United States v. 38 Cases

35 F.R.D. 357, 1964 U.S. Dist. LEXIS 9831
CourtDistrict Court, W.D. Pennsylvania
DecidedJune 5, 1964
DocketCiv. A. No. 63-427
StatusPublished
Cited by5 cases

This text of 35 F.R.D. 357 (United States v. 38 Cases) is published on Counsel Stack Legal Research, covering District Court, W.D. Pennsylvania primary law. Counsel Stack provides free access to over 12 million legal documents including statutes, case law, regulations, and constitutions.

Bluebook
United States v. 38 Cases, 35 F.R.D. 357, 1964 U.S. Dist. LEXIS 9831 (W.D. Pa. 1964).

Opinion

ROSENBERG, District Judge.

Home Makers Savings Corporation, the claimant in this action, has filed two motions here. By its first motion, it seeks a protective order, under Federal Rule of Civil Procedure 30(b) 1 to prevent the United States, libellant, from taking the oral depositions of six witnesses, or alternatively to require that the depositions be taken only upon written interrogatories, or, if permitted to be taken orally, then only upon payment by the United States of the expenses of claimant’s attorney in attending the depositions. By its second motion, the claimant seeks the admission of a member of the New York Bar pro hac vice. Both motions were opposed by the libellant.

In this civil, in rem seizure action under the Federal Food, Drug and Cosmetic Act, 21 U.S.C. § 301 et seq., the United States seeks condemnation of a quantity of a certain drug on the ground that it is misbranded within the meaning of that Act, 21 U.S.C. § 352(a), which provides inter alia that “A drug or device shall be deemed to be misbranded—(a) If its labeling is false or misleading in any particular”. The articles involved are a quantity of tablets labeled in part “Mr. Enzyme”. These tablets are alleged by the libellant to be falsely represented as being effective in the prevention and treatment of a variety of gastric disorders and in the promotion of the digestion and assimilation of food. The libellant alleges that the labeling of “Mr. Enzyme” falsely represents and suggests [359]*359that the product is effective for such purposes because of whatever enzyme content it may possess. The claimant of the articles denies these allegations.

The libellant has filed and served a series of notices for taking depositions of the witnesses at the places and dates as follows:

Eugene J. Chesrow, M.D., Chicago, Illinois
Stanley Hier, Ph.D., Chicago, Illinois
Edgar Lazo-Wasem, Ph.D., Cleveland, Ohio
J. Alfred Rider, M.D., San Francisco, Calif. Donald Berkowitz, M.D., Philadelphia, Pa.
Edward Beckhorn, Ph.D., Brooklyn, N. Y.
March 9;
March 11;
March 12;
March 16;
March 26; and
March 28.

The claimant objects to the taking of the depositions because (1) the taking would violate the attorney-client privilege and invade the attorney’s work product; (2) the taking would unfairly force the claimant to disclose information obtained from experts employed to aid it in the preparation of this litigation; and (3) the taking of oral depositions at the places noted would unreasonably burden the claimant.

Supporting these contentions, the claimant argues as follows: (1) none of the six witnesses whom the Government proposes to question is now or has been an employee of the claimant; (2) none of the witnesses reside in the district where the libel is filed; (3) the Government seeks to take the depositions of the witnesses where they reside at varying distances of 125 to 2,000 miles from Pittsburgh; (4) three of these witnesses, Drs. Chesrow, Rider and Berkowitz have not yet completed the task for which they were retained; (5) there are adequate quantities of the disputed product available to the Government for testing by its own experts; (6) the subpoenaes issued to the witnesses go beyond the scope of the test they are now conducting and encroach upon the doctor-patient privilege against disclosure; (7) the Government has not offered to defray charges for the services of the experts and the fees and expenses of counsel of the claimant in connection with the depositions; (8) the Government has made no effort to elicit the information through written interrogatories which have proved satisfactory in other circumstances ; (9) some restriction is required to be placed against the Government in its proceedings because totally unequal financial resources of the litigants will permit the Government to gain by default what it might well be unable to establish by a trial on the merits; and (10) the product involved is conceded not to be dangerous like thalidomide.

I do not deem it necessary to discuss each one of these in detail and shall examine them only as I have the facts and as they are reflected in the light of the law. Federal Rule of Civil Procedure 26 empowers any party to take testimony of any person including a party by deposition upon oral examination or written interrogatories for the purpose of discovery or for use as evidence in an action, or for both purposes. It provides also that attendance of witnesses may be compelled by the use of subpoenaes as provided in Rule 45. In subparagraph (b) of the same Rule regarding the scope of examination, it is provided that unless otherwise ordered by the court the deponent may be examined regarding any matter not privileged which is relevant to the subject matter involved in the pending action, whether it relates to the claim or the defense of the examining party, or to the claim or defense of any other' párty, including other enumerated matters. However, privileged matters are [360]*360not included in the authorization and no depositions may be taken which would violate the attorney-client privilege, insofar as the contention of the claimant here is concerned. McCormick, Evidence, 1954, Sections 91-100.

Rule 30 provides for notice of the examination-and its time and place. As stated before, the claimant is here under the provisions of Rule 30. The claimant’s motion for a protective order contains the substance upon which the claimant stands. In the motion it sets forth repetitiously the reasons why it believes the depositions of each of these proposed deponents should not be permitted by the Government. With all of these, however, is repeated singularly that which was contained on page 1 of the brief in support of the motion for a protective order filed by the claimant. The statement is, “None of the six witnesses whom the Government proposes to question is now or has been an employee of the claimant.”

We first examine the claimant’s rights in the light of the assertions it makes here. It would seem from all the facts before me, as contained in the depositions and interrogatories on file in this case, that the claimant is the producer of the product, but not the manufacturer of it. It also appears that the claimant is now negotiating with Norwich Pharmaeal Company for the purpose of establishing Norwich as the sole United States distributor of the product'. In anticipation of the probability or possibility of becoming the United States distributor, Norwich is making an independent survey or study of “Mr. Enzyme”.

The claimant corporation is at least, in part, engaged in the business of sales promotion. It, acting through Herbert J. Horovitz as vice-president and now as president, originated “Mr. Enzyme”. Mr. Horovitz is by profession a pharmacist.

Free access — add to your briefcase to read the full text and ask questions with AI

Related

LaRocca v. State Farm Mutual Automobile Insurance
47 F.R.D. 278 (W.D. Pennsylvania, 1969)
United States v. Horace Meyer
398 F.2d 66 (Ninth Circuit, 1968)
United States v. Nutrition Service, Inc.
234 F. Supp. 578 (W.D. Pennsylvania, 1964)

Cite This Page — Counsel Stack

Bluebook (online)
35 F.R.D. 357, 1964 U.S. Dist. LEXIS 9831, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/united-states-v-38-cases-pawd-1964.