Mulligan v. Eastern S. S. Lines, Inc.

6 F.R.D. 601, 1946 U.S. Dist. LEXIS 1638
CourtDistrict Court, S.D. New York
DecidedNovember 22, 1946
StatusPublished
Cited by16 cases

This text of 6 F.R.D. 601 (Mulligan v. Eastern S. S. Lines, Inc.) is published on Counsel Stack Legal Research, covering District Court, S.D. New York primary law. Counsel Stack provides free access to over 12 million legal documents including statutes, case law, regulations, and constitutions.

Bluebook
Mulligan v. Eastern S. S. Lines, Inc., 6 F.R.D. 601, 1946 U.S. Dist. LEXIS 1638 (S.D.N.Y. 1946).

Opinion

CAFFEY, District Judge.

In this action, brought under the Jones Act, 46 U.S.C.A. § 688, to recover for the death of plaintiff’s intestate, the plaintiff moves for the following relief, viz.:

(1) for an order directing defendant to produce for examination before trial Ernest Petersen, the person intended being the chief officer of the S. S. Francis Amasa Walker on the voyage upon which plaintiff’s intestate suffered injuries from which he died two days later;
(2) for an order compelling defendant to produce for inspection and copying the following books, papers, records and documents, viz.:
(a) any statements or reports made by the master, officer or any member of the crew of the vessel with respect to the accident,
(b) the medical log and any other books, papers and records pertaining to the diagnosis, care and medical treatment of the deceased during the voyage,
(c) the rough deck log of the vessel covering the voyage, and
(d) any books, papers, records or documents with respect to the repair and installation of the after port torpedo . net boom guy and all the appurtenances, appliances and attachments connected with the guy wire and into which the guy wire was fitted or secured, for the period from the date of launching the vessel to six months after the accident; and

(3) for an order permitting the plaintiff to have and make a discovery and inspection aboard the vessel of the scene of the accident, including the top of the after deck house, a stanchion rising four or five feet above the forward end of such house, the turn buckle, bottle neck screw, the port torpedo net boom, its appurtenances and appliances, the after port torpedo net boom guy wire and all appliances to which the guy wire fitted, with the right to take photographs and make measurements of the said place, appurtenances and appliances, also permitting plaintiff’s attorney, a surveyor and a photographer to go aboard the vessel for the purposes aforesaid, and directing defendant or its attorneys to notify plaintiff’s attorney when the vessel is in the Port of New York, and, in the alternative, if said appliances are no longer maintained aboard the vessel, directing defendant to produce for examination photographs of the same, if available, the plans and specifications of the place and appurtenances, the name of the manufacturer of the said appurtenances, the name of the builder of the vessel, the place where she was built, and the name of the contractor who installed the said appurtenances and appliances.

The order first requested must be denied. I have no power to direct defendant to produce for examination as a witness before trial one of its employees. The attendance of a witness for examination before trial can only be obtained by means of a subpcena served upon him. Rules 26, 30 and 45, Federal Rules of Civil Procedure, 28 U.S.C.A. following section 723c; Czuprynski v. Shenango Furnace Co., D.C.W.D.N.Y., 2 F.R.D. 412, and Jensen v. Buckeye S. S. Co., D.C.W.D.N.Y., 2 F.R.D. 411.

It is only where the deposition of a corporate party is to be taken by a named officer or director that a subpcena need not be served upon the individual and that the party must produce the individual named for examination. Collins v. Wayland, 9 Cir., 139 F.2d 677, 678 (last paragraph right column), and Spaeth v. Warner Bros. Pictures, Inc., D.C.S.D.N.Y., 1 F.R.D. 729.

[604]*604The case of Fruit Growers Co-Op. v. California Pie and Baking Co., D.C.E.D.N.Y., 3 F.R.D. 206, relied upon by plaintiff, is not in point. There notices were served to take depositions of the corporate plaintiff and the court held that plaintiff must produce for such examination its officer or officers who possessed the information desired and that, if no officer or officers had such information, plaintiff should produce its employees who had such information for, the court said, such persons would then be, in reality, managing agents of plaintiff. Here, plaintiff is not proposing to take the deposition of defendant by Ernest Petersen, its chief officer, but to take the deposition of Petersen as a witness. I cannot, as suggested by plaintiff, treat the present application as one to examine defendant by its chief officer.

In the second order requested, subdivision (a) calls for the production for inspection and copying of any statements or reports with respect to the accident made by the master, officers or any members of the crew. Presumably, the application is based upon Rule 34 which authorizes the production of designated documents, not privileged, “which constitute or contain evidence material to any matter involved in the action.”

The defendant claims that these statements do not constitute or contain evidence material to any matter involved in this action. It relies upon the cases of Kenealy v. Texas Co., D.C.S.D.N.Y., 29 F.Supp. 502, and Fluxgold v. United States Lines Co., D.C.S.D.N.Y., 29 F.Supp. 506, both being actions under the Jones Act, where Judge Coxe denied plaintiff’s motion for the production of “all statements of fellow employees aboard the vessel as to the accident” (29 F.Supp. at page 503 right column) in the first case and, in the second case, for the production of “all statements of the captain or any other officer aboard the vessel as to the accident” (29 F.Supp. at page 506 right column). Judge Coxe said that such statements, which he understood were statements regarding their knowledge of the accident, were not evidence but at most were merely memoranda available for use at the trial and that they were without both the letter and the spirit of Rule 34.

Plaintiff relies upon the later case of Revheim v. Merritt-Chapman & Scott Corp., D.C.S.D.N.Y., 2 F.R.D. 361, seemingly also a Jones Act case, where Judge Bright overruled an objection to a notice under Rule 34 and held that plaintiff’s attorneys might inspect and copy (2 F.R.D. at page 361 right colunmn near end) “any and all reports made by the Captain or other officers of the tug to the defendant prior to the commencement of this action relative to plaintiff’s accident.”

The production under subpoena of statements of witnesses to an accident, taken by the defendant or an insurance adjuster, but not in preparation for trial, has also^ been compelled by other judges in this Circuit in several cases. See Bough v. Lee, D.C.S.D.N.Y., 28 F.Supp. 673 (Leibell, J.), Price v. Levitt, D.C.E.D.N.Y., 29 F.Supp. 164 (Campbell, J.), and Colpak v. Hetterick, D.C.E.D.N.Y., 40 F.Supp. 350 (Campbell, J.).

But production of such statements obtained by the defendant or its attorney by independent investigations in preparation for trial cannot be so compelled, either under Rule 34 or by subpoena, for it would be unreasonable to permit one party to obtain by discovery the results of the preparation for trial of the other party. See McCarthy v. Palmer, D.C.E.D.N.Y., 29 F.Supp. 585, 586 (Moscowitz, J.), and Piorkowski v. Socony Vacuum Oil Co., D.C.M. D.Penn., 1 F.R.D. 407.

The production of reports and statements made in the regular course of business by officers of a vessel may be compelled. See Murphy v. New York & Porto Rico S. S. Co., D.GS.D.N.Y., 27 F.Supp. 878 (Hulbert, J.). See also The Dalzellace, D.C.S.D.N.Y., 10 F.Supp.

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Cite This Page — Counsel Stack

Bluebook (online)
6 F.R.D. 601, 1946 U.S. Dist. LEXIS 1638, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/mulligan-v-eastern-s-s-lines-inc-nysd-1946.