OPINION & ORDER “Happy families are all alike; every unhappy family is unhappy in its own way.”1 And then there are the families whose discord and recriminations are such as to spawn legal action spanning international boundaries. This case involves an application under 28 U.S.C. §1782 for foreign discovery regarding alleged mismanagement of the estate of family patriarch Samuel Klein,2 a Brazilian domiciliary. Ongoing probate proceedings in Brazil pit Samuel’s children against one another. The petitioner here, Saul Klein, alleges that his brother, Michael Klein, as administrator of their father’s probate proceeding and executor of their father’s estate, deceived him as to the value of their father’s offshore assets in order to “deprive[] [him] of his rightful inheritance.” Dkt. 2 at 2. Saul here seeks records from U.S. financial institutions of transactions made on his father’s behalf, and transactions by his siblings, Michael and Eva Klein. Saul proposes to use these records in the probate proceeding in Brazil, and in civil and criminal lawsuits against Michael in Brazil. The Court initially granted, as facially supported, Saul’s ex parte application under §1782 for authority to issue subpoenas duces tecum to the U.S. institutions. Dkt. 6. Now before the Court are two motions to quash those subpoenas. One is from Michael and entities he and Eva own and control (together, “the first movants”). Dkt. 29. The second is from entities owned and controlled by Michael’s children, Raphael and Natalie Klein (together, “the second movants”). Dkt. 37. For the reasons that follow, the Court grants both motions and quashes the subpoenas. I. Background3 A. Facts 1. The Death of Samuel Klein Born in Zaklikow, Poland in 1923, Samuel witnessed firsthand the ravages of World War II. His mother and five of his nine siblings died in Treblinka. Reina Decl. 12. He was sent to a forced labor camp; in 1944, while being transported to Auschwitz, he managed to escape. Id. 12; see also Lawrence Bush, Samuel Klein’s Casas Bahia Empire, JEWISH CURRENTS (Nov. 15, 2016), https://jewishcurrents.org/samuel-kleins-casas-bahia-empire. In 1952, after years in European refugee camps, he emigrated to Brazil, where he traveled door-to-door selling sheets, tablecloths, and towels from a pushcart. Reina Decl.
13-14. Years of saving led to the purchase in 1958 of a small retail store (“Casa Bahia”) in an industrial suburb on the outskirts of Sao Paulo. Id. From one store came hundreds more. By the early 2000s, Casa Bahia had become Brazil’s largest retail chain, with tens of thousands of employees nationwide. Id.
