Opinion ID: 1865898
Heading Depth: 1
Heading Rank: 7

Heading: Pretrial Disclosure of Witnesses.

Text: On her pretrial conference checklist dated July 24, 1989, Stormo did not list by name the nurses or her siblings (with the exception of Tracy Stormo) that she planned to call as witnesses at trial. Defendants made no objection to Stormo's list of witnesses at that time. Defendants assert that the trial court entered an order requiring identification of witnesses to be called at trial, and that the court abused its discretion by not requiring Stormo to comply with the order. From the outset, we note that no such order appears in the settled record. We observe, however, that defendants later served interrogatories requesting that Stormo identify [e]ach person who has knowledge of any of the factual matters involved in this case or who claims to be a witness or has any information concerning the matters of issue in this action, and that Stormo's response to this interrogatory listed forty-eight individuals. Defendants' argument is not that they were unaware of persons called as witnesses at trial. They do not claim surprise or any similar prejudice. Rather, defendants contend that Stormo's list of potential witnesses was too long for them to confer with every possible witness and would have been an unnecessary waste of time. Simply put, defendants claim inconvenience. Trial courts have the authority to establish local rules, such as those requiring submission of a pretrial conference checklist, [3] and where established, local rules should not be ignored. Wirtz v. Hooper-Holmes Bureau, Inc., 327 F.2d 939, 943 (5th Cir.1964). See SDCL 15-6-16. Here, however, the trial court did not refuse to enforce a local rule requiring disclosure of witnesses. Stormo disclosed the names of persons having knowledge of the relevant facts as required by the local rule and SDCL 15-6-26(b). Defendants' argument is without merit.