United States v. E. I. Du Pont De Nemours & Co.

14 F.R.D. 341, 1953 U.S. Dist. LEXIS 3848
District Court, N.D. Illinois·Decided May 28, 1953·No. No. 49 C 1071·Published·Cited by 4 cases

Opinion

LA BUY, District Judge.

The matter before the court is the government’s motion for the issuance of a subpoena duces tecum directed to the du Pont Company for books, records and documents for the period from 1915 to 1937 and 1948 to 1950 relating to annual or periodical sales made to General Motors and each of its divisions of certain listed products and annual competitive reports, annual market surveys, master trade reports relating to sales by the du Pont Company and any of its competitors to General Motors of certain products for the periods from 1925 to 1941 and 1946 to 1950; for the issuance of 'a subpoena duces tecum directed to General Motors Corporation for records showing existing annual compilations of annual or periodical purchases of certain products for the years 1925 to 1941 and 1946 to 1950; for issuance of a subpoena duces tecum to six competitors of the du Pont Company in the field of fabrics for books, ledgers, records and other documents, showing sales of certain products, annual or periodical, from 1915 to 1941 and 1946 to 1950; for issuance of a subpoena duces tecum, to fifteen competitors of the du Pont Company for books, records, ledgers and other documents for the period 1925 to 1941 and 1946 to 1950 showing sales of certain paint and finish products to General Motors; and for' issuance of a subpoena duces tecum directed to United States Rubber Company, which motion has been withdrawn by the government at this time.

The government asserts this request is necessary for the purpose of rebutting evidence elicited from defense witnesses and certain tables regarding percentages and quantities of purchases by General Motors from others and froii the du Pont Company; that said testimony reflects indefinite quantitative summaries and in fact certain [343]*343exhibits and testimony were allowed by the court with the right to the government to rebut the accuracy of said figures and statements; that the purpose of procuring the requested records is to present evidence showing this was an inaccurate portrayal of the amount of sales and purchases by General Motors and the du Pont Company and its competitors.

Objection is made by the du Pont Company and General Motors Corporation as to the propriety of this motion for the reason (1) that it is in the nature of an attempt at discovery and inappropriate at this stage of the trial, particularly when opportunity to procure the same existed from the inception of the government’s investigation prior to the filing of the complaint and existed thereafter, (2) that the material sought bears upon the issues of the government’s case in chief and is not for the purpose of presenting true rebuttal evidence, and (3) that the government already possesses material from which it may derive the information it seeks.

The pertinent rule to be applied is Rule 45(h) of the Federal Rules of Civil Procedure, 28 U.S.C.A., which provides as follows:

“Rule 45. Subpoena * * *
“(b) For Production of Documentary Evidence. A subpoena may also command the person to whom it is directed to produce the books, papers, documents, or tangible things designated therein; but the court, upon motion made promptly and in any event at or before the time specified in the subpoena for compliance therewith, may
(1) quash or modify the subpoena if it is unreasonable and oppressive or
(2) condition denial of the motion upon the advancement by the person in whose behalf the subpoena is issued of the reasonable cost of producing the books, papers, documents, or tangible things.”

In the instant case no subpoena has yet issued and the parties are before the court on a motion for issuance thereof. The considerations bearing upon its issuance, however, are the same considerations that would prevail when a subpoena has been issued and motion to quash it has been made.

Rule 45(b) affords to the parties the right to demand material for use at the trial, thus differing from Rule 34 which the courts have interpreted to be limited generally to discovery before trial. In Moore’s Federal Practice, Second Edition, Volume 4, page 2424, the author states as follows:

“Rule 34 has to do with production of documents and things in the possession, custody or control of a party, while Rule 45 (Subpoena) deals with production of ‘books, papers, documents, or tangible things’ in the possession or under the control of a party or a third person. While the two rules are to be construed in pari materia as far as scope of examination is concerned, there are two principal points on which the rules vary in their application: (1) Rule 34 is primarily intended to govern production and inspection of documents and things before the trial, whereas Rule 45 applies both to the taking of depositions and to testimony and production of documents and things at the trial.”

In addition, as under Rule 34, it is not necessary under Rule 45 to establish the admissibility in evidence of the documents sought. Relevancy rather than admissibility is the test in determining whether a subpoena duces tecum should be allowed. Thus, a subpoena is a part of the discovery procedure provided for under the Federal Rules of Civil Procedure.

The test which is set forth in the rule itself is whether such a request is unreasonable and oppressive. This, of course, can only be determined by reference to the particular circumstances present in each case wherein such a motion is made.

Two considerations are here involved (1) whether the request is directed to true rebuttal evidence, and (2) whether this type of material was available to the government previous to this date and whether [344]*344comparable material is not already available to the government.

On the matter of presentation of evidence, the guiding principle was succinctly stated in Hathaway v. Hemingway, 1850, 20 Conn. 191, as follows:

“The rule upon this subject is a familiar one. When, by the pleadings, the burden of proof of any matter in issue is thrown upon the plaintiff, he must in the first instance introduce all the evidence upon which he relies to establish his case. He cannot, as said by Lord Ellenborough, go into half his case and reserve the remainder. The same rule applies to the defence. After the plaintiff has closed his testimony, the defendant must then bring forward all the evidence upon which he . relies to meet the claim on the part of the plaintiff. He cannot introduce a part and reserve the residue for some future occasion. After he has rested, neither party can as a matter of right introduce any further testimony which may properly be considered testimony in chief. * * * But this rule is not in all cases an inflexible one. There is and of necessity must be a discretionary power, vested in the Court before which a trial is had, to relax the operation of the rule, when great injustice will be done by a strict adherence to it.

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United States v. E. I. Du Pont De Nemours & Co., 14 F.R.D. 341, 1953 U.S. Dist. LEXIS 3848 (N.D. Ill. 1953).

14 F.R.D. 341 (United States v. E. I. Du Pont De Nemours & Co.) — published by Counsel Stack Legal Research, free access to 12M+ legal documents.

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