023
EXHIBIT 17
FILED:
FILED: NEW
NEW YORK
YORK COUNTY
COUNTY CLERK
CLERK 11/14/2022
01/31/2023 07:19
03:24 PM
AM INDEX
INDEX NO.
NO. 657193/2020
657193/2020
NYSCEF
NYSCEF DOC.
DOC. NO.
NO. 857
1149 RECEIVED
RECEIVED NYSCEF:101/31/2023
NYSCEF: 11/14/2022
1 SUPREME COURT OF THE STATE OF NEW YORK
COUNTY OF NEW YORK: CIVIL TERM PART: 3
2 ------------------------------------------------------X
YASEMIN TEKINER,
3 Plaintiff,
Index No.
4 -against-
657193/2020
5 BREMEN HOUSE, INC. GERMAN NEWS COMPANY
INC.,BERRIN TEKINER, GONCA TEKINER,
6 and BILLUR AKIPEK, in her capacity as
a Trustee of the Yasemin Tekiner
7 2011 Descendants Trust
Defendants.
8 ---------------------------------------------------------X
ZEYNEP TEKINER,
9 in her individual capacity, as a
beneficiary and a Trustee of
10 THE ZEYNEP TEKINER 2011 Descendant
Trust and derivatively as a holder
11 of equitable interests in a shareholder
or a member of the Company,
12
Intervenor-Plaintiff
13
-against-
14
BREMEN HOUSE INC., GERMAN NEWS COMPANY,
15 INC., BERRIN TEKINER, GONCA TEKINER, and
BILLUR AKIPEK, in her capacity as a Trustee
16 of the Zeynep Tekiner 2011 Descendants Trust,
Defendants.
17 --------------------------------------------------------X
60 Centre Street
18 New York, New York 10007
October 27, 2022
19 B E F O R E:
HON. JOEL M. COHEN, JSC,
20
A P P E A R A N C E S:
21
FOR THE PLAINTIFF: YASEMIN TEKINER
22 FOLEY HOAG, LLP
1301 Avenue of the Americas
23 New York, New York 10019
BY: STEPHEN P. YOUNGER, ESQ.
24
DINA M. LUDWICKI, RPR
25 Senior Court Reporter
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YORK COUNTY
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1 A P P E A R A N C E S: (Cont.)
2
FOR THE INVENTOR-PLAINTIFF: ZEYNEP TEKINER
3
KAHN & GOLDBERG, LLP,
4 555 Fifth Avenue, 14th Floor
New York, New York 10017
5 BY: MICHELE KAHN, ESQ.
6
FOR THE DEFENDANTS: BREMEN HOUSE, INC. GERMAN NEWS COMPANY
7 INC. BERRIN TEKINER, GONCA TEKINER and BILLUR AKIPEK:
8 PRYOR CASHMAN, LLP,
7 Times Square
9 New York, New York N10036
BY: TODD E. SOLOWAY, ESQ.
10 BRYAN T. MOHLER, ESQ.
MEGHAN E. HILL, ESQ.
11
12
13
14
15
16
17
18
19
20
21
22
23
24
25
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-Oral Argument-
1 THE COURT: Let's get started.
2 Can we go on the record and start with
3 appearances real briefly for plaintiffs.
4 MR. YOUNGER: For the plaintiff, Stephen Younger
5 from Foley Hoag for plaintiff Yasemin Tekiner.
6 MS KAHN: Good morning, Your Honor. Michele Khan
7 of Khan & Goldberg for Zeynep Tekiner, who is online. They
8 will be here at some point.
9 MR. SOLOWAY: Todd Soloway, Brian Mohler and
10 Meghan Hill from Pryor Cashman for the defendants.
11 THE COURT: We have a couple of issues today.
12 Let me just start with the business about a Special
13 Discovery Master. If I could do it, I certainly would.
14 There are two options. One is the parties can voluntarily
15 engage one, and then you have somebody who is available,
16 ready to go, and I have found that to be extremely useful.
17 The alternative, which is what I can mandate, is
18 using the Court's resources. I have been informed that it
19 will be an undetermined number of months before anyone can
20 be assigned to do a project; and given the nature of the
21 resources, we don't generally, I think, get somebody to
22 sign on as a Discovery Master to stay with the case for a
23 long time. I might be able to wangle that, but the last
24 couple of years have taken a toll on the resources that we
25 have and I just can't do it.
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FILED:
FILED: NEW
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YORK COUNTY
COUNTY CLERK
CLERK 11/14/2022
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03:24 PM
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-Oral Argument-
1 I have lots of ideas about how to help. I have
2 even thought about a Stipulated Discovery Order that
3 provides for "loser pays" with respect to all discovery
4 motions just to keep everyone in mind.
5 I encourage, as strongly as I can, people to use
6 what shouldn't be too much resource to have somebody
7 brought on to do it, but I can't mandate it. I mean, I
8 could, but mandating a JHO internally is sort of
9 self-defeating since it won't actually move the ball
10 forward. I will just take longer.
11 So I would love to help you on that. I strongly
12 encourage you, the defendants, to reconsider.
13 Although I guess I probably don't really know
14 exactly where you all are in discovery other than I keep
15 seeing you.
16 Why don't we start with that. What is the
17 position on that?
18 MR. SOLOWAY: Sure. The position of the
19 defendants, Your Honor, is that we are far closer to the
20 finish than what you have before you that might lead you to
21 have an impression on it.
22 THE COURT: That's what they said in World War I
23 too.
24 MR. SOLOWAY: Number two is what we would
25 strongly suggest, it's your Honor's courtroom, of course,
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-Oral Argument-
1 is that we feel that there are limited number of issues
2 left. That we can sit down with your Honor's court
3 attorney today, tomorrow, Monday, whatever Your Honor would
4 direct us to do, and we can hammer out what's left of here.
5 I believe we can do it today and there would be nothing
6 left to do.
7 There is a handful of non-party depositions they
8 want to take.
9 There is the issue of mental health records where
10 this correspondence is going back and forth as a discrete
11 number of correspondence back and forth.
12 And then we re-produced all of the privilege
13 issues from our perspective. They may differ, of course.
14 We have gone through 10,000 previously designated
15 privileged documents and produced a boatload.
16 We produced over 130 or 140,000 documents in the
17 case totaling over 400,000 pages, and we definitely have
18 this issue of the mental health records issue where on
19 Sunday they served five subpoenas on Lenox Hill Hospital,
20 on White Plains Hospital on the Betty Ford clinic, and so
21 that issue is the thorny one here; and Your Honor heard me
22 last time I was here about our view of whether that was
23 really calculated to gather evidence or to harass, and
24 there is an argument between the parties, but we are
25 willing.
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FILED: NEW
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YORK COUNTY
COUNTY CLERK
CLERK 11/14/2022
01/31/2023 07:19
03:24 PM
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-Oral Argument-
1 Our position is that I do not want to get a JHO
2 involved. I do not want the delay. For better or for
3 worse, my recent experience with having private parties
4 involved is it becomes a bit of an invitation for an
5 extensive litigation and I'm worried about that.
6 What I would like to do is sit with Your Honor,
7 Your Honor's court attorney, hammer out the issues that we
8 have and get an Order of the Court and get it complied
9 with.
10 We have a little space between now and the Note
11 of Issue date. Dare I say I may have thought that the
12 Court might have seen that when we issued the last order.
13 The Note of Issue is not until the end of the
14 year, so we have space between now and then to finish this
15 up. I would like us to finish it up.
16 All the party depositions have been taken.
17 We had a trial last year where we did ten
18 depositions in the two weeks before the end date of
19 discovery. We did it. We just did it.
20 You know as you practice for a long time you
21 usually find out that it covers all the basis.
22 That's our suggestion is that we go through your
23 Honor's Court and hammer out what the remaining issues are
24 and finish this all up and take the discovery.
25 We are the defendant. I want to get our day in
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FILED:
FILED: NEW
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YORK COUNTY
COUNTY CLERK
CLERK 11/14/2022
01/31/2023 07:19
03:24 PM
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-Oral Argument-
1 court here. We are anxiously getting to the next phase of
2 litigation.
3 THE COURT: The only thing more valuable to me
4 than my time is my court attorney's time, but Miss Klinger
5 is used to me writing checks on her account, but, you know,
6 I'm fine with a finite period while you are all here, if
7 you want to do that.
8 It does seem like these are things that should be
9 worked out. I tried to chart a reasonable course with
10 respect to the health-related evidence trying to keep it
11 focused on things that effected the running of the company
12 as opposed to just broadly trampling around in medical
13 records. I recognize that's not an easy line to draw.
14 If Miss Klinger has time today while you are
15 here, I'm happy to have you sit and try to work this out.
16 We looked at this list of ten items and we have been
17 chatting about it. I will let you make your pitch to me,
18 but, you know, that is fine.
19 So why don't we move on from that general point.
20 We will leave open whether Ms. Klinger has time to sit with
21 you. Hopefully she does.
22 Why don't you -- this is plaintiff's motion. Why
23 don't you just give me your specifics on what you think you
24 have not been provided that you think you should have?
25 MR. YOUNGER: Your Honor, I apologize. If I can
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FILED:
FILED: NEW
NEW YORK
YORK COUNTY
COUNTY CLERK
CLERK 11/14/2022
01/31/2023 07:19
03:24 PM
AM INDEX
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DOC. NO.
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-Oral Argument-
1 start with the first point because I think that's the main
2 issue.
3 You know many of us observers understand, having
4 read the Hindlin case. From my own perspective I'm a huge
5 fan. I have the same concerns as my adversary does. I
6 have never in my career ever asked for a Special Master. I
7 think only once I was sent to a Magistrate.
8 I believe we are a profession and we ought to
9 work together to solve these things.
10 The problem is we don't know what is happening in
11 this case and I want to give you three simple reasons why I
12 think the only choice here, the only choice, is to appoint
13 a Special Master.
14 THE COURT: You mean an internal one?
15 MR. YOUNGER: I think it should be retired.
16 Using the Pilot Program, that's what it is there for, we
17 have phenomenal Special Masters. I will be happy to sit
18 with Mr. Soloway.
19 I mean, I think we probably know, and find
20 somebody who has the time because I share in Mr. Soloway's
21 concern.
22 My client, Yasemin, had a medical issue and
23 couldn't be here, we share exactly the same concern. I
24 want to go to trial and you remember when the new counsel
25 came in I said: "I want a short date;" right?
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FILED:
FILED: NEW
NEW YORK
YORK COUNTY
COUNTY CLERK
CLERK 11/14/2022
01/31/2023 07:19
03:24 PM
AM INDEX
INDEX NO.
NO. 657193/2020
657193/2020
NYSCEF
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DOC. NO.
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-Oral Argument-
1 I think the only thing left in this case is to
2 resolve the integrity of the discovery process.
3 Look, we all take an oath. I'm very concerned
4 about what happened in this case.
5 I am just going to give you three examples, if
6 you could?
7 By the way, just let me get to the legal point
8 because you have you full authority to appoint a Special
9 Master. I think we all know that. The only thing is you
10 can't force them is to pay. I would love to make a
11 creative argument as a derivative case that the company
12 should be paying, but I am not going to go there. I want
13 to get this done.
14 Let me give you the first reason.
15 The first reason has to do with the first
16 18-months of this case. I think we are now seeing what
17 happened. I mean, I just sent 200 emails in order to get a
18 deposition. That shouldn't happen in the case; right?
19 I think what's more important is that if you look
20 at what has come out in discovery through the privileged
21 documents, those documents should never have been
22 privileged; never.
23 I will give you two simple examples.
24 One, we now have an email from Billur, the
25 defendant in this case.
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FILED:
FILED: NEW
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YORK COUNTY
COUNTY CLERK
CLERK 11/14/2022
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-Oral Argument-
1 THE COURT: I assume you are referring to
2 something like 10,000 that current counsel produced after a
3 re-review, yes?
4 MR. YOUNGER: Mostly in the middle of the
5 depositions and even after, and even the day we were filing
6 papers. I don't want to go there.
7 I want you to focus on why it is when we get an
8 email in January of 2020 from Bullur copying the group:
9 The accountants, the lawyers, everybody, saying: "I'm
10 giving you instructions to equalize the distribution
11 between Zeynep and Yasemin."
12 Why? Because Gonca had been fired.
13 How many times did you hear in this courtroom:
14 You can't make a distribution.
15 There is a second one, which I think even
16 disturbing, there are tests between Gonca and her mother
17 not copied to anybody else where after Yasemin and Zeynep
18 tried to make peace. She didn't want peace. She wanted
19 her mother to appoint her to run the company. She was
20 furious. Absolutely furious. You could read the text that
21 she found a Power of Appointment appointing my client,
22 Yasemin, to run the company. She went ape.
23 There are 35 different communications between
24 Gonca and Morton Rose, all of those were supposedly
25 privileged and we still don't have them; right?
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FILED:
FILED: NEW
NEW YORK
YORK COUNTY
COUNTY CLERK
CLERK 11/14/2022
01/31/2023 07:19
03:24 PM
AM INDEX
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-Oral Argument-
1 I think there is a second reason. I saw new
2 counsel coming in, Edward Mulligan, the do-over, right, we
3 have to start over?
4 I think that's the second reason is just the way
5 in which the privilege documents come out. I would just
6 like to hand up one slide to the Judge.
7 THE COURT: Do you have a second one, by any
8 chance?
9 MR. YOUNGER: You will see from that slide, there
10 were zero documents, zero, produced for a lengthy period of
11 time. Look, I understand they are new counsel. I get
12 that, right.
13 THE COURT: This is from the beginning of the
14 case?
15 MR. YOUNGER: No, no, this is from the day of our
16 Order, from the privileged Order.
17 You make your order mid-August, right. Two
18 months later, still zero.
19 When do they start coming out?
20 MR. YOUNGER: Literally when I'm in the