In Advanced Cable Ties, Inc. v. Hewes, 2008 Mass. Super. Lexis 350 (Sup. Ct. Mass. Oct. 7, 2008), the court, underscoring plaintiff's failure to demonstrate the relevance of its requests, denied plaintiff's motion seeking the production of defendant Hewes' personal emails and for the inspection of his personal computers.

This case involved an action to enforce a non-compete between plaintiff, its former employee and the former employee's subsequent employer.  Plaintiff moved to compel various email communications from 2005 and 2006 and to inspect any computers the former employee owned during that period.  The court held that plaintiff's request was vague and failed to identify any of the 16 email correspondents identified in the motion or describe their potential relevance.  The court explained, "The court will not sift through every pleading in the case to try to discern which e-mail address belongs with which witness, nor will it fill in the blanks in [plaintiff's] brief to forecast a reason for each request."  The plaintiff did not offer any reason for the inspection of defendant Hewes' personal computers.  The court held that unless plaintiff could present a convincing argument that the personal computers may contain relevant information that cannot be obtained by less intrusive means, it would not be permitted to inspect them.