Bertrand ex rel. Estate of Bertrand v. Cordiner Enterprises, Inc.

55 V.I. 247, 2011 V.I. LEXIS 62
CourtSuperior Court of The Virgin Islands
DecidedJune 24, 2011
DocketCivil No. ST-08-CV-457
StatusPublished
Cited by1 cases

This text of 55 V.I. 247 (Bertrand ex rel. Estate of Bertrand v. Cordiner Enterprises, Inc.) is published on Counsel Stack Legal Research, covering Superior Court of The Virgin Islands primary law. Counsel Stack provides free access to over 12 million legal documents including statutes, case law, regulations, and constitutions.

Bluebook
Bertrand ex rel. Estate of Bertrand v. Cordiner Enterprises, Inc., 55 V.I. 247, 2011 V.I. LEXIS 62 (visuper 2011).

Opinion

CARROLL, Judge

MEMORANDUM OPINION

(June 24, 2011)

Plaintiff Beryl Bertrand1 (“Plaintiff’) moves to compel2 a non-party to respond to deposition questions and to produce documents. Although Island Tile and Marble, LLC, objects that Plaintiff’s subpoena was defective, the Court finds that the subpoena was not fatally flawed. The Court will grant the Motion to Compel as to some, but not all, of the deposition questions, and as to all requests for document production.

FACTUAL AND PROCEDURAL BACKGROUND

On April 17, 2008, Jacques-Pierre Bertrand (“Bertrand”) was injured while working for Island Tile. He died of those injuries on April 29, 2008. Plaintiff originally brought suit against not only the Defendants named above but also against Island Tile and Marble, LLC, a Virgin Islands Company.

On March 9, 2009, Plaintiff and Island Tile filed a Stipulation of Dismissal, agreeing to dismiss all of Plaintiff’s claims against Island Tile. On March 30, 2010, the Court approved the Stipulation, noting that no party had objected to it, and dismissed all of Plaintiff’s claims against Island Tile. That Order was entered on April 6, 2010.

On December 11, 2010, Plaintiff subpoenaed Island Tile to attend a deposition on January 10, 2011, and to produce certain documents and [253]*253records at the deposition. On December 20, 2010, Island Tile notified Plaintiff that it generally objected to the subpoena because it did not have sufficient time to prepare for the deposition and because it felt it was overly broad and burdensome. Island Tile did not, however, move to quash or modify the subpoena. On December 28, 2010, Island Tile forwarded to Plaintiff a fist of specific objections and requested $1,500 to cover the costs of production. Plaintiff paid $1,250 on December 29, 2010. Michael Cordiner, Island Tile’s sole owner and president, appeared on behalf of Island Tile at the deposition on January 10, 2011.

On February 17, 2011, Plaintiff sent Island Tile a letter requesting to meet and confer regarding deposition questions she felt had not been fully answered, and documents that she alleged had not been produced according to the subpoena. Counsel for Island Tile and Plaintiff conferred telephonically about the discovery disputes on February 25, 2011. Island Tile wrote Plaintiff a letter on February 28, 2011, stating that it was still assessing the breadth of the discovery requests. On March 24, 2011, Plaintiff drafted a LRCl 37.2 Stipulation, which Island Tile’s counsel signed. Island Tile responded to Plaintiff’s concerns over its representative’s deposition answers within the body of the Stipulation. On April 8, 2011, Plaintiff filed this Motion to Compel, appending the LRCl 37.2 Stipulation. Island Tile did not file a response.

DISCUSSION

I. PLAINTIFF’S FAILURE TO INCLUDE THE ENTIRE TEXT OF RULE 45(c) AND 45(d) DOES NOT RENDER HER SUBPOENA FATALLY DEFECTIVE.

A. Federal Rule 45 Is Not Inconsistent With Superior Court Rule 11.

Island Tile objects to Plaintiff’s Motion to Compel in part because it claims that Plaintiff’s subpoena was defective. Rule 45 of the Federal Rules of Civil Procedure requires subpoenas to include the text of Rule 45(c) and 45(d)3 to ensure that subpoenaed persons are aware of their rights to challenge the subpoena and otherwise protect their interests. Superior Court Rule 11, which governs subpoenas issued by this Court, has no such requirement. Rule 11(a) calls for every subpoena to state:

[254]*254the name of the court and the title, if any of the proceeding, and if the witness is to testify on behalf of the Government, it shall so note, and shall command each person to whom it is directed to attend and give testimony at the time and place specified therein.4,5

Therefore, the Court must determine whether the two rules are inconsistent; for if they are, Federal Rule 45 is displaced6 and Island Tile’s objection must fail.

The Court finds that the Federal Rule supplements the Superior Court Rule and the two are not inconsistent. The Court recognizes that “when two rules or statutes are capable of coexistence, it is the duty of the courts to regard each as effective.”7 Thus, the question becomes whether Federal Rule 45 (a)( 1)(A)(iv) is capable of coexisting with Superior Court Rule 11.

There is an argument8 that they are not capable of coexisting. Superior Court Rule 11 has a subsection addressing the form of subpoenas.9 Unlike Federal Rule 45(a), Rule 11 does not require any text to inform non-parties of their rights. In Corraspe v. People,10 the Supreme Court of the Virgin Islands held that because the Superior Court Rule addressing plea negotiations11 did not include a prohibition on judicial involvement, while the Federal Rule of Criminal Procedure12 did include such a prohibition, the Federal Rule was inconsistent and the Superior Court Rule governed.

[255]*255However, this situation differs from the circumstances in Corraspe. In Corraspe, the Supreme Court of the Virgin Islands recognized that the Superior Court Rule regarding criminal pleas was enacted at a time when the Federal Rule included a prohibition on judicial involvement in plea negotiations. Therefore, the drafters of the Superior Court Rule were aware of the current practices regarding plea negotiations and yet created a new rule to address the same topic. This led the Supreme Court to conclude that the drafters intended to displace the Federal Rule, and specifically intended not to include the proscription on judicial involvement.

Superior Court Rule 11, on the other hand, was created well before the Federal Rule was amended to include the textual requirement in Rule 45(c) and (d). Superior Court Rule 11 was first enacted in 1957 and last amended in 1966. Federal Rule 45 was amended to include the text requirement of 45(a)(l)(A)(iv) in 1991. Even in 1994, when the drafters generally amended the Rules “to reflect modem conditions and the increased judicial economy granted by Congress to the people of the Virgin Islands,”13 they did not take any action to amend Superior Court Rule 11 or indicate that Federal Rule 45(a)(l)(A)(iv) should be displaced. Because the drafters were undoubtedly well aware of Rule 45(a)(l)(A)(iv)’s textual requirement at the time, their non-action could only be intentional. Indeed, in the nearly twenty years since those general amendments in 1994, the Court has never expressly or implicitly displaced that requirement. This supports the conclusion that the two mies may, in fact, coexist, and that the Federal Rule supplements, rather than displaces, the Superior Court Rule.

B. Additional Analysis Under the Doctrine of Preemption Compels the Same Conclusion.

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Related

Vanterpool v. Government of the Virgin Islands
63 V.I. 563 (Supreme Court of The Virgin Islands, 2015)

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Bluebook (online)
55 V.I. 247, 2011 V.I. LEXIS 62, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/bertrand-ex-rel-estate-of-bertrand-v-cordiner-enterprises-inc-visuper-2011.