Ohio Administrative Code › Title 4901 - Public Utilities Commission (PUCO) - Administration and Director › Chapter 4901-1 - Administrative Provisions and Procedure › Section 4901-1-19 - Interrogatories and response time

Current through all regulations passed and filed through July 1, 2024
(A) Any party may serve upon any other party
			 written interrogatories, to be answered by the party served. If the party
			 served is a corporation, partnership, association, government agency, or
			 municipal corporation, it shall designate one or more of its officers, agents,
			 or employees to answer the interrogatories, who shall furnish such information
			 as is available to the party. Each interrogatory shall be answered separately
			 and fully, in writing and under oath, unless it is objected to, in which case
			 the reason for the objection shall be stated in lieu of an answer. The answers
			 shall be signed by the person making them, and the objections shall be signed
			 by the attorney or other person making them. The party upon whom the
			 interrogatories have been served shall serve a copy of the answers or
			 objections upon the party submitting the interrogatories and all other parties
			 within twenty days after the service thereof, or within such shorter or longer
			 time as the commission, the legal director, the deputy legal director, or an
			 
								ALJ may allow. The party submitting the
			 interrogatories may move for an order under rule
			 4901-1-23 of the Administrative
			 Code with respect to any objection or other failure to answer an
			 interrogatory.
(B) Subject to the
			 scope of discovery set forth in rule
			 4901-1-16 of the Administrative
			 Code, interrogatories may elicit facts, data, or other information known or
			 readily available to the party upon whom the interrogatories are served. An
			 interrogatory which is otherwise proper is not objectionable merely because it
			 calls for an opinion, contention, or legal conclusion, but the commission, the
			 legal director, the deputy legal director, or the 
								ALJ
			 may direct that such interrogatory need not be answered until certain
			 designated discovery has been completed, or until some other designated time.
			 The answers to interrogatories may be used to the extent permitted by the rules
			 of evidence, but such answers are not conclusive and may be rebutted or
			 explained by other evidence.
(C)
			 Where the answer to an interrogatory may be derived or ascertained from public
			 documents on file in this state, or from documents which the party served with
			 the interrogatory has furnished to the party submitting the interrogatory
			 within the preceding twelve months, it is a sufficient answer to such
			 interrogatory to specify the title of the document, the location of the
			 document or the circumstances under which it was furnished to the party
			 submitting the interrogatory, and the page or pages from which the answer may
			 be derived or ascertained.
(D)
			 Where the answer to an interrogatory may be derived or ascertained from the
			 business records of the party upon whom the interrogatory has been served or
			 from an examination, audit, or inspection of such records, and the burden of
			 deriving the answer is substantially the same for the party submitting the
			 interrogatory as for the party served, it is a sufficient answer to such
			 interrogatory to specify the records from which the answer may be derived or
			 ascertained and to afford the party submitting the interrogatory a reasonable
			 opportunity to examine, audit, or inspect such records.