Opinion ID: 1811971
Heading Depth: 2
Heading Rank: 3

Heading: Discovery of Minutes of Vulcan's Board of Directors

Text: Vulcan next contends that the trial court exceeded its discretion in compelling production of [a]ny and all copies of the Minutes of each meeting of the Vulcan Board of Directors or Trustees during the past five (5) years. Request no. 19. As this case is postured, we agree. Regarding the contents of these minutes, Denson's affidavit states: 3. In my capacity as Secretary of the corporation, I am responsible for taking and maintaining the corporate minutes of all meetings of the board of Directors of the corporation. .... 6. Information contained in the Minutes includes material, nonpublic information as defined by the rules and regulations of the Securities and Exchange Commission. This material, nonpublic information does not in any manner concern the plaintiff or this litigation. As such, inadvertent or improper divulgence of this information could be a violation of the federal securities laws and regulations. 7. There has been no reference to or mention of this litigation recorded in the Minutes of the Company during the last five years.  (Emphasis added.) The broad rules of discovery `should not be misapplied so as to allow fishing expeditions in discovery. Some threshold showing of relevance must be made before parties are required to open wide the doors of discovery and produce a variety of information which does not reasonably bear upon the issues in the case. ' Hofer v. Mack Trucks, Inc., 981 F.2d 377, 380 (8th Cir.1992).... Ex parte Wal-Mart Stores, Inc., 682 So.2d 65, 68 (Ala.1996) (Hooper, C.J., dissenting) (emphasis added). Blizard makes the conclusory statement that the minutes of Vulcan's board meetings are relevant to certain Green Oil factors. Blizard's brief, at 20-21. Significantly, however, he ignores the affidavit of Vulcan's secretary stating that those minutes do not in any manner concern the plaintiff or this litigation and contain no reference to or mention of this litigation. In other words, Blizard makes no attempt to explain how the minutes, which do not concern or mention him or his case, might be relevant to a review of the punitive-damages award. That being so, request no. 19 contemplates what is essentially a fishing expedition to determine whether the statements in the affidavit are true. That is not the purpose or goal of permissible discovery. The trial court exceeded its discretion, therefore, in ordering Vulcan to produce the material sought by request no. 19, and as to it Vulcan's petition is granted.