Langston Corp. v. Standard Register Co.

95 F.R.D. 386
CourtDistrict Court, N.D. Georgia
DecidedSeptember 9, 1982
DocketCiv. A. No. C82-1204
StatusPublished
Cited by1 cases

This text of 95 F.R.D. 386 (Langston Corp. v. Standard Register Co.) is published on Counsel Stack Legal Research, covering District Court, N.D. Georgia primary law. Counsel Stack provides free access to over 12 million legal documents including statutes, case law, regulations, and constitutions.

Bluebook
Langston Corp. v. Standard Register Co., 95 F.R.D. 386 (N.D. Ga. 1982).

Opinion

ORDER

ORINDA D. EVANS, District Judge.

This case is before the Court on Plaintiff’s Motion to Compel Answers from Officers of Defendant VHA, filed September 2, 1982. The motion is accompanied by a memorandum. A reply memorandum was filed by Defendant Voluntary Hospitals of America, Inc. (“VHA”)' on September 7, 1982, pursuant to oral direction of the Court limiting the time for response.

Plaintiff’s motion complains of deficiencies in a document production in which Defendant VHA produced documents in response to subpoena duces tecum served for depositions for two of its officers, Robert J. Kitzman and Don L. Arnwine on August 25, 1982. Pursuant to agreement of counsel, the requested documents were actually produced on the date immediately preceding the depositions. Plaintiff’s motion also appears to urge the Court to compel Messrs. Arnwine and Kitzman to answer certain questions not fully answered at their depositions, although the motion does not specify particular questions but rather alleges generally that harassment tactics effectively blocked Plaintiff’s counsel from conducting a proper examination of the witnesses. Plaintiff asks the Court to direct that Messrs. Arnwine and Kitzman be redeposed in Atlanta, Georgia prior to the preliminary injunction hearing set for September 16, 1982, and that the Court award attorney’s fees and expenses to Plaintiff. Plaintiff also asks the Court to order Defendant VHA to properly produce “any records relating to these subjects” and also to enter an order compelling the deponents to answer “certain questions to which counsel for Defendant VHA improperly directed Mr. Arnwine and Mr. Kitzman not to respond.”

Defendant VHA correctly points out in its reply memorandum that Plaintiff has not complied with Local Rule 91.6 which requires that a motion to compel discovery quote verbatim “each interrogatory, request for admission, request for production to which objection is taken”; the specific objection involved; the grounds assigned for the objection and the reasons supporting the motion. The rule states that the objections and grounds “may not be made generally.” Although the rule in question does not specifically mention deposition questions, it is implicit that any motion to compel must specifically make the Court aware of what matters are sought to be compelled.

Although the Court could deny Plaintiff’s motion outright, it chooses not to do so. The preliminary injunction hearing is one week away. The Court does not wish [388]*388to reset the hearing and neither does it wish the parties to come to the hearing without the benefit of discovery calculated to achieve a just result on the merits. Therefore, the Court will proceed to consider Plaintiff’s motion to the extent that its contentions are clearly revealed in its motion and brief.

Initially, the Court notes the transcript entitled Certification of the Proceedings Prior to the Deposition of Don L. Arnwine, filed as Exhibit A to Plaintiff’s Motion to Compel. Given the apparent tone and content of the exchange between counsel for Plaintiff and counsel for Defendant VHA evidenced by this transcript, it is hardly surprising that the depositions of Messrs. Arnwine and Kitzman proceeded in less than an optimal fashion, to say the least. Unfortunately, the Court is unable on the basis of this limited record to assign blame for the apparently hostile attitude between these counsel which existed at the outset of these depositions.

Turning to the depositions themselves, it is noted that Defendant is correct in its statement that VHA’s counsel only once' expressly instructed the deponent, Mr. Arnwine, not to answer Plaintiff’s counsel’s question. Page 27, Arnwine Deposition. Secondly the Court notes that a fair percentage of the questions objected to were not clearly phrased. Some of these questions did not seek to elicit helpful or admissible testimony. Some of these questions duplicated questions previously asked. Therefore, defense counsel did have a right to object. However, reading the two depositions as a whole, the Court agrees with Plaintiff that the manner in which the objections were made effectively blocked Plaintiff’s counsel from eliciting testimony from the deponents. For example:

•Q. (Addressed to Deponent Kitzman by Plaintiff’s counsel). What other facts do you have in your possession or does the VHA have in its possession to sustain the allegation of the counterclaim?
MR. ROVNER: We have the facts we used to write our counterclaim. He has already testified to these telephone conversations and so forth. Do you want to be a little more specific about that or do you want him to tell you what is the basis for the counterclaim, in which case I will just refer you to the counterclaim?

Page 146, Kitzman Deposition.

Plaintiff’s counsel could have insisted that this question be answered. However, she elected to rephrase the question and the following colloquy then occurred:

Q. (by Ms. Bell) Aside from the two telephone conversations you have just testified to, Mr. Kitzman, aside from the two telephone conversations, what is the basis for your counterclaim against John Zeisler, Fred Smithwick, and Langston Corporation to defraud VHA?
MR. ROVNER: You are asking for his personal knowledge; right?
MS. BELL: Uh-huh.
MR. ROVNER: I’m not sure he can answer that question, but if you think you can—
MR. DESIDERIO: I don’t think it is a question of whether we think he can. I think it is a question of whether he thinks he can.
MR. ROVNER: That is what I just said. If he thinks he can, he can answer it.
THE WITNESS: I don’t understand enough about the law to understand all the basis and what have you, but it is my understanding that counsel for VHA through the good offices of Kirkland & Ellis have had—
MR. ROVNER: Hold it. That is enough. Next question.
MS. BELL: Are you instructing him not to answer?
MR. ROVNER: That is attorney/client privilege—
MS. BELL: He has to claim that himself.
MR. ROVNER: I’m advising him that is attorney/client privilege. I agree he has the right to exercise the perogative [sic].
[389]*389MR. DESIDERIO: It sounds as if you are instructing to exercise that privilege.
MR. GREENOUGH: I normally do in my depositions.
MR. ROVNER: Well, let me just state I can try to instruct him all I want, but they hired me, so if they don’t like my instruction, they can fire me or ignore it. That is the way it usually works when you employ somebody.
THE WITNESS: I would like the record to show that it is very rare that an attorney acknowledges that advice can be accepted or rejected.
Q. (by Ms. Bell) Are there any other witnesses, Mr. Kitzman, of which you are aware who have any information regarding the counterclaim pending against John Zeisler, Fred Smithwick, and Langston Corporation?
A. There is nothing that I am aware of, no, ma’am. There is no other witnesses [sic] or I—
MR.

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Bluebook (online)
95 F.R.D. 386, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/langston-corp-v-standard-register-co-gand-1982.