Preview
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SUPREME COURT OF THE STATE OF NEW YORK
COUNTY OF NEW YORK
NOMURA ASSET ACCEPTANCE CORPORATION
ALTERNATIVE LOAN TRUST, SERIES 2006-S3, Index No. 652619/2012
by HSBC BANK USA, NATIONAL
ASSOCIATION, in its capacity as Trustee pursuant to IAS Part 60
a Pooling and Servicing Agreement, dated as of July
1, 2006, Justice Marcy S. Friedman
Plaintiff, Mot. Seq. 014
-against- ORAL ARGUMENT
REQUESTED
NOMURA CREDIT & CAPITAL, INC.,
Defendant.
NOMURA CREDIT & CAPITAL, INC.,
Third-Party Plaintiff,
-against-
WELLS FARGO BANK, N.A. and OCWEN LOAN
SERVICING, LLC,
Third-Party Defendants.
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NOMURA ASSET ACCEPTANCE CORPORATION
ALTERNATIVE LOAN TRUST, SERIES 2006-S4, by Index No. 653390/2012
HSBC BANK USA, NATIONAL ASSOCIATION, in
its capacity as Trustee, IAS Part 60
Plaintiff, Justice Marcy S. Friedman
-against- Mot. Seq. 013
NOMURA CREDIT & CAPITAL, INC.,
Defendant.
NOMURA CREDIT & CAPITAL, INC.,
Third-Party Plaintiff,
-against-
WELLS FARGO BANK, N.A. and OCWEN LOAN
SERVICING, LLC,
Third-Party Defendants.
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NOMURA HOME EQUITY LOAN, INC., SERIES
2006-FM2, pursuant to a Pooling and Servicing Index No. 653783/2012
Agreement, dated as of October 1, 2006, by HSBC
BANK USA, NATIONAL ASSOCIATION, solely in IAS Part 60
its capacity as the Trustee,
Justice Marcy S. Friedman
Plaintiff,
Mot. Seq. 014
-against-
NOMURA CREDIT & CAPITAL, INC.,
Defendant.
NOMURA CREDIT & CAPITAL, INC.,
Third-Party Plaintiff,
-against-
WELLS FARGO BANK, N.A. and OCWEN LOAN
SERVICING, LLC,
Third-Party Defendants.
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NOMURA HOME EQUITY LOAN, INC., SERIES
2007-3, pursuant to a Pooling and Servicing Index No. 651124/2013
Agreement, dated as of April 1, 2007, by HSBC BANK
USA, NATIONAL ASSOCIATION, solely in its IAS Part 60
capacity as the Trustee,
Justice Marcy S. Friedman
Plaintiff,
Mot. Seq. 014
-against-
NOMURA CREDIT & CAPITAL, INC.,
Defendant.
NOMURA CREDIT & CAPITAL, INC.,
Third-Party Plaintiff,
-against-
WELLS FARGO BANK, N.A. and OCWEN LOAN
SERVICING, LLC,
Third-Party Defendants.
NOMURA ASSET ACCEPTANCE CORPORATION
ALTERNATIVE LOAN TRUST, SERIES 2007-1, by Index No. 652842/2014
HSBC BANK USA, NATIONAL ASSOCIATION, in
its capacity as Trustee, IAS Part 60
Plaintiff, Justice Marcy S. Friedman
-against- Mot. Seq. 006
NOMURA CREDIT & CAPITAL, INC.,
Defendant.
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NOMURA HOME EQUITY LOAN, INC., HOME
EQUITY LOAN TRUST, SERIES 2007-2, by HSBC Index No. 650337/2013
BANK USA, National Association, as Trustee,
IAS Part 60
Plaintiff,
Justice Marcy S. Friedman
-against-
Mot. Seq. 014
NOMURA CREDIT & CAPITAL, INC.,
Defendant.
NOMURA CREDIT & CAPITAL, INC.,
Third-Party Plaintiff,
-against-
WELLS FARGO BANK, N.A. and OCWEN LOAN
SERVICING, LLC,
Third-Party Defendants.
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NOMURA ASSET ACCEPTANCE CORPORATION
MORTGAGE PASS-THROUGH CERTIFICATES, Index No. 652614/2012
SERIES 2006-AF2 TRUST, by HSBC Bank USA,
National Association, as Trustee, IAS Part 60
Plaintiff, Justice Marcy S. Friedman
-against- Mot. Seq. 014
NOMURA CREDIT & CAPITAL, INC.,
Defendant.
NOMURA CREDIT & CAPITAL, INC.,
Third-Party Plaintiff,
-against-
WELLS FARGO BANK, N.A.
Third-Party Defendant.
TRUSTEE’S BRIEF IN SUPPORT OF ITS REQUEST FOR REVIEW OF THE
SPECIAL DISCOVERY MASTER’S AUGUST 6, 2018 ORDER
McKool Smith, P.C.
One Bryant Park
New York, New York 10036
(212) 402-9400
Holwell Shuster & Goldberg LLP
425 Lexington Avenue
New York, New York 10017
(646) 837-5151
Attorneys for the Trustee
August 16, 2018
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TABLE OF CONTENTS
PRELIMINARY STATEMENT .....................................................................................................1
BACKGROUND .............................................................................................................................3
ARGUMENT ...................................................................................................................................5
I. NOMURA SHOULD RESPOND TO INTERROGATORY NO. 9 BECAUSE
THE ATRIUS GROUP ACTED AS A DE FACTO NOMURA ENTITY, AND
NOMURA MIGHT HAVE KNOWLEDGE ABOUT ATRIUS DOCUMENTS. ..5
II. INTERROGATORIES NOS. 10 AND 11 PROPERLY REQUEST THAT
NOMURA IDENTIFY CERTAIN DOCUMENTS AND INFORMATION, NOT
PRODUCE NEW DOCUMENTS. ..........................................................................8
III. NOMURA’S OBLIGATION TO ANSWER THE INTERROGATORIES WAS
NEVER EXTINGUISHED. .....................................................................................9
CONCLUSION ..............................................................................................................................10
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TABLE OF AUTHORITIES
Page(s)
Cases
Allen v. Crowell-Collier Publ’g Co.,
21 N.Y.2d 403 (1968) ..................................................................................................................... 5
Balestriere PLLC v. BanxCorp,
No. 650919/10, 2013 WL 3646085 (N.Y. Sup. Ct. June 27, 2013)................................................ 9
Bassett v. Bando Sangsa Co.,
94 A.D.2d 358 (1st Dep’t 1983) ..................................................................................................... 9
Vignali v. Apex Brand Int’l,
No. 650956/2016, 2017 WL 945035 (N.Y. Sup. Ct. Mar. 10, 2017) ............................................. 7
Grande Prairie Energy v. Alstom Power,
798 N.Y.S.2d 709, 5 Misc. 3d 1002(A) (N.Y. Sup. Ct. 2004)........................................................ 8
Reckson Operating P’ship v. N.Y. State Urban Dev. Corp.,
No. 00-6126, 2006 WL 6853741 (N.Y. Sup. Ct. Apr. 18, 2006) ................................................... 8
Other Authorities
CPLR § 3101(a) .............................................................................................................................. 5
CPLR § 3103(a) .............................................................................................................................. 5
Fed. R. Civ. P. 53(f) ........................................................................................................................ 7
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Plaintiff HSBC Bank USA, National Association, solely in its capacity as Trustee for the
Nomura Asset Acceptance Corp., Series 2006-S3 Trust, Nomura Asset Acceptance Corp., Series
2006-S4 Trust, Nomura Asset Acceptance Corp., Series 2007-1 Trust, Nomura Asset Acceptance
Corp. 2006-AF2 Trust, Nomura Home Equity Loan, Inc., Series 2006-FM2 Trust, Nomura Home
Equity Loan, Inc., Series 2007-2 Trust, and the Nomura Home Equity Loan, Inc., Series 2007-3
Trust (respectively, the “Trustee” and the “Trusts”), pursuant to Section III.E of the December 7,
2015 Case Management Order (the “First CMO”), hereby requests a review of the August 6,
2018 Order (the “Order”) of the Special Discovery Master Theodore H. Katz (the “Special
Master”), which denied the Trustee’s motion to compel Nomura Credit & Capital, Inc.
(“Nomura”) to respond to three discrete interrogatories.1
PRELIMINARY STATEMENT
The Trustee seeks a response to three interrogatories regarding the loans and trusts at
issue in these actions. Nomura does not dispute that the requested information is relevant. And
Nomura has made no showing that responding to any of these interrogatories would impose a
meaningful burden. Instead, Nomura claims the interrogatories are targeted toward third parties
or seek “additional search terms” and “additional deposition time.” Nelson Ex. A at 5. This is
simply not true. The interrogatories ask only that Nomura identify specific individuals and
information. They do not require Nomura to produce additional witnesses or documents. Nor do
the interrogatories seek information from third parties.
First, Interrogatory No. 9 properly asks Nomura to identify the individuals involved in
creating and updating a spreadsheet that was apparently ,
1
Submitted herewith is the August 16, 2018 affirmation of Meredith J. Nelson; exhibits attached to that affirmation
are referred to as “Nelson Ex. __”.
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including pertaining to loans in five of the Trusts. The spreadsheet was produced by the
Atrius Group, a vendor , but which operated
as a de facto department of Nomura. The Special Master concluded that Nomura should not be
compelled to provide information about a document produced by a third party. Nelson Ex. B at
2. But the Atrius Group is not an arms’ length third party. It is a small consulting firm whose
principal and primary employee, Christopher Scampoli, . In
any event, the Trustee is not asking Nomura to answer the interrogatory on behalf of Atrius; the
Trustee merely asks that Nomura respond to the Interrogatory on its own behalf by providing
whatever information Nomura has. Given the close relationship between Nomura and Atrius, it
is reasonable to infer that Nomura might have information about the document, and the Special
Master erred by holding that the purported separateness of Atrius was sufficient as a matter of
law to insulate Nomura from discovery on this issue.
Second, Interrogatories Nos. 10 and 11 are traditional interrogatories that call for Nomura
to identify a narrow set of documents and information. Interrogatory No. 10 requests that
Nomura identify documents relating to a
. Interrogatory No. 11 asks Nomura to identify all
information provided by Nomura to any rating agency in connection with the Trusts. The
Special Master stated he was “not persuaded that the gravamen of the Trustee’s request[s] is
Nomura’s mere ‘identification’” of documents. Nelson Ex. B at 2. But “identification” is
precisely what the Trustee requests through these interrogatories. The Trustee is not asking
Nomura to run new or additional search terms or to produce new documents. If Nomura
produced documents on these topics, Nomura should identify them. If Nomura is aware of oral
communications on these topics, Nomura should describe them. That is all the Trustee seeks.
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BACKGROUND
The Special Master stated in the Order that the Trustee failed to promptly pursue
responses to its interrogatories. That is incorrect. The time spent pursuing these interrogatories
was lengthy because Nomura had represented that it would consider the Trustee’s positions, and
only later did Nomura disclose it had no intent to continue negotiating over the scope of the
interrogatories.
The Trustee served the interrogatories at issue in this appeal on February 27 and 28,
2018. Nelson Exs. C (NAAC 2006-AF2), D (NHELI 2007-2), E (NAAC 2007-1). Nomura served
its interrogatories on the Trustee on February 28, 2018. E.g., Nelson Ex. F. The Trustee
responded to Nomura’s Interrogatory No. 2, but otherwise objected to Nomura’s interrogatories.
E.g., Nelson Ex. G. Nomura refused to provide substantive responses to any of the Trustee’s
interrogatories, instead lodging wholesale objections to every single one. Nelson Exs. H, I, J.
During the subsequent months, the parties engaged in meet-and-confers to attempt to
resolve their disputes over the interrogatories. During a call on April 20, the Trustee made
certain proposals to address Nomura’s concerns regarding the Trustee’s interrogatories—
including proposals pertaining to the three interrogatories at issue in this appeal—and Nomura’s
counsel agreed to take those proposals back to their client. Nomura’s agreement to consider the
proposals was memorialized in an email sent by the Trustee’s counsel to Nomura on April 27,
2018. Nelson Ex. K (Hendler 4/27/18 Email). Although the parties spoke again on April 27,
2018, both parties’ summaries of that meet-and-confer make clear that the Trustee’s
interrogatories to Nomura were not discussed on that date. Nelson Ex. L (Fleming 5/4/18 Email;
Ebersole 5/18/18 Email). During these meet-and-confers, the Trustee agreed to provide
supplemental responses to certain Nomura interrogatories. After conferring with their client over
the course of May and June, the Trustee’s counsel then served amended responses to Nomura’s
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interrogatories on July 5, 2018.
Following the meet-and-confer on April 20, the Trustee understood that Nomura was
conferring with its client on the interrogatories that it had agreed to “take back.”
Notwithstanding its many opportunities to do so, Nomura never disabused the Trustee of that
notion. The Trustee then contacted Nomura on July 10 to resume the negotiations over the
Trustee’s interrogatories. Nelson Ex. K (DeLucia 7/10/18 Email). On July 12, Nomura refused
the Trustee’s request, stating that “[f]ollowing the April 27 call, [Nomura] did not understand
there to be any reasonable dispute regarding Nomura’s objections to HSBC’s interrogatories.”
Id. (Kahn 7/12/18 Email). Although Nomura made a similar assertion in its submission to the
Special Master (Nelson Ex. A at 4), this claim is belied by the parties’ written correspondence.
The Trustee’s email summarizing the April 20 meet-and-confer clearly states that Nomura’s
counsel had agreed to take back certain proposals to their client. Despite the parties’
documented history of memorializing teleconferences and then writing to correct one another’s
alleged mischaracterizations of the same, Nomura never responded to the Trustee’s summary of
the interrogatory responses nor clarified that Nomura had no intention of actually “taking back”
to its client the issues raised by the Trustee, instead waiting nearly 11 weeks to inform the
Trustee of its refusal to confer about the interrogatories. Nelson Ex. K (Kahn 7/12/18 Email).
After the Special Master extended the fact discovery deadline to July 31, the Trustee
again asked Nomura to resume negotiations regarding the Trustee’s interrogatories. During a
meet-and-confer on July 26, Nomura refused to provide written responses to the interrogatories
or to educate its corporate representative to address them, a compromise the Trustee proposed to
reduce the purported burden on Nomura. Nelson Ex. K (Sullivan 7/28/18 Email). On July 31,
the Trustee and Nomura filed a joint submission before the Special Master regarding
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interrogatories. Nelson Ex. A. To limit the scope of the dispute, the Trustee moved only on
three of its five outstanding interrogatories. Id. at 1. Nomura opposed the motion and requested
that, should the Special Master grant the Trustee’s motion, the Trustee be directed to provide
complete responses to certain of Nomura’s interrogatories. Id. at 5–6. On August 6, the Special
Master denied both the Trustee’s and Nomura’s motions. Nelson Ex. B.
ARGUMENT
New York law requires full disclosure of “any facts bearing on the controversy which
will assist preparation for trial by sharpening the issues and reducing delay and prolixity. The
test is one of usefulness and reason.” Allen v. Crowell-Collier Publ’g Co., 21 N.Y.2d 403, 406
(1968); see also CPLR § 3101(a). The three interrogatories at issue in this appeal seek
information that is clearly relevant. The Trustee is thus entitled to responses to its interrogatories
unless responding would impose an unreasonable burden on Nomura. See CPLR § 3103(a). But
other than Nomura’s insistence that the interrogatories seek “additional search terms” and
“additional deposition time”—which are unfounded—Nomura has made no showing whatsoever
that complying with these interrogatories would impose an unreasonable burden. Nor did the
Special Master make any findings that the information sought by the Trustee was irrelevant or
unduly burdensome for Nomura to produce.2
I. NOMURA SHOULD RESPOND TO INTERROGATORY NO. 9 BECAUSE THE
ATRIUS GROUP ACTED AS A DE FACTO NOMURA ENTITY, AND NOMURA
MIGHT HAVE KNOWLEDGE ABOUT ATRIUS DOCUMENTS.
Interrogatory No. 9 requests that Nomura “[i]dentify any and all Persons who participated
in drafting, authoring, revising, inserting comments into, modifying, or otherwise contributing to
2
Under the First CMO, this Court reviews the Special Master’s findings of fact for clear error, conclusions of law de
novo, and rulings on procedural matters for abuse of discretion.
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the contents of” a single spreadsheet. This spreadsheet was produced by the Atrius Group, a
third-party vendor that operated virtually within Nomura. The first tab of the spreadsheet
. On the second tab of the
spreadsheet, titled is a single illuminating comment:
Nelson Ex. M (emphases added). The significance of this document is self-
apparent. It suggests Nomura acted when reviewing the
repurchase requests for loans at issue. Yet when the Trustee questioned Christopher Scampoli,
the Atrius Group’s corporate representative, about this spreadsheet, he responded that
tab. Nelson Ex. N at 237:9–247:21. The Trustee then sought additional information
about the authors of this spreadsheet through its interrogatory to Nomura.
In denying the Trustee’s motion to compel a response, the Special Master relied entirely
on the fact that the spreadsheet was produced by a purported third party, not by Nomura. Nelson
Ex. B at 2. The Special Master found that it would neither be “fair[]” nor “logic[al]” to compel
Nomura “to search-for-and-produce detailed information about an Atrius spreadsheet that
Nomura indisputably did not produce in discovery” and “relative to which Atrius has itself been
unable to provide the same information.” Id. That analysis is incorrect for two reasons.
First, as a factual issue, the Special Master committed clear error by failing to address the
evidence demonstrating that Nomura and Atrius are closely intertwined. The Atrius Group
Nelson Ex. N at 24:15–22.
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Id. at 44:11–54:21; Nelson Ex. O at 122:24–123:9. Nomura is , the
Atrius Group has received . Nelson Ex. N
at 56:23–57:2, 58:11–19. It is represented by Nomura’s litigation counsel in these actions. And
Mr. Scampoli has in many regards acted as a de facto Nomura employee:
Id. at 67:24–68:2, 73:16–18, 136:11–137:2.
Indeed, Neil Spagna, a Nomura employee
Nelson Ex. P at 202:12–203:11. Despite this
evidence, the Special Master appeared to assume Atrius was an ordinary third party.3 But
Nomura should not be allowed to rely on the corporate separateness of the Atrius Group to shield
itself from a valid interrogatory. Cf. Vignali v. Apex Brand Int’l, No. 650956/2016, 2017 WL
945035, at *3 (N.Y. Sup. Ct. Mar. 10, 2017) (requiring defendants to produce responsive
documents held by a third party, but within defendants’ control).
Second, the Special Master committed legal error by interpreting the interrogatory as
requiring Nomura to answer on behalf of Atrius, and then concluding that Nomura may not be
forced to answer for another party. To the contrary, the interrogatory merely asks Nomura to
answer on its own behalf about whatever information Nomura has in its possession relating to the
spreadsheet. Because of the relationship between Atrius and Nomura, Nomura
personnel might have information regarding the spreadsheet, even if Atrius’s witness did not.
3
The Trustee presented substantial, but not exhaustive, evidence of the relationship between Atrius and Nomura to
the Special Master. The Trustee includes additional such evidence here pursuant to Fed. R. Civ. P. 53(f), which
governs the scope of this Court’s review under the First CMO and which provides that this Court “may receive
evidence” when acting on a ruling from the Special Master.
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If Nomura does have any such information, then Nomura should provide it. If Nomura has no
such information, then it should say so. But this Court should not preclude the Trustee from
seeking a response to a valid interrogatory solely because the Atrius witness did not know the
answer—that would be tantamount to denying discovery on a topic merely because one
employee was not knowledgeable about it. See Reckson Operating P’ship v. N.Y. State Urban
Dev. Corp., No. 00-6126, 2006 WL 6853741 (N.Y. Sup. Ct. Apr. 18, 2006) (requiring plaintiff to
produce its own employees at a deposition when its consultants could not answer questions on a
relevant topic); Grande Prairie Energy v. Alstom Power, 798 N.Y.S.2d 709, 5 Misc. 3d 1002(A),
at *3 (N.Y. Sup. Ct. 2004) (granting motion to compel party to produce for a deposition a non-
employee within its control based on the non-employee’s significant ties to the party). Neither
Nomura nor the Special Master has provided legal support for anything approaching that
proposition.
II. INTERROGATORIES NOS. 10 AND 11 PROPERLY REQUEST THAT
NOMURA IDENTIFY CERTAIN DOCUMENTS AND INFORMATION, NOT
PRODUCE NEW DOCUMENTS.
Interrogatory No. 10 asks Nomura to identify documents relating to the
Nelson Ex. Q. Interrogatory No. 11 requests that
Nomura identify any information provided by Nomura to any rating agencies in connection with
any of the at-issue securitizations.
Nomura claimed, and the Special Master appeared to agree, that the Trustee is using these
interrogatories to “seek additional search terms.” Nelson Exs. A at 5, B at 2. Not so. For
Interrogatory No. 10, the Trustee simply seeks a response from Nomura identifying which
already-produced documents relate to . While Nomura can
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draw on its institutional knowledge to identify these documents more accurately, the Trustee is
forced to rely on inferences and guesswork to identify which documents relate to which topics.
The use of identification interrogatories under these circumstances is entirely appropriate. See
Balestriere PLLC v. BanxCorp, No. 650919/10, 2013 WL 3646085, at *5 (N.Y. Sup. Ct. June
27, 2013) (compelling responses to interrogatories requiring defendants to identify certain
documents); cf. Bassett v. Bando Sangsa Co., 94 A.D.2d 358, 361 (1st Dep’t 1983)
(acknowledging the usefulness and propriety of identification interrogatories “when the answers
will require an examination of records and documents and consultation with others”).
Furthermore, with respect to Interrogatory No. 11, in the MLPAs for many of the Trusts,
Nomura represented and warranted that “the information provided to the rating agencies was true
and correct according to rating agency requirements.” Nelson Ex. R at 8. The Trustee is thus
entitled to discovery about the information that Nomura transmitted to the rating agencies.
Because the Trustee has no way of knowing whether Nomura provided information to rating
agencies through methods such as phone calls, hard-copy deliveries, or faxes, the Trustee
properly propounded an interrogatory targeting that information. The Trustee is entitled to a
statement from Nomura detailing how and when information was provided to the rating agencies
and, most importantly, which kinds of information were transmitted. As with Interrogatory No.
10, if Nomura produced documents on this issue, Nomura can identify them; if Nomura is aware
of phone calls or similar information, Nomura can describe them. None of this has anything to
do with “search terms” or “deposition time.”
III. NOMURA’S OBLIGATION TO ANSWER THE INTERROGATORIES WAS
NEVER EXTINGUISHED.
The Special Master also stated that he did not find that “good cause exists to ‘reopen’ any
issues related to the Parties[’] interrogatories,” because of “the Parties’ failure to promptly
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pursue the issues raised within their July 31, 2018 joint-letter.” Nelson Ex. B at 2. This finding
was incorrect. As detailed above, Nomura’s counsel informed the Trustee on April 20 that it
would consider certain proposals and then revert to the Trustee on the open issues. Nomura now
claims that from April 27 onward—a period during which Nomura was aware that the Trustee
was diligently working to supplement its own interrogatory responses, as the Trustee promised it
would (see Nelson Ex. L (Ebersole 5/18/18 Email))—it had no intent to continue negotiations on
the Trustee’s interrogatories. Merely because Nomura waited to inform the Trustee of its
intentions does not mean that these issues were “closed.”
Although Nomura purported to seek relief on its own interrogatories, the Special Master
never considered the merits of those arguments, and those issues are not ripe for review. In the
event the Court concludes that those requests for relief should be entertained, they should be
addressed by the Special Master in the first instance. For example, several of Nomura’s
interrogatories seek information that is privileged, and this Court should not rule on privilege
issues for the first time on appeal. Moreover, the Trustee was not under the impression that the
parties were at impasse on several of the topics for which Nomura sought relief. Therefore,
Nomura’s requests for relief should be addressed by the Special Master, not this Court.
CONCLUSION
For these reasons, the Trustee respectfully requests that the Court reverse the Order and
compel Nomura to respond to Interrogatories Nos. 9, 10, and 11.
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Dated: August 16, 2018
New York, New York MCKOOL SMITH, P.C.
By: /s/ Christopher P. Johnson
Christopher P. Johnson
(cpjohnson@mckoolsmith.com)
Robert W. Scheef
(rscheef@mckoolsmith.com)
Daniel J. Fleming
(dfleming@mckoolsmith.com)
One Bryant Park, 47th Floor
New York, New York 10036
HOLWELL SHUSTER & GOLDBERG LLP
By: /s/ Daniel M. Sullivan
Michael S. Shuster
(mshuster@hsgllp.com)
Daniel M. Sullivan
(dsullivan@hsgllp.com)
Meredith J. Nelson
(mnelson@hsgllp.com)
425 Lexington Avenue, 14th Floor
New York, New York 10017
Attorneys for the Trustee
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