Opinion ID: 2812181
Heading Depth: 1
Heading Rank: 2

Heading: standard of review

Text: As a general proposition, we review a district court’s discovery ruling for abuse of discretion. Mediacom Iowa L.L.C. v. Inc. City of Spencer, 682 N.W.2d 62, 66 (Iowa 2004). A district court abuses its discretion “when the grounds underlying a district court order are clearly untenable or unreasonable.” Id. “ ‘ “A ground or reason is untenable . . . when it is based on an erroneous application of the law.” ’ ” Office of Citizens’ Aide/Ombudsman v. Edwards, 825 N.W.2d 8, 14 (Iowa 2012) (quoting In re Gianforte, 773 N.W.2d 540, 544 (Iowa 2009)). In the context of trade-secret litigation, from the beginning, the cases have stressed the role of the district court judge in balancing the interests of the parties when determining the circumstances of disclosure. Justice Oliver Wendell Holmes in one of the leading early trade-secret cases emphasized that “it will rest in the judge’s discretion to determine whether, to whom, and under what precautions, the revelation should be made.” E.I. du Pont de Nemours Powder Co. v. Masland, 244 U.S. 100, 103, 37 S. Ct. 575, 576, 61 L. Ed. 1016, 1019 (1917); see also Centurion Indus., Inc. v. Warren Steurer & Assocs., 665 F.2d 323, 326 (10th Cir. 1981). More recently, it has been said that the nature of disclosure in a trade-secret case “ ‘is singularly within the discretion of the district court,’ ” Dove v. Atl. Capital Corp., 963 F.2d 15, 13 19 (2d Cir. 1992) (quoting Galella v. Onassis, 487 F.2d 986, 997 (2d Cir. 1973)), and that “[t]he unique character of the discovery process requires that the trial court have substantial latitude to fashion protective orders,” Seattle Times Co. v. Rhinehart, 467 U.S. 20, 36, 104 S. Ct. 2199, 2209, 81 L. Ed. 2d 17, 29 (1984). According to authorities, the balancing of competing rights of the parties poses “a very difficult decision,” see Peter F. Daniel, Protecting Trade Secrets from Discovery, 30 Tort & Ins. L.J. 1033, 1042 (1995), that requires “liberal discretion” in the hands of the trial judge, see Robert A. Matthews Jr., 6 Annotated Patent Digest § 41:120, at 41-258 (2008).