Texas Administrative Code › Title 28 - INSURANCE › Part 1 - TEXAS DEPARTMENT OF INSURANCE › Chapter 1 - GENERAL ADMINISTRATION › Subchapter A - RULES OF PRACTICE AND PROCEDURE › Division 1 - GENERAL PROCEDURAL PROVISIONS › Section 1.34 - Written Depositions

Current through Reg. 49, No. 28; July 12, 2024
(a) Any party may
					 take the testimony of any person, including a party, by deposition upon written
					 questions.
(b) A party proposing to
					 take a deposition upon written questions shall serve them upon every other
					 party or his or her attorney of record with 10 days' notice in writing. The
					 notice shall state the name and residence of the witness or the place where he
					 or she is to be found, the hearing in which the deposition is to be used, the
					 name or descriptive title and address of the officer before whom the deposition
					 is to be taken, and if a subpoena duces tecum is desired, a designation of such
					 books, papers, documents, and tangible things to be produced by the witness as
					 may be necessary and proper for the purposes of the proceedings. Whenever the
					 adverse party is a corporation or joint stock association, service may be made
					 upon the president, secretary, or treasurer of such corporation or association,
					 or upon the local agent representing such corporation or association in the
					 county in which the hearing is pending, or by leaving a copy of the notice and
					 attached questions at the principal office of such corporation or association
					 during office hours. A party may, in his or her notice, name as the witness a
					 public or private corporation or a partnership or association or governmental
					 agency and describe with reasonable particularity the matters on which
					 examination is requested. In that event, the organization so named shall
					 designate one or more officers, directors, or managing agents, or other persons
					 to testify on its behalf, and may set forth, for each person designated, the
					 matters on which he or she will testify. A subpoena shall advise a nonparty
					 organization of its duty to make such a designation known. The person so
					 designated shall testify as to matters known or reasonably available to the
					 organization. This subsection does not preclude taking a deposition by any
					 other procedure authorized in these sections.
(c) Whenever one party serves notice of the
					 deposition of a witness on written questions, any party may serve
					 cross-questions upon all other parties within 10 days after such notice and
					 direct questions are served. Within five days after being served with
					 cross-questions, the party proposing to take the deposition may serve redirect
					 questions, and within three days after being served with redirect questions, a
					 party may serve recross-questions upon the party proposing to take the
					 deposition. Copies of the cross-questions, redirect questions, and
					 recross-questions shall accompany the direct questions and shall be answered
					 and returned therewith.
(d) Upon
					 the appearance of the witness, any officer authorized to take depositions shall
					 proceed to take his or her answers to the questions and cross-questions, if
					 any, reduce to writing, and shall cause the same to be signed and sworn to by
					 the witness. The officer shall certify that the answers were signed and sworn
					 to by the witness before him or her, and shall seal them up in an envelope,
					 together with the questions and cross-questions, if any, write his or her name
					 across the seal, and endorse on the envelope the names of the parties to the
					 hearing and of the witnesses, and shall direct the package to the chief clerk
					 or hearings clerk, depending on whether the action is pending before the board,
					 commissioner, or fire marshal. If the depositions be sent by mail, the officer
					 taking the same shall certify on the envelope enclosing the depositions that he
					 or she in person deposited same in the mail for transmission, stating the date
					 when and the post office in which the same are so deposited.
(e) Every person so deposing shall be first
					 cautioned and sworn to testify the truth, the whole truth, and nothing but the
					 truth.
(f) The officer taking such
					 written deposition shall not sustain objections to any of the testimony taken,
					 nor exclude them.
(g) Regardless of
					 whether cross-questions have been propounded, either party has the right to use
					 the depositions on the hearing.
(h)
					 When a deposition shall have been filed with the board, commissioner, or fire
					 marshal at least one entire day before the day on which the case is called for
					 hearing, no objection to the form thereof, or to the manner of taking the same,
					 shall be heard, unless such objections are in writing and notice thereof is
					 given to the opposite counsel before the hearing commences.