A Virginia federal magistrate judge ordered a naval engineer to name all the witnesses her attorneys spoke to, and all the information about those interviews, as the nation's largest military shipbuilders seek to argue she's too late to accuse them of agreeing not to poach each other's workers.

Citing reasons stated in a hearing last week, U.S. Magistrate Judge William E. Fitzpatrick's one-page order on Monday granted the defendant contractors' motion to compel interrogatory responses.

That means engineer Susan Scharpf must name all witnesses her lawyers spoke to during their pre-lawsuit investigation, beyond those mentioned in the proposed class action complaint, as well as dates and methods of communications with the additional witnesses and all facts obtained in the interviews.

Counsel for the plaintiffs declined to comment Tuesday. Counsel for the defendants did not immediately respond late Tuesday to requests for comment.

The shipbuilding defense contractors — who include General Dynamics, Huntington Ingalls Industries and CACI — sought the information earlier this month to bolster their statute of limitations defense. For the claims to remain intact, they note that Scharpf will have to show "that she exercised reasonable diligence in waiting until 2023 to file her claim," because her allegations became time-barred by 2017.

U.S. District Judge Anthony J. Trenga in the Eastern District of Virginia initially dismissed the lawsuit in April 2024, ruling that the 2023 suit, which alleged an illegal "gentleman's agreement" dating back to 2000, fell outside the four-year limit. But a split Fourth Circuit panel revived the case just over a year later, ruling that the plaintiffs had sufficiently pled that the companies deliberately kept them and others in the dark regarding the agreement.

The shipbuilders asked the U.S. Supreme Court to review that decision last month, just a week after Scharpf's co-plaintiff, Anthony D'Armiento, dropped out of the case.

Scharpf had opposed the motion to compel, arguing that she's already identified 20 witnesses and produced more than 3,000 pages of documents in discovery. She asserted that the information sought here would compromise protected attorney work product, and that there's no connection between her knowledge of the alleged conspiracy — she says she first learned about the scheme from her counsel in 2023 — and her counsel's pre-suit interviews. Judge Fitzpatrick disagreed.

The plaintiffs are represented by Brent W. Johnson, Zachary R. Glubiak, Steven J. Toll, Robert W. Cobbs, Alison S. Deich and Sabrina S. Merold of Cohen Milstein Sellers & Toll PLLC, Shana E. Scarlett, Steve W. Berman and Elaine T. Byszewski of Hagens Berman Sobol Shapiro LLP, George F. Farah, Rebecca P. Chang, Nicholas Jackson and Simon Wiener of Handley Farah & Anderson PLLC, Candice J. Enders and Julia R. McGrath of Berger Montague and Brian D. Clark, Arielle S. Wagner and Stephen J. Teti of Lockridge Grindal Nauen PLLP.

Bath Iron Works Corp., Electric Boat Corp., General Dynamics Corp. and General Dynamics Information Technology Inc. are represented by David G. Barger of Greenberg Traurig LLP and Douglas E. Litvack, Matthew S. Hellman and Michael A. Doornweerd of Jenner & Block LLP.

Huntington Ingalls Industries Inc., HII Fleet Support Group LLC, HII Mission Technologies Corp., Ingalls Shipbuilding Inc. and Newport News Shipbuilding and Dry Dock Co. are represented by Adam Block Schwartz, Todd Stenerson, David Higbee and Djordje Petkoski of Allen Overy Shearman Sterling and Robbie Rogart Jost and Sima Namiri-Kalantari of Crowell & Moring LLP.

Bollinger Shipyards LLC is represented by Attison L. Barnes III, Scott M. McCaleb, Jon W. Burd, Daniel T. Park and Krystal B. Swendsboe of Wiley Rein LLP.

Gibbs & Cox Inc. is represented by Perry Lange, Jennifer Milici and John W. O'Toole of WilmerHale.

CACI International is represented by Christopher C. Brewer, Ryan P. Phair, Michael F. Murray and Craig Y. Lee of Paul Hastings LLP.

Marinette Marine Corp. is represented by John F. Terzaken III and Abram J. Ellis of Simpson Thacher & Bartlett LLP and Allison W. Reimann, Sean O'D. Bosack and Christie B. Carrino of Godfrey & Kahn SC.

Serco Inc. is represented by J. Brent Justus, Nicholas J. Giles, Joshua D. Wade, W. Cole Geddy, Benjamin L. Hatch and Casey Erin Lucier of McGuireWoods LLP.

The Columbia Group Inc. is represented by William T. DeVinney of Briglia Hundley PC.

Thor Solutions LLC is represented by Matthew J. MacLean and Alvin Dunn of Pillsbury Winthrop Shaw Pittman LLP.

Tridentis LLC is represented by William Lawler and Amanda DeLaPerriere of Blank Rome LLP.

The case is Susan Scharpf et al. v. General Dynamics Corp. et al., case number 1:23-cv-01372, in the U.S. District Court for the Eastern District of Virginia.