A two-minute viewing of a damaging report can count as never having possessed it

Evidence

The judge asked Facher if he’d known about the Yankee report before trial. Yes, replied Facher, he’d seen the report, but only briefly, for about two minutes just before a deposition. He’d never had actual possession of it. Riley’s personal lawyer, a woman named Mary Ryan, who was here in court that day, had shown it to him. He had thought then that the report was insignificant, and he thought so now—“One piece of inconsequential material among hundreds, maybe thousands, I’m not sure.” As for Schlichtmann’s requests for this report, they had been improperly made. He had lacked the “diligence” and “interest” to go after this document and it was, therefore, his own fault that he had not gotten it. — , Harr Jonathan - A Civil Action, 2934

Categorization

• QUESTION: Does any bar rule or case law actually define ‘possession’ of discovery material by time handled rather than by knowledge gained? Worth checking how courts have drawn that line.