In Kam Hing Enterprises, Inc. v. Wal-Mart Stores, Inc., et. al., 2010 U.S. App. Lexis 184 (2nd Cir. Jan. 6, 2010), the Court of Appeals for the Second Circuit affirmed a partial summary judgment ruling related to plaintiff's copyright claim from the Southern District of New York (District Court Judge Miriam G. Cedarbaum).  The court also questioned defendants' decision to produce spreadsheets without also producing, either in paper form or electronically, the underlying information upon which the spreadsheets were based.

Plaintiff alleged that defendants infringed upon their copyright in a quilt design.  The district court granted summary judgment for plaintiff based on the striking similarity of the "choice and arrangement" of the quilt's fabrics and ruled inadmissible defendants' proffered evidence (a fax printout) of independent creation. 

On appeal, defendants challenged the district court's ruling and also challenged the court's order excluding any "new testimony based on new documents" not previously disclosed to plaintiff and inconsistent with a  witness's deposition testimony. The appellate court affirmed the district court's order holding defendants failed to authenticate the fax printout and that the district court did not abuse its discretion by prohibiting a witness from testifying differently from his deposition particularly where defendants never produced the underlying documentation to support the witness's new testimony.  While defendants produced spreadsheets related to the witness's damages calculations, the appellate court ruled that without the underlying data, which defendants failed to produce in print form or electronically, the plaintiff had no reasonable opportunity to verify or dispute the witness's testimony or the spreadsheets themselves.  The court flatly rejected defendants' explanation that "it was not [their] understanding that that level of detail needed to be provided," that "no one asked for them," and "the production of these electronic records frankly would not have been feasible in this case."