Cravath, Swaine & Moore will not have to hand over documents related to its client, the energy company Royal Dutch Shell, as part of discovery, reversing a decision by U.S. District Judge Alvin Hellerstein of the Southern District of New York that would have handed over the documents to a group of Nigerian plaintiffs suing over human rights abuses.
The panel—composed of Circuit Judges Dennis Jacobs, José Cabranes and Richard Wesley—found that an order forcing Cravath to turn over their client’s documents in a suit the lower court found it lacked jurisdiction was an abuse of the district court’s discretion.
