Nathan A Adams IV is a Partner in Holland & Knight's Tallahassee office
In Acosta v. La Piedad Corp., 894 F. 3d 947 (8th Cir. 2018), the court ruled that a restaurant company doing business as El Mezcal Mexican Restaurant was not in civil contempt for failure to produce documents in response to a DOL subpoena that demanded production of documents reflecting business activities of shareholders without regard to where the documents were located or whether they pertained to the company's business under DOL investigation into compliance with the FLSA. The subpoena was broad, requesting 22 categories of documents, including "all documents showing the names and addresses of all other businesses that are partially and/or fully owned by any of the owners of La Piedad Corporation and the percentage of ownership." The subpoena lacked statutory or judicial authority authorizing a subpoena commanding a party to produce documents that are not within its possession, custody or control. Moreover, the company plainly stated in response that it had no responsive documents and there was no factual basis in the record for inferring an agency relationship between El Mezcal and other businesses owned by the defendant's shareholders.
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