Government of Ghana v. Proenergy Services, LLC; Proenergy Services International, Inc

Before LOKEN, BYE, and MELLOY, Circuit Judges.

The Government of Ghana filed an application for discovery pursuant to 28 U.S.C. § 1782, seeking documents exchanged in a separate lawsuit between the current defendants. Section 1782 allows federal courts to provide assistance in gathering evidence for use in foreign tribunals. Under § 1782(a), a district court of the district in which a person resides may order that person to produce documents in accordance with the Federal Rules of Civil Procedure. The district court*fn1 granted Ghana’s application and ordered the Missouri companies, ProEnergy Services, LLC and ProEnergy Services International, Inc. (collectively, “ProEnergy”), to produce documents. ProEnergy produced some documents and discovery materials from its lawsuit with Balkan Energy Company, but it refused other documents related to the settlement of that lawsuit. Ghana requested that the court direct ProEnergy to produce the settlement documents, but the district court denied Ghana’s request. We affirm.