It led defendant to find and offer for deposition the manager and employees working on the date of the incident originally alleged. When they had no knowledge of the events, defendant reasonably filed a summary judgment motion, resulting in plaintiffs' correcting the date. The time spent on unnecessary discovery must be deducted, but not all the hours expended prior to the date correction and of no benefit to plaintiffs. Plaintiffs should not be allowed to recover six hours for deposing witness Mark Krauchick. Defendant claims that Mr. Krauchick, a former Denny's employee, had very little knowledge of this incident and the deposition should have been by telephone or by video conference rather than in person.
Defendant argues that counsel unreasonably insisted on a deposition of that employee in Connecticut.
Counsel had the right to depose the witness in person. Counsel will be compensated for the deposition time. Ms. Ruff was the manager on duty the day plaintiffs originally asserted the incident occurred. Plaintiffs' counsel should not be compensated for this mistake. Ms. Ruff would not have been deposed if counsel had properly investigated the facts before filing the complaint.