Las Vegas Sands Corp. has lost a round in its efforts to force a former president of its gambling operation in Macau to return scores of "sensitive" documents.
The Nevada Supreme Court warned Sands attorneys that it would face sanctions if it filed any more "inappropriate" writ petitions.
Steven Jacobs sued the Sands after he was fired from his $1.3 million-a-year job as president and CEO of Sands China Ltd. He maintains the company blocked his purchase of 2.5 million shares of its stock that was guaranteed in his contract.
Sands sought an order from District Judge Elizabeth Gonzalez to force Jacobs to return 11 gigabytes of documents obtained from various casinos operated by the Sands. It said these included trade secrets and privileged correspondence between the company and its lawyers.
Gonzalez refused to honor the Sands request. She said a previous order from the state Supreme Court stayed all proceedings in the case as it deliberated whether the Sands could be sued in Nevada.
She must decide that issue first.
Jacobs is not a resident of Nevada and his firing was not done in Nevada.
When Gonzalez denied the Sands motion, it filed a petition for an extraordinary writ in the Supreme Court to allow the judge to hear the motion for return of the documents.
The Supreme Court said Sands has dropped its motions in District Court for the return of the documents. It said Sands' "use of extraordinary writ relief in this context is inappropriate."
"We admonish petitioner (the Sands) and caution it that seeking writ relief under similar circumstances in the future will be viewed by this court as sanctionable conduct," said the justices in denying the petition for a writ of mandamus.