Gotham Holdings, LP v. Health Grades, Inc., No. 09-2377

In a case involving a subpoena to turn over certain documents exchanged in an arbitration, judgment directing third party to produce the documents and issuing a stay pending defendant's appeal is affirmed where: 1) paragraph 6 of the agreement between defendant and third party provides that materials from the arbitration may be disclosed in response to a subpoena; and 2) even if the agreement had purported to block disclosure, such a provision would be ineffectual as contracts bind only parties and no one can agree with someone else that a stranger's resort to discovery under the Federal Rules of Civil Procedure will be cut off. 

Read Gotham Holdings, LP v. Health Grades, Inc., No. 09-2377

Appellate Information

Appeal from the United States District Court for the Northern District of Illinois, Eastern Division.
Argued August 28, 2009
Decided September 3, 2009

Judges

Before Easterbrook, Chief Judge, and Williams and Sykes, Circuit Judges