UNITED STATES DISTRICT COURT

FOR THE Northern District of Illinois − CM/ECF NextGen 1.6.3

Eastern Division

James Smith, et al.

Plaintiff,

v. Case No.: 1:20−cv−02350

Honorable Ronald A. Guzman

Greatbanc Trust Company, et al.

Defendant.

NOTIFICATION OF DOCKET ENTRY

This docket entry was made by the Clerk on Monday, May 2, 2022:

 MINUTE entry before the Honorable Young B. Kim: Plaintiffs' motion to compel

[113] is granted to the extent ordered herein. In their motion, Plaintiffs seek documents

responsive to their Request for Production of Documents No. 7 served on both Defendant

GreatBanc Trust Company ("GreatBanc") and the Triad Defendants (together,

"Defendants"). More specifically, Plaintiffs seek documents related to the 2016−2019

annual valuation reports Stout Risius Ross, LLC ("Stout") prepared and submitted to

Defendants. Defendants oppose the motion on the basis that these documents are not

relevant to Plaintiffs' claims. That is because, they say, post−2015 transaction data cannot

be used to judge the actions Defendants took based on information available to them in

December 2015. Defendants also argue that Plaintiffs' demand is not proportional to the

needs of the case as they have already produced the 2016−2019 valuation reports. The

court overrules Defendants' relevance objection. Although Defendants are entitled to

argue that their actions must be judged by the information that was available to them in

2015, Plaintiffs' claims also extend to Defendants' inaction after the 2015 transaction.

Furthermore, Plaintiffs are entitled to support their theory of liability by highlighting the

information GreatBanc supposedly relied on in 2015 and the absurdity of such reliance

based on what really took place after 2015. No one can of course demand 100% accuracy

when it comes to financial and market projections. That said, Plaintiffs' theory of the case

is that−−−as this court understands it−−−despite the fact that their area experienced

two−inches of snow in the preceding two days, GreatBanc decided in 2015 to accept a

weather forecast calling for sunny, 90−degree weather for the next few days and acted

accordingly, which proved to be disastrous. Plaintiffs wish to investigate the details of the

annual valuation reports to determine the level of Great Banc's failures in aligning its

actions with this weather forecast, which in turn leads to the question of whether Triad's

Board should have taken action against GreatBanc after the 2015 transaction. The motion

is granted and Defendants are ordered to produce the work papers Stout used to perform

its 2016−2019 valuations and emails exchanged between Defendants and Stout and

among Defendants within 30 calendar days of Stout submitting the annual valuation to

any Defendant named in this lawsuit. This search limitation adequately addresses

Defendants' concerns that they should not be forced to track down every note or

communication related to the valuations during the last seven years. Defendants are to

comply with this order by May 20, 2022. Written discovery is now closed, except for

Case: 1:20-cv-02350 Document #: 115 Filed: 05/02/22 Page 1 of 2 PageID #:1633
supplementing earlier discovery responses as required under Rule 26(e) and serving

requests to admit and subpoenas for records. Parties are reminded that they have until

September 30, 2022, to complete all fact discovery. Parties are to file a joint status report

by September 16, 2022, advising the court whether they require expert discovery. Mailed

notice(Kim, Young)

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Case: 1:20-cv-02350 Document #: 115 Filed: 05/02/22 Page 2 of 2 PageID #:1634