In Re the Testimony of Girdler v. State

357 N.W.2d 595, 1984 Iowa Sup. LEXIS 1281
CourtSupreme Court of Iowa
DecidedNovember 14, 1984
Docket84-277
StatusPublished
Cited by14 cases

This text of 357 N.W.2d 595 (In Re the Testimony of Girdler v. State) is published on Counsel Stack Legal Research, covering Supreme Court of Iowa primary law. Counsel Stack provides free access to over 12 million legal documents including statutes, case law, regulations, and constitutions.

Bluebook
In Re the Testimony of Girdler v. State, 357 N.W.2d 595, 1984 Iowa Sup. LEXIS 1281 (iowa 1984).

Opinions

CARTER, Justice.

This is an appeal in advance of final judgment from an order of the district court granting the application of the attorney general to grant immunity to appellant Theodore Girdler, Jr. with respect to any crime or public offense concerning which he might be compelled to give testimony in a civil antitrust action. We granted permission to appeal upon the application of appellant.

Theodore Girdler, Jr. is apparently an officer of Binney & Smith, Inc., a defendant in a civil action commenced in the Iowa District Court in Polk County. That action alleges that Binney & Smith, Inc. violated the Iowa Competition Law contained in Iowa Code sections 553.1-.17 (1983). As a corporate officer, Girdler was given notice by the attorney general pursuant to Iowa Rules of Civil Procedure 147(c) and (d) that his attendance was required in this state for the taking of his deposition for use in the pending civil antitrust action. As the result of this notice, he advised the attorney general by letter that he would assert his fifth amendment rights to decline to answer questions propounded during the taking of any such deposition.

This response by Girdler precipitated action by the attorney general purporting to act under authority of Iowa Rule of Criminal Procedure 19(3) to secure a grant of immunity for Girdler with respect to any crime or public offenses concerning which he might be compelled to testify as a witness in the pending civil antitrust litigation. This request was sought on the verified application of the attorney general reciting that Girdler’s testimony is necessary and material to the pending civil antitrust litigation, that he has refused to testify upon the ground that such testimony would tend to incriminate him and that it is the considered judgment of the attorney general that justice and the public interest require the testimony in question. Based upon this application, the district court ordered that Girdler be and is “granted immunity to prosecution for any crime or public offense concerning which he will be compelled to [597]*597give competent and relevant testimony or to produce competent and relevant evidence _ [T]he testimony, documents or evidence which have been given ... shall not be used against him in any trial or proceeding.”

Girdler made timely application to this court for permission to appeal from the foregoing order. That application was granted. In challenging the court’s authority to issue the immunity order, Girdler advances three primary contentions: (1) The district court is not authorized to grant immunity from prosecution in order to compel testimony in a civil action; (2) the attorney general’s verified application was insufficient to support the granting of immunity in the present case; and (3) Girdler’s testimony may not be compelled notwithstanding the purported grant of immunity because the breadth of the immunity grant is not sufficient to displace his constitutional privilege against self-incrimination. In addition, Girdler also seeks to challenge on this appeal the authority of the State to compel his attendance in the state of Iowa for the giving of testimony. He also requests that if his testimony is compelled, an appropriate protective order should be granted requiring the taking of his testimony in the state of his domicile. We deal with these issues in the discussion which follows.

I. Authority of Court to Compel Testimony Under Grant of Immunity in a Civil Action.

Girdler’s first contention on appeal is that the grant of authority contained in Iowa Rule of Criminal Procedure 19(3) with respect to orders of immunity for purposes of compelling testimony is only applicable to criminal prosecutions. He notes that not only was the procedure in the present case invoked for purposes of compelling testimony in a civil action, but, in addition, the attorney general is precluded from maintaining a criminal action on the same facts by virtue of the election of remedies provisions contained in Iowa Code section 553.-15.

The State, in response to the contentions of Girdler, asserts that the language of criminal rule 19(3) does not limit its application to answers sought to be compelled from witnesses in criminal actions. Moreover, the State contends that such limitation does not necessarily follow from the fact that the procedure for granting immunity is set forth as part of the Iowa Rules of Criminal Procedure.

The Iowa Rules of Criminal Procedure seek to “provide procedures applicable to indictable offenses.” Iowa R.Crim.P. 1(1). We believe, however, that this circumstance does not necessarily aid Girdler in his challenge to the court’s use of rule 19(3) in the present case. This rule is of legislative origin and must be interpreted as any other statute.

Courts will construe a statute in conformity with its dominating general purpose and will read the text in light of overall context. State v. Bishop, 257 Iowa 336, 340, 132 N.W.2d 455, 458 (1965); Fabricius v. Montgomery Elevator Co., 254 Iowa 1319, 1322-23, 121 N.W.2d 361, 364 (1963). The object of statutory interpretation is to discover the true intention of the legislature considering the clearly-stated objects and purposes involved. Lau v. City of Oelwein, 336 N.W.2d 202, 203 (Iowa 1983); Dingman v. City of Council Bluffs, 249 Iowa 1121, 1127, 90 N.W.2d 742, 746 (1958). The court should, when possible, construe a statute so as to give an intelligent and meaningful purpose to its provisions and in so doing may assume that the legislature realized the need therefor. In re King’s Estate, 251 Iowa 1128, 1132, 104 N.W.2d 600, 603 (1960).

The inclusion of rule 19(3) in the Rules of Criminal Procedure is doubtless explained by the fact that it is ordinarily within a criminal context that the subject of immunity will arise. Even where the testimony sought to be compelled is for use in a civil proceeding, the resulting immunity from criminal prosecution which accompanies the compelled civil testimony has a decidedly criminal application. We believe that such application is an adequate explanation for [598]*598placing these rules alongside other rules relating to indictable offenses even though the subject matter involved also affects civil cases.

The underlying policy of the rule is based upon the realization that certain designated representatives of the executive branch of government should be given the authority to obtain immunity through judicial proceedings for recalcitrant witnesses in those instances where it is in the state’s best interests so to do. One of the standards which rule 19(3) provides for making this determination is that “justice and the public interest require the testimony, documents or evidence in question.” The needs of justice and the public interest are surely not limited to criminal prosecutions nor does the role of the attorney general in seeking to foster the needs of justice and the public interest fall exclusively within the ambit of the criminal law.

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In Re the Testimony of Girdler v. State
357 N.W.2d 595 (Supreme Court of Iowa, 1984)

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Bluebook (online)
357 N.W.2d 595, 1984 Iowa Sup. LEXIS 1281, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/in-re-the-testimony-of-girdler-v-state-iowa-1984.