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  • Yasemin Tekiner in her individual capacity, as a beneficiary and a Trustee of The Yasemin Tekiner 2011 Descendants Trust and derivatively as a holder of equitable interests in a shareholder or a member of the Company Defendants v. Bremen House Inc., German News Company, Inc., Berrin Tekiner, Gonca Tekiner, Billur Akipek in her capacity as a Trustee of the Yasemin Tekiner 2011 Descendants Trust, Zeynep Tekiner (Intervenor Plaintiff)Commercial Division document preview
  • Yasemin Tekiner in her individual capacity, as a beneficiary and a Trustee of The Yasemin Tekiner 2011 Descendants Trust and derivatively as a holder of equitable interests in a shareholder or a member of the Company Defendants v. Bremen House Inc., German News Company, Inc., Berrin Tekiner, Gonca Tekiner, Billur Akipek in her capacity as a Trustee of the Yasemin Tekiner 2011 Descendants Trust, Zeynep Tekiner (Intervenor Plaintiff)Commercial Division document preview
  • Yasemin Tekiner in her individual capacity, as a beneficiary and a Trustee of The Yasemin Tekiner 2011 Descendants Trust and derivatively as a holder of equitable interests in a shareholder or a member of the Company Defendants v. Bremen House Inc., German News Company, Inc., Berrin Tekiner, Gonca Tekiner, Billur Akipek in her capacity as a Trustee of the Yasemin Tekiner 2011 Descendants Trust, Zeynep Tekiner (Intervenor Plaintiff)Commercial Division document preview
  • Yasemin Tekiner in her individual capacity, as a beneficiary and a Trustee of The Yasemin Tekiner 2011 Descendants Trust and derivatively as a holder of equitable interests in a shareholder or a member of the Company Defendants v. Bremen House Inc., German News Company, Inc., Berrin Tekiner, Gonca Tekiner, Billur Akipek in her capacity as a Trustee of the Yasemin Tekiner 2011 Descendants Trust, Zeynep Tekiner (Intervenor Plaintiff)Commercial Division document preview
  • Yasemin Tekiner in her individual capacity, as a beneficiary and a Trustee of The Yasemin Tekiner 2011 Descendants Trust and derivatively as a holder of equitable interests in a shareholder or a member of the Company Defendants v. Bremen House Inc., German News Company, Inc., Berrin Tekiner, Gonca Tekiner, Billur Akipek in her capacity as a Trustee of the Yasemin Tekiner 2011 Descendants Trust, Zeynep Tekiner (Intervenor Plaintiff)Commercial Division document preview
  • Yasemin Tekiner in her individual capacity, as a beneficiary and a Trustee of The Yasemin Tekiner 2011 Descendants Trust and derivatively as a holder of equitable interests in a shareholder or a member of the Company Defendants v. Bremen House Inc., German News Company, Inc., Berrin Tekiner, Gonca Tekiner, Billur Akipek in her capacity as a Trustee of the Yasemin Tekiner 2011 Descendants Trust, Zeynep Tekiner (Intervenor Plaintiff)Commercial Division document preview
  • Yasemin Tekiner in her individual capacity, as a beneficiary and a Trustee of The Yasemin Tekiner 2011 Descendants Trust and derivatively as a holder of equitable interests in a shareholder or a member of the Company Defendants v. Bremen House Inc., German News Company, Inc., Berrin Tekiner, Gonca Tekiner, Billur Akipek in her capacity as a Trustee of the Yasemin Tekiner 2011 Descendants Trust, Zeynep Tekiner (Intervenor Plaintiff)Commercial Division document preview
  • Yasemin Tekiner in her individual capacity, as a beneficiary and a Trustee of The Yasemin Tekiner 2011 Descendants Trust and derivatively as a holder of equitable interests in a shareholder or a member of the Company Defendants v. Bremen House Inc., German News Company, Inc., Berrin Tekiner, Gonca Tekiner, Billur Akipek in her capacity as a Trustee of the Yasemin Tekiner 2011 Descendants Trust, Zeynep Tekiner (Intervenor Plaintiff)Commercial Division document preview
						
                                

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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 1 of 39 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:201/31/2023 NYSCEF: 11/14/2022 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 2 of 39 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:301/31/2023 NYSCEF: 11/14/2022 -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. 3 of 39 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:401/31/2023 NYSCEF: 11/14/2022 -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, 4 of 39 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:501/31/2023 NYSCEF: 11/14/2022 -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. 5 of 39 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:601/31/2023 NYSCEF: 11/14/2022 -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 6 of 39 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:701/31/2023 NYSCEF: 11/14/2022 -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 7 of 39 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:801/31/2023 NYSCEF: 11/14/2022 -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? 8 of 39 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:901/31/2023 NYSCEF: 11/14/2022 -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. 9 of 39 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: NYSCEF: 1001/31/2023 11/14/2022 -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? 10 of 39 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: NYSCEF: 1101/31/2023 11/14/2022 -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