Thiel v. Southern Pac. Co.

6 F.R.D. 219, 1946 U.S. Dist. LEXIS 1607
District Court, N.D. California·Decided September 13, 1946·No. No. 21780·Published·Cited by 2 cases

Opinion

HARRIS, District Judge.

An oral motion for an inspection of statements and reports allegedly made by defendant’s employees, designated members of the train crew, was presented during the pretrial conference, and the Court, after a consideration of the memoranda of law submitted by counsel and the representations made by counsel for both parties, regularly denied the motion.

Thereafter, and during the course of the trial, plaintiff filed a written notice of motion predicated on Federal Rules of Civil Procedure, rule 34, 28 U.S.C.A. following section 723c, to produce statements of employees allegedly made by them in the usual or regular course of business supported by an affidavit of Allen Spivock, setting forth nine (9) specifications of alleged evidenti-ary matter which counsel for plaintiff indicated at the hearing were culled or compiled from the transcript of the first trial, the interrogatories and the depositions.

The avowed purpose of the motion as set forth in the notice is to assértedly “clarify the numerous conflicts in the testimony of defendant’s said employees.”

Defendant has filed herein, through its attorney A. B. Dunne, a responsive affidavit setting forth in substance that “there is no such report or any report in existence made ‘in the usual course of business, shortly after said accident’ to plaintiff of February 25, 1940, as distinguished from material obtained from the named individuals for the purpose of defending prospective or pending litigation and that there is no such report of any kind in existence as that specified.”

Reliance is placed by the moving party upon Eiseman v. Pennsylvania R. Co., D.C., 3 F.R.D. 338. In Zeoli v. New York Central R. Co., 8 Fed.Rules Service, 663, 664, the Court in commenting on said case made clear the distinction applicable:

“In the Eiseman case Judge Kalodner required the production of documents only to the extent that they could be properly called reports in the regular course of business. I cannot see how statements taken by the claim department of a railroad from members of the crew or yard employes can be brought under the regular entry rule. It [220]*220is clearly indicated in Palmer v. Hoffman, 1943, 318 U.S. 109, 63 S.Ct. 477, 87 L.Ed. 645, 144 A.L.R. 719, that statements of the character involved in this motion are not under the regular entry rule and apparently the Court determined that these statements are not regular entries because they are not records made for the systematic conduct of the business as a business.
“I think that support for the position I take can be found in McCarthy v. Palmer, D.C.E.D.N.Y.1939, 29 F.Supp. 585; Conne-way v. City of New York, D.C.E.D.N.Y. 1940, 32 F.Supp. 54; Kenealy v. Texas Co., D.C.S.D.N.Y.1939, 29 F.Supp. 502 and other cases.
“The motion is accordingly denied.”

(Italics ours.)

In Palmer v. Hoffman, 318 U.S. 109, 114, 63 S.Ct. 477, 481, 87 L.Ed. 645, 144 A.L.R. 719, the Court said in part:

“In short, it is manifest that in this case those reports are not for the systematic conduct of the enterprise as a railroad business. Unlike payrolls, accounts receivable, accounts payable, bills of lading and the like these reports are calculated for use essentially in the court, not in the business. Their primary utility is in litigating, not in railroading.
“It is, of course, not for us to take these reports out of the Act if congress has put them in. But there is nothing in the background of the law on which this Act was built or in its legislative history which suggests for a moment that the business of preparing cases for trial should be included.” (Italics ours.)

In Hoffman v. Palmer, 2 Cir., 129 F.2d 976, 983, affirmed 318 U.S. 109, 63 S.Ct. 477, 87 L.Ed. 645, 144 A.L.R. 719, the Circuit Court had occasion to use this language:

“That the defendant railroad here had a regulation requiring its employees, when they were the actors in accidents, regularly to make reports of such accidents for use in probable litigation, did not suffice to include such reports within the ‘regular course of business’.”

The trend of the well considered decisions is indicated in Nelson v. Reid, D.C., 4 F.R.D. 199:

“I first consider the motion for production and discovery under Rule 34 'of the Federal Rules of Civil) Procedure, 28 U.S. C. A. following section 723c, which motion was filed November 30, 1944. This motion should be denied. Stark v. American Dredging Co., D.C., 3 F.R.D. 300; Moore’s Federal Practice, 1944 Supplement, at page 264, is authority for this statement; ‘Nevertheless, as in the case of depositions under Rule 26, there is a growing tendency to prevent any inquiry into matters obtained by the adverse party in the preparation of his action or defense.’ Cases are there cited for this statement. This statement of the law, as applied to this case, meets my approval.”

In Creden v. Central R. Co. of New Jersey, D.C., 1 F.R.D. 168, 169, the Court disposed of a similar contention:

“Interrogatory 8 asks for the substance of statements made by witnesses and employees of the defendant to the defendant. In absence of any showing why plaintiffs cannot secure this information from the witnesses themselves by deposition or otherwise, there is no reason to permit plaintiffs to avail themselves of defendant’s preparation of its case. See McCarthy v. Palmer, D. C., 29 F.Supp. 585, 586. The interrogatory is disallowed.”

Again, in Piorkowski v. Socony Vacuum Oil Co., D.C., 1 F.R.D. 407, 408, the Court, although recognizing that the rule should be given a liberal interpretation, nevertheless made it clear that there are certain necessary limitations:

“However, at the oral argument counsel tacitly admitted that the statements in question do concern this case and were obtained by the defendant in the course of its preparation for trial. While the courts have made every effort to construe the rules for discovery as liberally as possible in order to permit all parties to obtain a full disclosure of the facts pertaining to the case, there have been established certain necessary limitations of the exercise of discovery powers. One of these limitations prevents the securing by one party of the results of the preparation for trial of another party. As was stated in McCarthy v. Palmer, D.C., 29 F.Supp. 585, 586: ‘While the [221]*221Rules of Civil Procedure were designed to permit liberal examination and discovery, they were not intended to be made the vehicle through which one litigant could make use of his opponent’s preparation of his case. To use them in such a manner would penalize the diligent and place a premium on laziness. It is fair to assume that, except the most unusual circumstances, no such result was intended.’ See also Creden v. Central R. Co. of New Jersey, D.C., 1 F.R.D. 168; Byers Theaters Inc., v. Murphy, D.C., 1 F.R.D. .286, 289; The Hazel S. (Olson v. New York Central R. Co.), D.C., 31 F.Supp. 745.”

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Thiel v. Southern Pac. Co., 6 F.R.D. 219, 1946 U.S. Dist. LEXIS 1607 (N.D. Cal. 1946).

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