Case Title: SANGER v. ROBERTSON

Citation: 194 P.3d 1269, 2008 OK 68

Docket Number: 105888

State: oklahoma

Court: Oklahoma Supreme Court

Date: 2008-06-30T00:00:00Z

Document:
SANGER v. ROBERTSON2008 OK 68194 P.3d 1269Case Number: 105888Decided: 06/30/2008THE SUPREME COURT OF THE STATE OF OKLAHOMA




FENTON M. SANGER, M.D. Petitioner
v.
THE HONORABLE VICKI L. ROBERTSON Judge of the District Court of Oklahoma County et al. Respondents
ORDER
Original jurisdiction stands assumed. Art. 7, §4, Okl. 
Const. Let a writ issue prohibiting the respondent, Hon. Vicki L. Robertson, or 
any other judge assigned to the underlying action in the District Court, 
Oklahoma Co., Cause No. CJ-2005-2512, from enforcing her order, filed below 
February 25, 2008, which denies the petitioner's motion for a protective order 
but limits to three persons the total number of board members (of the real party 
in interest) allowed to be present at each other's deposition hearing. Where, as 
here, the respondent-judge recognized it was necessary to limit access to 
deposition sessions and to the transcript reading of deposition testimony by 
persons other than the deponent, the denial of petitioner's motion for a 
protective order constitutes an impermissible and unwarranted intrusion upon 
orderly pretrial discovery process. 12 O.S.Supp. 2004 
§3226                                                                                                                                      (C)(1)(e).
The respondent-judge is commanded to grant the petitioner's motion for protective order by directing that nontestifying board members be excluded (1) from being present at deposition hearings when other persons are testifying; and (2) from reading the transcript of other board members' deposition testimony prior to giving one's own testimony.
DONE BY ORDER OF THE SUPREME COURT IN CONFERENCE THIS 30TH DAY OF JUNE, 2008.
 
/S/ACTING CHIEF JUSTICE
For the order:
Edmondson, V.C.J., Hargrave, Opala, Kauger, Watt, Taylor, Colbert and Reif, JJ., concur; Winchester, C.J., dissents