Court Opinion

ID: 9462489
Source: CourtListenerOpinion
Date Created: 2023-08-04 22:42:27.437444+00
Date Added: 2024-06-11T17:37:37.137813
License: Public Domain

WEBSTER, Circuit Judge,
dissenting.
I respectfully dissent. The purpose of pre-trial conferences, as expressed in Fed.R.Civ.P. 16, is to simplify the issues, develop uncontested facts which can be entered on the record without unnecessary proof, limit the number of expert witnesses, and generally to reach agreement on other matters which may aid in the disposition of the action.
As I understand Judge Oliver’s procedure, he would direct that preliminary discussions be off the record and that conclusions reached be summarized on the record, with all parties accorded an opportunity to supplement the record if the summarization did not appear to be accurate and complete. This procedure has much to commend it and I believe it is used with minor variants by judges throughout the United States. Anyone who has engaged in such conferences is aware of the elaborate fencing and extensive palaver which often precedes even the most minor concession. The District Judge knows that such discussions are at best tentative, until the *818agreement itself is reached. It seems to me that it is well within the District Judge’s discretion in the supervision of such conferences to exclude from the record such negotiations, which doubtless would be of little probative value since the ultimate determinations are entered upon the record. The parties may record their differences, if any, at that time. Such a record should certainly be adequate for purposes of appellate review.
“[T]he best way to insure an effective pretrial conference system is to keep appellate interference to a minimum.” 6 C. Wright & A. Miller, Federal Practice and Procedure § 1526, at 599 (1971). See Ely v. Reading Co., 424 F.2d 758, 763 (3d Cir. 1970); Syracuse Broadcasting Corp. v. Newhouse, 295 F.2d 269, 274 (2d Cir. 1961); Padovani v. Bruchhausen, 293 F.2d 546, 547 (2d Cir. 1961).
I do not think that the Court Reporter Act, 28 U.S.C. § 753, mandates that each word of the conference be reported if any party so requests. The Act was passed for the purpose of placing reporters on a regular and fixed annual salary in lieu of piecework compensation and, as a quid pro quo, the reporters’ duties were elaborated in the statute. See United States v. Sams, 219 F.Supp. 164 (W.D.Pa.1963), aff’d in part and vacated in part on other grounds, 340 F.2d 1014 (3d Cir.), cert. denied, 380 U.S. 974, 85 S.Ct. 1336, 14 L.Ed.2d 270 (1965); Annot. 12 A.L.R.Fed. 584, 587 (1972). I do not read into the word “proceedings” an absolute mandate to record every requested word. Indeed, many stipulations would not be possible if the parties were compelled to make their tentative arguments and inquiries a matter of record from which they dare not recede. Each stipulation is in a sense a “compromise” of an issue, and compromise discussions are traditionally outside the record. See Fed.R.Evid. 408.
I doubt that unsworn discussions of parties are “proceedings” in any event. Even so, any formal requirement of a record is met by Judge Oliver’s summary and an opportunity given to counsel to supplement. The burden of showing prejudice has not been met. The long arm of mandamus should reach into the conference room only to redress a manifest abuse of power; none has been shown here.