The Nevada Supreme Court has ruled that Las Vegas Sands does not have to give confidential company information to Steven Jacobs, the fired ex-president of the company’s Macau subsidiary who is suing LVS for wrongful termination.
In a 5-0 decision, the justices granted Sands’ petition to overturn a lower court order that it produce documents on Mr Jacobs’ 2010 dismissal, saying the matter had been decided in the lower court.
“Jacobs’ request for production of the documents was not timely because the District Court had already issued its ruling on the underlying sanctions’ issues,” wrote Chief Justice Mark Gibbons.
Then-Clark County District Court Judge Elizabeth Gonzalez in 2012 found that LVS and its Hong Kong-listed affiliate, Sands China, “had shown an “intention to deceive the court”. She fined the companies $25,000 and ordered Sands to cover the legal bills of Mr Jacobs for nine hearings that involved Macau’s Personal Data Protection Act.
Mr Jacobs is suing the company for wrongful termination and had asked Sands to turn over about 100,000 e-mails and other documents to help him make his case. But for more than a year, the company argued in court that Macau law forbids this even though copies were in Las Vegas and beyond the reach of Macau authorities.
Ms Gonzalez suggested to Mr Jacobs that he file a motion for those documents. She said she would conduct a hearing and rule on his arguments for that information at a later date, according to the court decision. But two days later, without having that hearing, she filed her order sanctioning Sands.
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