State Ex Rel. Williams v. Buzard

190 S.W.2d 907, 354 Mo. 719, 1945 Mo. LEXIS 563
CourtSupreme Court of Missouri
DecidedNovember 5, 1945
DocketNo. 39602.
StatusPublished
Cited by32 cases

This text of 190 S.W.2d 907 (State Ex Rel. Williams v. Buzard) is published on Counsel Stack Legal Research, covering Supreme Court of Missouri primary law. Counsel Stack provides free access to over 12 million legal documents including statutes, case law, regulations, and constitutions.

Bluebook
State Ex Rel. Williams v. Buzard, 190 S.W.2d 907, 354 Mo. 719, 1945 Mo. LEXIS 563 (Mo. 1945).

Opinions

*723 HYDE, J.

Mandamus to require entry of order to compel answers to relator’s interrogatories by the Kansas City Public Service Company (hereinafter called the defendant) in her suit for damages .for personal injuries.

The principal question is whether the new civil code [Laws Mo. 1943, pp. 353-357, Discovery, secs. 85-89; Mo. Stat. Ann. 847.1-847.145, Discovery, secs. 847.85-847.89] authorizes the court to require the defendant therein to answer the following question:

“(8) Please state the names and addresses of all persons whose names and addresses were taken by any employee of your corporation at the scene of the casualty?”

At the hearing on defendant’s objections, it was agreed “that the operator of defendant’s street car referred to in plaintiff’s petition took the names and addresses of witnesses at the scene of the casualty referred to in plaintiff’s petition; and that in'doing so said operator followed standing rules ánd instructions of defendant, his employer. ’ ’ The order of the Court was “that upon the record and under the pleadings of the parties herein the Court would, in the exercise of its discretion, (if it had discretion), require defendant to answer plaintiff’s interrogatories and each of them if, under Section 85 of the Code of Civil Procedure, or under substantive law, the legal right to compel such answers exists; but the court, being of opinion that neither said Section 85 nor the substantive law confers upon this court the power to compel such answers, does now, upon that ground alone, sustain defendant’s objections to plaintiff’s interrogatories and each of them. ”

Code Section 85 authorizes interrogatories to parties and is substantially Rule 33, Federal Rules of Civil Procedure. F. R. 26 specifically authorizes depositions to be used for the purpose of discovery as well as for evidence (F. R. 26a); and further authorizes examination “regarding any matter, not privileged, which is relevant to the subject matter involved in ..the pending action . . . including . . . the identity and location of persons having knowledge of relevant facts.” (F. R. 26b.) Defendant points out that our Code does not contain these provisions of the Federal Rules; and that, while some of them were included in Plan II as recommended by the Advisory Committee appointed by this Court to draft the new code, they were eliminated from its final report and were not adopted by the General Assembly. [Atkinson — -Missouri’s New Civil Procedure, 9 Mo. Law Rev. 47, l. c. 51.] Defendant’s contention is that interrogatories under Section 85 can be no broader in scope than is authorized under our deposition practice. [Secs. 1917-1948 (R. S. 1939)- Mo. Stat. Ann.]

Relator claims that F. R. 33 is not dependent upon F. R. 26, but is complete in itself so as to require disclosure of names of prospective witnesses without relying upon it for that construction. *724 Therefore, relator claims that Code Section 85 likewise is complete in itself; and, because it contains no limitation, is broader than our deposition practice. Relator’s theory is that anything relevant to the issues of the case may be the subject of such interrogatories, regardless of its admissibility in evidence.

Most of the decisions construing F. R. 33 as authorizing discovery of names of witnesses have relied upon F. R. 26(b). However, some Federal decisions have even held interrogatories to be more limited, in the field of inquiry, than depositions. Therefore, the Advisory Committee of the United States Supreme Court has proposed"adding a new paragraph to F. R. 33, a clarifying amendment, the first sentence of which is as follows: ‘ ‘ Interrogatories may relate to any matters which can be inquired into under Rule 26(b); and the answers may be used to the same extent as provided in Rule 26(d) for the use of the depositions of a party.” Likewise, because of conflicting decisions as to the scope of F. R. 26(b), the following new sentence is proposed to be added at the end of that section: “It is not ground for objection that the testimony will be inadmissible at the trial if the testimony sought appears reasonably calculated to lead to the discovery of admissible evidence.” [For these amendments and for citation and discussion of conflicting cases including most of the Federal cases cited by both parties herein, see Second Preliminary Draft of Proposed Amendments to Rules of Civil Procedure for the District Courts of the United States, pp. 31-35 and 40-43.] Thus it clearly appears to be the view of the Advisory Committee which prepared the Federal Rules that the scope of examination on interrogatories was intended to be, and should be, the same as that authorized on depositions.

This same view was expressed by a member of our Advisory Committee (and of its sub-committee on draft) prior to the submission of the final draft to the General Assembly. [Wheaton — Discovery, 7 Mo. Law Rev. 113, 1. c. 115.] Certainly,. the discovery provisions of our Code are even more limited than were those proposed in the final draft of our Advisory Committee, because of amendments made to the original bill by our Legislature. [Atkinson — Missouri’s New Civil Procedure, 9 Mo. Law Rev. 47, 1. c. 65.] This was due, no doubt, to our satisfactory experience with the use of depositions for the discovery of evidence. The right to examine the adverse party under the rules of cross-examination [Sec. 1889 (R. S. 1939) Mo. Stat. Ann.], and to compel him to answer, either in court or on depositions, both by penalties for contempt and by striking out his pleadings [Sec. 1894 (R. S. 1939) Mo. Stat. Ann.], has long been established in this state. (These were included in our 1849 Code, Laws 1849, p. 99.) It has been said that such provisions for depositions “are in the nature of the old chancery practice relating to a bill of discovery, entitling the party to sift the conscience of his adversary.” [Ex parte Brockman, *725 233 Mo. 135, 134 S. W. 977 and cases cited.] However, as pointed .out in State ex rel. Evans v. Broaddus, 245 Mo. 123, 149 S. W. 473, while this is to obtain of his testimony, “this discovery was strictly limited to the opponent’s own testimony, that is, his own admissions resting on his own knowledge and belief.” [See also 27 C. J. S. 47, sec. 30, and p. 50, see. 32; 17 Am. Jur. 11, see. 12.] It was, therefore, held therein that on a deposition a claim agent of defendant, who was not a witness to the casualty, could not be required to give the names of persons who had later told him they had witnessed it. [For a case reaching the same result,under the Federal Rules, see Poppino v. Jones Store Co., 1 F. R. D. 215; See also State ex rel. Page v. Terte, 324 Mo. 925, 25 S. W. (2d) 459; State ex rel. Missouri Pacific R. Co. v. Hall, 325 Mo. 102, 27 S. W. (2d) 1027.]

This whole matter is fully discussed by Wigmore [Wigmore on Evidence, 3rd Eel., Sec. 1856]; and the reasons for its limitation to the prosecution in criminal cases, and the difficulty of framing a fair practical rule in civil eases, is there considered'. [For a discussion of this problem in amending the Federal Rules see Holtzoff — Desirability of Amending the Federal Rules of Civil Procedure. 2 F. R. D. 495, 1. c.

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190 S.W.2d 907, 354 Mo. 719, 1945 Mo. LEXIS 563, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/state-ex-rel-williams-v-buzard-mo-1945.