Edin v. Paul Revere Life Insurance

188 F.R.D. 543, 1999 U.S. Dist. LEXIS 19085, 1999 WL 759886
CourtDistrict Court, D. Arizona
DecidedSeptember 24, 1999
DocketNo. CIV. 97-2434PHX-LOA
StatusPublished
Cited by21 cases

This text of 188 F.R.D. 543 (Edin v. Paul Revere Life Insurance) is published on Counsel Stack Legal Research, covering District Court, D. Arizona primary law. Counsel Stack provides free access to over 12 million legal documents including statutes, case law, regulations, and constitutions.

Bluebook
Edin v. Paul Revere Life Insurance, 188 F.R.D. 543, 1999 U.S. Dist. LEXIS 19085, 1999 WL 759886 (D. Ariz. 1999).

Opinion

MINUTE ENTRY, OPINION AND ORDER

ANDERSON, United States Magistrate Judge.

On September 13, 1999, the Court, for the second time, heard oral argument on Plaintiffs Motion For Protective Order (doc. # 98). Plaintiff is represented by counsel, Malcolm K. Ryder. Defendant is represented by Stephen E. Silverman. The proceedings are being tape recorded.

Initially, the Court sua sponte elects to bifurcate consideration of Defendant’s Motion To Reduce Plaintiffs Experts’ Fees (doe. # 133), filed just recently on September 9, 1999. A briefing schedule and a date and time for oral argument will be set hereinafter. The Court has reviewed and considered the numerous pleadings filed by both sides on this issue as well as the file as a whole.

Oral argument is presented to the Court.

The matter is taken under advisement with written order to follow.

BACKGROUND

The pending discovery dispute arises from the deposition fees which expert witness Zoran Marie, M.D., a Phoenix orthopedic surgeon, charged Plaintiffs counsel. Defendant retained Dr. Marie to conduct an independent medical examination of Plaintiff and to testify at trial in this alleged breach of disability policy and bad faith litigation. The parties have consented to proceed before a United States Magistrate Judge pursuant to Title 28 U.S.C. § 636(c)(1).

Relying on Rule 26(b)(4)(C)(i), Fed.R.Civ. P., Plaintiffs counsel argues that (1) because of his poor financial condition, it would be a “manifest injustice” to require Plaintiff to pay any of Dr. Marie’s deposition fees and that all prepaid fees should be reimbursed to Plaintiff, (2) if the Court finds that Plaintiffs financial condition does not warrant a total waiver of Dr. Marie’s fees, Plaintiff should only be required to pay a “reasonable fee” which he submits is a maximum of $400.00 per hour, not the $800.00 first hour fee or the $1400.00 fee for two hours that Dr. Marie charged, and (3) Plaintiff should not be required to pay any portion of Dr. Marie’s $1400.00 cancellation fee billed by Dr. Marie’s office to defense counsel’s firm, Lewis and Roca, LLP, because Plaintiff did not cancel the first deposition scheduled on July 14,1999 and, or in the alternative, the cancellation fee is unreasonable.

Although somewhat convoluted, the facts leading up to Dr. Marie’s scheduled-but-not-taken deposition of July 14, 1999 are not seriously disputed. Apparently as an accommodation to Plaintiffs counsel and because Dr. Marie is a defense trial expert, defense counsel volunteered to make the necessary arrangements with the doctor’s staff and thereafter scheduled the deposition of Dr. Marie on the mutually agreeable date of July 14, 1999 for two hours, the amount of time Plaintiffs counsel desired. Thereafter Plaintiffs counsel sent out a Notice of Deposition. Dr. Marie was not served with a subpoena for this deposition. The parties do not dispute that all counsel possessed a copy of Dr. Marie’s fee schedule1 sometime before July 12, 1999.

According to Plaintiffs counsel, Malcolm K. Ryder of Tucson, Dr. Marie’s office staff called him in Tucson on the afternoon of July 12th, less than two full days before the July 14th deposition, and advised him that if the doctor’s office did not receive the full payment ($1400.00) by 5:00 p.m. that same day, the deposition would be cancelled. Later that same day, Plaintiffs counsel telephoned Dr. Marie’s office manager, Lillian Marie, to negotiate what counsel thought was a reason[545]*545able fee ($800.00 for two hours), a much lower sum than Dr. Marie’s customary rate ($1400.00) for two hours, only to be told, among other things, that “this is not a swap meet” and “we don’t need you lawyers, you need us.” Counsel’s efforts to explain Federal Rule of Civil Procedure 26 and the requirement that an expert witness charge “a reasonable fee” were futile in lowering the fee. Thereafter, both counsel commendably stipulated that Plaintiffs counsel would advance the $800.00 first-hour fee and defense counsel would pay the $600.00 balance, thereby, preserving the issue of the reasonableness of the fee for the trial court to resolve at a later date.

The next day, July 13, 1999, Plaintiff’s counsel advised Dr. Marie’s office that counsel had reached a stipulation to pay Dr. Marie’s fee in full so that the deposition could go forward on July 14th as originally scheduled. Dr. Marie’s office, however, informed counsel that the deposition had been can-celled and that patients had been scheduled to see Dr. Marie during the time set for the deposition. Plaintiffs counsel requested that the office manager reconsider and explained that if Dr. Marie cancelled the deposition, it would be without his consent and despite his objection. Thereafter, Dr. Marie’s office billed defense counsel’s law firm, Lewis and Roca, LLP, for the cancellation fee of $1400.00 because the law firm actually scheduled the deposition. Defense counsel requests that this Court order Plaintiffs counsel or Plaintiff to pay the subject cancellation fee. Plaintiffs counsel refuses. The bill remains unpaid.

In late August, Plaintiffs counsel rescheduled Dr. Marie’s deposition for two hours on September 2, 1999. Dr. Marie’s office did not require the aforesaid cancellation fee be paid in advance but did require prepayment of a new deposition fee of $1400.00. An initial Court hearing was held on Plaintiffs motion on August 31st, 1999 but was continued so that counsel could provide the Court with additional information. Immediately after this Court hearing, Plaintiffs counsel personally delivered a check for $1400.00 to the doctor’s office, reserving the right to challenge the reasonableness of this deposition fee at a later time. Dr. Marie’s deposition took place on September 2, 1999. A-though Plaintiffs counsel had scheduled two hours, the deposition lasted only one hour at Mr. Ryder’s discretion who asked all but six of the questions posed to Dr. Marie. The doctor, however, had reserved a full two hours on his office calendar for the deposition based on the amount of time Plaintiffs counsel requested, and was apparently fully prepared to attend the full two hours.

Plaintiffs pending motion seeks reimbursement from Defendant of $1,000.00 of the $1400.00 he prepaid for the September 2, 1999 deposition. In other words, Plaintiffs counsel will pay Dr. Marie a “reasonable” fee of $400.00 for one hour of the scheduled two-hour deposition. Plaintiffs counsel does not believe he should be charged for the second hour which the lawyers did not use. At oral argument, Defendant argued that (1) $800.00 for the first hour and $600.00 per hour thereafter is a reasonable fee for Dr. Marie to charge an attorney for a deposition, (2) Plaintiff is not indigent and that a “manifest injustice” would not occur by requiring Plaintiff to pay Dr. Marie whatever the Court deems to be reasonable, (3) Plaintiffs counsel should be required to pay for the full two hours reserved for the doctor’s deposition, and (4) Plaintiff or his counsel, not Lewis and Roca, should pay the entire $1400.00 cancellation fee that Dr. Marie charged defense counsel’s law firm for the first deposition scheduled for July 14,1999.

THE LAW

Federal Rule of Civil Procedure

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Cite This Page — Counsel Stack

Bluebook (online)
188 F.R.D. 543, 1999 U.S. Dist. LEXIS 19085, 1999 WL 759886, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/edin-v-paul-revere-life-insurance-azd-1999.